The Fabulous Moolah
Encyclopedia
Mary Lillian Ellison better known by her ring name
The Fabulous Moolah, was an American
female professional wrestler
. She began her career working with promoter Billy Wolfe
and his wife, wrestler and trainer Mildred Burke
, as well as working alongside professional wrestler "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers. She won the NWA World Women's Championship
in 1956 and was the most prominent holder of the title for approximately the next thirty years.
In the 1980s, she joined the World Wrestling Federation
(WWF) as part of the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection storyline, feuding with Cyndi Lauper
and Wendi Richter
, the latter of whom defeated her for the WWF Women's Championship
in 1984. Ellison was marketed by the WWF (later World Wrestling Entertainment, WWE) as holding the record for the longest title reign by any athlete in any professional sport. According to WWE, she was also the first WWF Women's Champion and held the title a total of four times.
In addition, Ellison was a prominent trainer and promoter in woman's professional wrestling. In the 1990s, she returned to the WWF in a comedic role with longtime friend Mae Young
. Ellison became the oldest champion in the history of professional wrestling when she won the WWF Women's Championship at age 76, in 1999. In 2010, WWE recognized her as the 27th best wrestler ever.
. The youngest of thirteen children, Ellison was the only daughter of a part Cherokee father and an Irish
mother. Her parents owned a farm, a grocery store, and a service station.
When her mother died of cancer aged forty, eight-year-old Ellison went to live with her paternal grandmother and worked on her cousin's cotton farm to make money. At age ten, Ellison was still deeply distraught over her mother’s death; to cheer her up, her father took her to the local wrestling matches. Ellison liked the matches, but it was not until she saw Women's Champion Mildred Burke
wrestle that "they began to mean much more to me."
Ellison returned to the Columbia home of her father and brothers. She graduated Columbia High School, but at age fourteen married 21-year-old Walter Carroll. They soon became parents to a daughter. A few months after the birth of her daughter, she divorced Carroll. Still only fifteen, she left her daughter with a friend and set out on a wrestling career of her own.
’s husband Billy Wolfe
, the dominant women's promoter of the time. Her first match was on May 26, 1949 against June Byers
at the Boston Arena. Wolfe was notorious for advising his wrestlers to enter into sexual relationships with either himself or competing promoters to ensure additional bookings, a practice with which Ellison refused to go along. She, however, soon began a romance with wrestler Johnny Long. Long later introduced Ellison to Jack Pfeffer who gave her the moniker "Slave Girl Moolah". By the early 1950s, Moolah was a valet for "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers, accompanying him to the ring while providing eye candy for the male audiences and assisting Rogers against his opponents. Ellison broke up the partnership because Rogers kept pushing her to begin a sexual relationship. She then served as the valet for the Elephant Boy (Tony Olivas). Olivas was Mexican, but had very dark skin, which caused controversy when Ellison, a white woman, would kiss him on the cheek during their ring entrance routine. At one show in Oklahoma City
, a man, who thought that Olivas was a black man, attempted to stab Ellison with a knife for kissing him. Moolah later left Pfeffer's promotion and began wrestling under Boston promoters Tony Santos
and Paul Bowser
. In 1955, she began working for Vince McMahon, Sr.'s Capitol Wrestling Corporation.
in a thirteen-woman battle royal
to win the vacant World Women's Championship, which shares a lineage with the NWA World Women's Championship
. She was not immediately recognized by everyone as the NWA Champion because Billy Wolfe, with whom she had had conflict earlier in her career, still controlled the promotion. After the match, Vince McMahon, Sr. dubbed Ellison with a new ring name—The Fabulous Moolah. Subsequently, June Byers came out of retirement to challenge Moolah to a match for the title. During the match, Moolah acted as the aggressor and pinned Byers to retain the championship. Moolah's first World Championship reign lasted over ten years. Moolah successfully defended the belt against the top female wrestlers in the world, such as Judy Grable
and Donna Christanello
, while also purporting to befriend some of the biggest celebrities of the day. Moolah claimed in her book, "First Goddess of the Squared Circle," that she formed friendships with Elvis Presley
and Jerry Lee Lewis
.
After June Byers retired in 1964, Moolah was subsequently recognized as official NWA Champion, thus making her the undisputed Women’s World Champion. Nevertheless, Moolah dropped the belt on September 17, 1966 to Betty Boucher
, although she regained the title just weeks later. She also traded the belt with Yukiko Tomoe
during a tour of Japan
in 1968. On July 1, 1972, Moolah became the first woman allowed to wrestle at Madison Square Garden
, which had previously banned women's wrestling. In fact, Moolah helped overturn the ban on women's wrestling in the entire state of New York, which the New York Athletic Commission lifted in June 1972. During her quest to overturn the ban, she flipped football player Roosevelt Grier onto his back on The Mike Douglas Show
. Moolah continued an uninterrupted eight-year reign before losing to Sue Green
at Madison Square Garden in 1976. Moolah regained her title a short time later. She also bought the legal rights to the championship in the late 1970s, and after losing the championship for two days to Evelyn Stevens
in 1978, began another long reign, defending her title for another six years. Also in the 1970s, Moolah held the NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship
twice with Toni Rose
.
In 1983, Vince McMahon, Jr.
began expanding the World Wrestling Federation
(WWF) nationally, and Moolah sold him the rights to her Women’s World Championship. Moolah agreed to appear exclusively for the WWF, and thus became the first WWF Women's Champion
. The following year, singer Cyndi Lauper
began a verbal feud with manager "Captain" Lou Albano
, who long had a reputation of being a villain, that brought professional wrestling into mainstream culture in a storyline that became known as the "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection." When it was finally time for Lauper and Albano to settle their differences in the ring, a match-up was scheduled with Albano representing Moolah against the challenge of Lauper’s protégé, Wendi Richter
. After much buildup and hype, the Fabulous Moolah lost the championship when defeated by Richter, who had Lauper in her corner, on July 23, 1984 in the main event of The Brawl to End it All
, which was broadcast live on MTV
. Prior to the match, the WWF promoted Moolah as holding the championship for the previous 28 years.
After losing the title to Richter, Moolah aided Leilani Kai
in defeating Richter for the title in February 1985. Richter won it back at the inaugural WrestleMania
, but when Richter’s relationship soured with the WWF, Moolah donned a mask as "The Spider Lady" and regained the belt on November 25, 1985, in a controversial decision. Richter was never told she would be losing the title and fell victim to a real-life "screwjob" finish known as "The Original Screwjob". Richter promptly quit the WWF afterward, while Moolah continued to be champion for another two years—excluding a six-day reign by Velvet McIntyre during a tour of Australia
in 1986—before losing the belt to Sherri Martel
on July 24, 1987. She later captained a team at the inaugural Survivor Series
. Her team (Moolah, Velvet McIntyre, Rockin' Robin
, and the Jumping Bomb Angels
) defeated champion Martel and her team (Leilani Kai, Judy Martin
, Donna Christanello
, and Dawn Marie
).
. In the late 1990s, Pat Patterson and Ellison began jokingly discussing a comeback for her, which resulted in Patterson contacting WWF Chairman Vince McMahon
about the possibility. In 1998, Moolah and Mae Young
re-emerged in the WWF (later renamed World Wrestling Entertainment, WWE). The WWF women's division, however, had since moved away from the traditional athletic match-ups of the past and now featured women competing in sexually-themed bikini contest
s and strip matches.
Moolah received a call from McMahon in late 1998 about returning to the company. On the September 9, 1999 episode of SmackDown!, Jeff Jarrett
invited Moolah into the ring and smashed a guitar over her head. Moolah and Young then began appearing regularly in comedic roles. On the September 27, 1999 edition of Monday Night Raw
, Moolah and Young defeated Ivory
in a Handicapped Evening Gown match, which led to a title match at No Mercy
on October 17, 1999. The match saw seventy-six year old Moolah defeat Ivory to regain the WWE Women's Championship, thus becoming the oldest WWE Women's Champion ever, though she lost the title to Ivory eight days later.
On the September 15, 2003 edition of Raw, Moolah won a match against Victoria
. Moolah had been promised the match for her eightieth birthday and became the first octogenarian to compete in a WWE ring. After Moolah's victory, the "Legend Killer" Randy Orton
came out and performed an RKO
on her. Moolah and Young made another appearance at New Years Revolution
in 2006, during a Bra and Panties Gauntlet match attacking Victoria and stripping her of her top. She also made brief appearances at WrestleMania 23
and the 2007 Draft Lottery
on June 11, 2007. Her last WWE appearance before her death was at SummerSlam
in August 2007, in a backstage segment with Vince McMahon
and Raw General Manager William Regal
.
, Daisy Mae, and Katherine Simpson. Long later contacted promoter Jack Pfeffer, who agreed to book some of the wrestlers at his shows. After marrying wrestler Buddy Lee, he began helping Ellison train the female wrestlers. After she left Pfeffer's promotion in the 1950s, Ellison found it difficult to book her trainees in shows due to Pfeffer's influence over other National Wrestling Alliance
promoters. Ellison claimed Pfeffer would threaten to reveal the pre-planned nature of wrestling if any other promoters did not do as he liked. As a result, Ellison began selling cosmetics door-to-door and Lee opened a service station to make enough money to pay their bills. They later began to book their wrestlers, including Judy Grable
in Boston, under promoter Paul Bowser
.
In the late 1950s when the once-dominant promoter of women's wrestling, Billy Wolfe
, was out of business, Ellison and Lee began to book their female wrestlers for more and more shows. They began calling their promoting business Girl Wrestling Enterprises (GWE). Ellison demanded a lot from the girls of GWE, including that they had to keep their hair and make-up done, act like a lady, and not date men who were in the professional wrestling business. In addition to women, Ellison also trained midget professional wrestlers, including Katie Glass
in the 1960s.
Over the years, various female wrestlers have come forward with stories accusing Moolah of being a pimp
that often provided various wrestling promoters with unsuspecting female wrestlers that would be used as sex objects. One of the most notorious accusations is from the family of Sweet Georgia Brown (Susie Mae McCoy). McCoy, who was trained and booked by Moolah and her then-husband Buddy Lee, told her daughter that she was often raped, given drugs and made an addict in an intentional attempt by Moolah and Lee to control her. Ida Martinez, who wrestled during the 1960s, also recalls that many of the regional promoters “demanded personal services” before they would hand over a lady wrestler’s pay.
Sandy Parker
, a lesbian former pupil of Moolah's, also claims that Moolah forbade her from going to any gay bars and tried to persuade her to date men. Parker says this enranged her, because "(Moolah) was two faced because she had her own little dalliances that we all knew about."
As well as allegedly exploiting female wrestlers sexually, Moolah has been accused of using her financial influence to control the women's wrestling scene. Rhonda Sing stated that Moolah contacted her and offered to let her wrestle Wendi Richter
in a couple of pay-per-view matches, but demanded she receive half of Sing's pay check; a stipulation Sing was unwilling to accept. Moolah also used her influence to take over the spot originally held by her protegé Mad Maxine
on the animated series Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling. Maxine was about to receive a big push by Vince McMahon
but left the WWF shortly afterwards, as Moolah was unwilling to provide her with additional bookings.
Ellison founded the Ladies' International Wrestling Association, a non-profit organization to help retired professional wrestlers, in the late 1980s. In the 1990s, she spent most of her time training female wrestlers at her school in Columbia, South Carolina
. She also began training men, including Del Wilkes
, and in 1995 trained more men than women. She also spent time training in Los Angeles
at Verne Langdon
's Slammers Gym.
Saturday morning cartoon
during this lucrative time, titled Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling. In addition, she appeared in one of Cyndi Lauper
's music videos, "Goonies 'R' Good Enough". An illness in the mid-1970s meant Ellison had to pull out of the Bill Cosby
movie Mother, Jugs & Speed
, which had a role written specifically for her. In 2002, Moolah wrote her autobiography, The Fabulous Moolah: First Goddess of the Squared Circle. The book has been criticized for keeping kayfabe
(the stance that wrestling storylines are real) and did not reveal a lot about her time controlling women's wrestling. Defending herself against these claims, Ellison retorted it was hard to fit all of her almost five decade career into one book.
Moolah and Young, along with several other lady wrestlers, starred in the 2004 film Lipstick and Dynamite
a documentary about the women wrestlers from the 1950s era. They also appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien
promoting the film.
for four months in 1952.According to Ellison, Williams proposed to her, but Williams's drinking and heroin abuse forced the couple to go separate ways. She further claimed that he wanted Ellison to quit her wrestling career, which she did not want to do. Two months after the breakup, Williams died due to an overdose.
Later, Ellison met a wrestler named Buddy Lee, whom she claims was the "love of her life." They were eventually married, and after divorcing in 1970 after nine years of marriage, they remained friends until Lee's death in 1999. The divorce was attributed to Lee's affair with Rita Cortez, one of the wrestlers the duo was training. In the early 1980s, Ellison opened Moolah's Hideaway, a bar and grill which was operated by her daughter Mary and frequented by Andre the Giant
.
Beginning in 1991, Ellison lived with Mae Young
in a house in Columbia, South Carolina
. Her estate was located on a road named Moolah Drive. A midget professional wrestler named Katie Glass
also lived with Moolah for over forty years. Another wrestler, Donna Christantello, also lived with Ellison on-and-off for forty years, ending in May 1999.
During her return to the ring in 1999, Ellison began experiencing occasional dizziness, and as a result, her doctor requested that she begin to wear a heart monitor. A few days later, Ellison was admitted to the hospital for what turned out to be two clogged arteries and viral pneumonia
. She stayed at the intensive care unit
of the hospital for 24 days, during which she was unconscious for fifteen days. After leaving the hospital, she again slipped into unconsciousness in the bathroom at her home, crushing several vertebrae. She underwent successful back surgery in mid-December.
Ellison died on November 2, 2007. According to her daughter Mary, the possible cause of death was a heart attack or blood clot related to a recent shoulder replacement surgery.
Ring name
A ring name is a stage name used by a professional wrestler, martial artist, or boxer. While some ring names may have a fictitious first name and surname, others may simply be a nickname, such as The Undertaker.-Wrestling:...
The Fabulous Moolah, was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
female professional wrestler
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
. She began her career working with promoter Billy Wolfe
Billy Wolfe
William Harrison “Billy” Wolfe was a professional wrestling promoter who was active from the 1930s to the 1950s. Wolfe was the husband and manager of Mildred Burke and ran a traveling troupe of women wrestlers alongside her.-Early life:...
and his wife, wrestler and trainer Mildred Burke
Mildred Burke
Mildred Bliss was an American professional wrestler, who wrestled under the name Mildred Burke. She is a member of the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame as well as the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame. Her heyday lasted from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, when she held the World Women's...
, as well as working alongside professional wrestler "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers. She won the NWA World Women's Championship
NWA World Women's Championship
The NWA World Women's Championship is the National Wrestling Alliance's women's singles professional wrestling title. It is descended from the original Women's World Championship won by Mildred Burke in 1935 from Clara Mortensen. June Byers was then recognized as the succeeding champion after her...
in 1956 and was the most prominent holder of the title for approximately the next thirty years.
In the 1980s, she joined the World Wrestling Federation
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
(WWF) as part of the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection storyline, feuding with Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
and Wendi Richter
Wendi Richter
Wendi Richter is a retired American professional wrestler. She began her professional wrestling career in companies such as the National Wrestling Alliance, where she teamed with Joyce Grable, with whom she held the NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship twice. In the 1980s, she joined the World...
, the latter of whom defeated her for the WWF Women's Championship
WWE Women's Championship
The WWE Women's Championship was a professional wrestling championship in the World Wrestling Entertainment promotion. Created in 1956, it was the oldest active professional wrestling championship in World Wrestling Entertainment history until its retirement in 2010 as a result from a unification...
in 1984. Ellison was marketed by the WWF (later World Wrestling Entertainment, WWE) as holding the record for the longest title reign by any athlete in any professional sport. According to WWE, she was also the first WWF Women's Champion and held the title a total of four times.
In addition, Ellison was a prominent trainer and promoter in woman's professional wrestling. In the 1990s, she returned to the WWF in a comedic role with longtime friend Mae Young
Mae Young
Johnnie Mae Young is an American Semi-retired professional wrestler and currently a WWE Ambassador.Young was an influential pioneer in women's wrestling, helping to increase its popularity during World War II and training many generations of wrestlers...
. Ellison became the oldest champion in the history of professional wrestling when she won the WWF Women's Championship at age 76, in 1999. In 2010, WWE recognized her as the 27th best wrestler ever.
Early life
Mary Lillian Ellison was born in 1923 in Tookiedoo, Kershaw County, South Carolina, and grew up in Tookiedoo, twelve miles from ColumbiaColumbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
. The youngest of thirteen children, Ellison was the only daughter of a part Cherokee father and an Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
mother. Her parents owned a farm, a grocery store, and a service station.
When her mother died of cancer aged forty, eight-year-old Ellison went to live with her paternal grandmother and worked on her cousin's cotton farm to make money. At age ten, Ellison was still deeply distraught over her mother’s death; to cheer her up, her father took her to the local wrestling matches. Ellison liked the matches, but it was not until she saw Women's Champion Mildred Burke
Mildred Burke
Mildred Bliss was an American professional wrestler, who wrestled under the name Mildred Burke. She is a member of the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame as well as the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame. Her heyday lasted from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, when she held the World Women's...
wrestle that "they began to mean much more to me."
Ellison returned to the Columbia home of her father and brothers. She graduated Columbia High School, but at age fourteen married 21-year-old Walter Carroll. They soon became parents to a daughter. A few months after the birth of her daughter, she divorced Carroll. Still only fifteen, she left her daughter with a friend and set out on a wrestling career of her own.
Early career (1940s–1950s)
Ellison began her wrestling career with Mildred BurkeMildred Burke
Mildred Bliss was an American professional wrestler, who wrestled under the name Mildred Burke. She is a member of the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame as well as the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame. Her heyday lasted from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, when she held the World Women's...
’s husband Billy Wolfe
Billy Wolfe
William Harrison “Billy” Wolfe was a professional wrestling promoter who was active from the 1930s to the 1950s. Wolfe was the husband and manager of Mildred Burke and ran a traveling troupe of women wrestlers alongside her.-Early life:...
, the dominant women's promoter of the time. Her first match was on May 26, 1949 against June Byers
June Byers
DeAlva Eyvonnie Sibley , better known by her ring name of June Byers, was an American women's professional wrestler famous in the 1950s and early 1960s. She held the World Women's Championship for ten years and is a member of the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame.-Early life:Born in Houston,...
at the Boston Arena. Wolfe was notorious for advising his wrestlers to enter into sexual relationships with either himself or competing promoters to ensure additional bookings, a practice with which Ellison refused to go along. She, however, soon began a romance with wrestler Johnny Long. Long later introduced Ellison to Jack Pfeffer who gave her the moniker "Slave Girl Moolah". By the early 1950s, Moolah was a valet for "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers, accompanying him to the ring while providing eye candy for the male audiences and assisting Rogers against his opponents. Ellison broke up the partnership because Rogers kept pushing her to begin a sexual relationship. She then served as the valet for the Elephant Boy (Tony Olivas). Olivas was Mexican, but had very dark skin, which caused controversy when Ellison, a white woman, would kiss him on the cheek during their ring entrance routine. At one show in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma city
Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...
, a man, who thought that Olivas was a black man, attempted to stab Ellison with a knife for kissing him. Moolah later left Pfeffer's promotion and began wrestling under Boston promoters Tony Santos
Tony Santos
Tony Santos is a Spanish funk/R&B singer. His debut album in Spain sold over 200,000 copies, and the first three singles off the album hit number one in the Spanish charts. He was a contestant on Operación Triunfo.His first single 'Actitud' was written by Alan Glass, a US writer based in the UK...
and Paul Bowser
Paul Bowser
Paul Forbes Bowser was a professional wrestling promoter who was active from the 1920s to the 1950s in the Boston area.-Wrestler:...
. In 1955, she began working for Vince McMahon, Sr.'s Capitol Wrestling Corporation.
World Champion (1956–1970s)
On September 18, 1956, Moolah defeated Judy GrableJudy Grable
Nellya Baughman was an American professional wrestler who was best known by her ring name Judy Grable. She was an active wrestler during the 1950s and 1960s...
in a thirteen-woman battle royal
Battle royal (professional wrestling)
In professional wrestling, a battle royal is a multi-competitor match type in which wrestlers are eliminated until one is left and declared winner...
to win the vacant World Women's Championship, which shares a lineage with the NWA World Women's Championship
NWA World Women's Championship
The NWA World Women's Championship is the National Wrestling Alliance's women's singles professional wrestling title. It is descended from the original Women's World Championship won by Mildred Burke in 1935 from Clara Mortensen. June Byers was then recognized as the succeeding champion after her...
. She was not immediately recognized by everyone as the NWA Champion because Billy Wolfe, with whom she had had conflict earlier in her career, still controlled the promotion. After the match, Vince McMahon, Sr. dubbed Ellison with a new ring name—The Fabulous Moolah. Subsequently, June Byers came out of retirement to challenge Moolah to a match for the title. During the match, Moolah acted as the aggressor and pinned Byers to retain the championship. Moolah's first World Championship reign lasted over ten years. Moolah successfully defended the belt against the top female wrestlers in the world, such as Judy Grable
Judy Grable
Nellya Baughman was an American professional wrestler who was best known by her ring name Judy Grable. She was an active wrestler during the 1950s and 1960s...
and Donna Christanello
Donna Christanello
Mary Alfonsi , better known by her ring name Donna Christanello , was a professional wrestler trained by The Fabulous Moolah...
, while also purporting to befriend some of the biggest celebrities of the day. Moolah claimed in her book, "First Goddess of the Squared Circle," that she formed friendships with Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
and Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...
.
After June Byers retired in 1964, Moolah was subsequently recognized as official NWA Champion, thus making her the undisputed Women’s World Champion. Nevertheless, Moolah dropped the belt on September 17, 1966 to Betty Boucher
Betty Boucher
Betty Boucher is a wrestler and a former NWA World Women's Champion. She is a former sister-in-law of The Fabulous Moolah. She frequently teamed with her sister Rita.-References:...
, although she regained the title just weeks later. She also traded the belt with Yukiko Tomoe
Yukiko Tomoe
Yukiko Tomoe is a Japanese former holder of the now defunct AJWP title and the NWA Women's title in the 1960s. She wrestled in both Japan and the United States.-References:...
during a tour of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in 1968. On July 1, 1972, Moolah became the first woman allowed to wrestle at Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
, which had previously banned women's wrestling. In fact, Moolah helped overturn the ban on women's wrestling in the entire state of New York, which the New York Athletic Commission lifted in June 1972. During her quest to overturn the ban, she flipped football player Roosevelt Grier onto his back on The Mike Douglas Show
The Mike Douglas Show
The Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that aired in syndication from 1961 to 1982, distributed by Westinghouse Broadcasting and for much of its run, originated from studios of two of the company's TV stations.The program featured light banter with...
. Moolah continued an uninterrupted eight-year reign before losing to Sue Green
Sue Green
Susan Tex Green is an American professional wrestler. She began wrestling at the age of 15 and was trained by The Fabulous Moolah. She was the frequent tag team partner of Sandy Parker, with whom she won the National Wrestling Alliance 's NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship. The title reign,...
at Madison Square Garden in 1976. Moolah regained her title a short time later. She also bought the legal rights to the championship in the late 1970s, and after losing the championship for two days to Evelyn Stevens
Evelyn Stevens
Evelyn Stevens is an American professional cyclist for the Team HTC-Columbia Women cycling team.-Palmarès:20082009...
in 1978, began another long reign, defending her title for another six years. Also in the 1970s, Moolah held the NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship
NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship
The NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship was a women's professional wrestling tag team title sanctioned by the National Wrestling Alliance from the early 1950s through 1983...
twice with Toni Rose
Toni Rose
-Professional wrestling career:Rose grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. She decided to become a professional wrestler at the age of seven, but first attended high school and college. She trained under The Fabulous Moolah in 1965...
.
Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection (1980s)
Vince McMahon
Vincent Kennedy "Vince" McMahon is an American professional wrestling promoter, announcer, commentator, film producer, actor and former occasional professional wrestler. McMahon is the current Chairman, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee of professional wrestling promotion WWE...
began expanding the World Wrestling Federation
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
(WWF) nationally, and Moolah sold him the rights to her Women’s World Championship. Moolah agreed to appear exclusively for the WWF, and thus became the first WWF Women's Champion
WWE Women's Championship
The WWE Women's Championship was a professional wrestling championship in the World Wrestling Entertainment promotion. Created in 1956, it was the oldest active professional wrestling championship in World Wrestling Entertainment history until its retirement in 2010 as a result from a unification...
. The following year, singer Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
began a verbal feud with manager "Captain" Lou Albano
Lou Albano
Louis Vincent "Captain Lou" Albano was an Italian-American professional wrestler, manager and actor. He was active as a professional wrestler from 1953 until 1969, then he became a manager, until 1995....
, who long had a reputation of being a villain, that brought professional wrestling into mainstream culture in a storyline that became known as the "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection." When it was finally time for Lauper and Albano to settle their differences in the ring, a match-up was scheduled with Albano representing Moolah against the challenge of Lauper’s protégé, Wendi Richter
Wendi Richter
Wendi Richter is a retired American professional wrestler. She began her professional wrestling career in companies such as the National Wrestling Alliance, where she teamed with Joyce Grable, with whom she held the NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship twice. In the 1980s, she joined the World...
. After much buildup and hype, the Fabulous Moolah lost the championship when defeated by Richter, who had Lauper in her corner, on July 23, 1984 in the main event of The Brawl to End it All
The Brawl to End it All
The Brawl to End It All was a professional wrestling event produced by the World Wrestling Federation and broadcast live on MTV. It took place at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York on July 23, 1984. The show was a major event in the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection in the mid-1980s WWF...
, which was broadcast live on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
. Prior to the match, the WWF promoted Moolah as holding the championship for the previous 28 years.
After losing the title to Richter, Moolah aided Leilani Kai
Leilani Kai
Patricia Schroeder , better known by her stage name Leilani Kai, is a semi-retired professional wrestler. She began training with The Fabulous Moolah right after finishing high school...
in defeating Richter for the title in February 1985. Richter won it back at the inaugural WrestleMania
WrestleMania (1985)
WrestleMania was the first annual WrestleMania professional wrestling event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on March 31, 1985, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The attendance for the event was 19,121 fans...
, but when Richter’s relationship soured with the WWF, Moolah donned a mask as "The Spider Lady" and regained the belt on November 25, 1985, in a controversial decision. Richter was never told she would be losing the title and fell victim to a real-life "screwjob" finish known as "The Original Screwjob". Richter promptly quit the WWF afterward, while Moolah continued to be champion for another two years—excluding a six-day reign by Velvet McIntyre during a tour of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in 1986—before losing the belt to Sherri Martel
Sherri Martel
Sherri Schrull was an American professional wrestler and manager, better known by her ring names, Sherri Martel and Sensational Sherri....
on July 24, 1987. She later captained a team at the inaugural Survivor Series
Survivor Series (1987)
Survivor Series was the first Survivor Series pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation . It took place on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1987 and was held at the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield, Ohio....
. Her team (Moolah, Velvet McIntyre, Rockin' Robin
Robin Smith (wrestler)
Robin Denise Smith , better known by her ring name Rockin' Robin, is a retired American professional wrestler. As the daughter of Aurelian "Grizzly" Smith, she is a second generation wrestler. Her brother Sam Houston and half-brother Jake "The Snake" Roberts are also wrestlers. Smith worked for the...
, and the Jumping Bomb Angels
Jumping Bomb Angels
Jumping Bomb Angels were a female Japanese professional wrestling tag team. The members were Noriyo Tateno and Itsuki Yamazaki .-Japan:...
) defeated champion Martel and her team (Leilani Kai, Judy Martin
Judy Martin (wrestler)
Judy Hardee is a former female professional wrestler known as Judy Martin. Martin is a former WWF Women's Tag Team Champion. She held the title with partner Leilani Kai as The Glamour Girls...
, Donna Christanello
Donna Christanello
Mary Alfonsi , better known by her ring name Donna Christanello , was a professional wrestler trained by The Fabulous Moolah...
, and Dawn Marie
Dawn Marie Johnston
Dawn Marie Johnston is a former professional wrestler, better known by her ring name, Dawn Marie. She was active in the 1980s and early 1990s...
).
Semi–retirement
Throughout the early 1990s, she made appearances in video packages and at live WWF events. On June 24, 1995, she was the first female wrestler to be inducted into the WWF Hall of FameWWE Hall of Fame
The WWE Hall of Fame is a hall of fame for professional wrestlers maintained by WWE. It was officially created on the February 1, 1993 episode of the World Wrestling Federation's Monday Night Raw television program...
. In the late 1990s, Pat Patterson and Ellison began jokingly discussing a comeback for her, which resulted in Patterson contacting WWF Chairman Vince McMahon
Vince McMahon
Vincent Kennedy "Vince" McMahon is an American professional wrestling promoter, announcer, commentator, film producer, actor and former occasional professional wrestler. McMahon is the current Chairman, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee of professional wrestling promotion WWE...
about the possibility. In 1998, Moolah and Mae Young
Mae Young
Johnnie Mae Young is an American Semi-retired professional wrestler and currently a WWE Ambassador.Young was an influential pioneer in women's wrestling, helping to increase its popularity during World War II and training many generations of wrestlers...
re-emerged in the WWF (later renamed World Wrestling Entertainment, WWE). The WWF women's division, however, had since moved away from the traditional athletic match-ups of the past and now featured women competing in sexually-themed bikini contest
Bikini contest
A bikini contest is a beauty contest where women compete against each other in bikinis.Bikini contests can take place in bars, nightclubs, at beaches, and beauty pageants. Related companies regularly sponsor such contests to discover and attract new talents to promote their products...
s and strip matches.
Moolah received a call from McMahon in late 1998 about returning to the company. On the September 9, 1999 episode of SmackDown!, Jeff Jarrett
Jeff Jarrett
Jeffrey Leonard Jarrett is an American professional wrestler and wrestling promoter. He is currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling , an organization he co-founded along with his father and in which he holds some stock but not total control...
invited Moolah into the ring and smashed a guitar over her head. Moolah and Young then began appearing regularly in comedic roles. On the September 27, 1999 edition of Monday Night Raw
WWE RAW
WWE Raw ) is a sports entertainment television program for WWE that currently airs on the USA Network in the United States...
, Moolah and Young defeated Ivory
Lisa Moretti
Lisa Moretti is a retired American professional wrestler. She is best known for her appearances with World Wrestling Entertainment between 1999 and 2005 under the ring name Ivory...
in a Handicapped Evening Gown match, which led to a title match at No Mercy
No Mercy (1999)
No Mercy was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation , which took place on October 17, 1999 at the Gund Arena in Cleveland, Ohio....
on October 17, 1999. The match saw seventy-six year old Moolah defeat Ivory to regain the WWE Women's Championship, thus becoming the oldest WWE Women's Champion ever, though she lost the title to Ivory eight days later.
On the September 15, 2003 edition of Raw, Moolah won a match against Victoria
Lisa Marie Varon
Lisa Marie Varon , is an American professional wrestler, bodybuilder and fitness competitor of Puerto Rican and Turkish descent...
. Moolah had been promised the match for her eightieth birthday and became the first octogenarian to compete in a WWE ring. After Moolah's victory, the "Legend Killer" Randy Orton
Randy Orton
Randal Keith "Randy" Orton is an American professional wrestler and actor. He is signed to WWE wrestling on its SmackDown brand...
came out and performed an RKO
Cutter (professional wrestling)
In professional wrestling, a cutter is a common term that refers to the three-quarter facelock bulldog maneuver. The move is also described as an inverted neckbreaker, though it is not one, it only bears an inverted style to it...
on her. Moolah and Young made another appearance at New Years Revolution
New Year's Revolution (2006)
New Year's Revolution was the second annual New Year's Revolution pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment...
in 2006, during a Bra and Panties Gauntlet match attacking Victoria and stripping her of her top. She also made brief appearances at WrestleMania 23
WrestleMania 23
WrestleMania 23 was the twenty-third annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment . It took place on April 1, 2007 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan...
and the 2007 Draft Lottery
2007 WWE Draft
The 2007 World Wrestling Entertainment Draft Lottery took place at the Wachovia Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on June 11, 2007. The first half of the draft was televised live for three hours on WWE's flagship program, Raw on USA Network...
on June 11, 2007. Her last WWE appearance before her death was at SummerSlam
SummerSlam (2007)
SummerSlam was the twentieth annual SummerSlam professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment . It took place on August 26, 2007 at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey and featured talent from each of WWE's three brands: Raw,...
in August 2007, in a backstage segment with Vince McMahon
Vince McMahon
Vincent Kennedy "Vince" McMahon is an American professional wrestling promoter, announcer, commentator, film producer, actor and former occasional professional wrestler. McMahon is the current Chairman, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee of professional wrestling promotion WWE...
and Raw General Manager William Regal
Darren Matthews
Darren Kenneth Matthews , is an English professional wrestler, author and color commentator currently signed to WWE and competing on the SmackDown brand under the ring name William Regal. He is also known for his time in World Championship Wrestling under the ring name Steven Regal...
.
Training and promoting
Ellison and her second husband Johnny Long began training women to become female wrestlers, which included Ella WaldekElla Waldek
Elsie Schevchenko better known as Ella Waldek, is a former American professional wrestler. She is one of the subjects of the 2005 documentary film Lipstick & Dynamite: The First Ladies of Wrestling.-Professional wrestling career:...
, Daisy Mae, and Katherine Simpson. Long later contacted promoter Jack Pfeffer, who agreed to book some of the wrestlers at his shows. After marrying wrestler Buddy Lee, he began helping Ellison train the female wrestlers. After she left Pfeffer's promotion in the 1950s, Ellison found it difficult to book her trainees in shows due to Pfeffer's influence over other National Wrestling Alliance
National Wrestling Alliance
The National Wrestling Alliance is a wrestling promotion company and sanctions various NWA championships in the United States. The NWA has been in operation since 1948...
promoters. Ellison claimed Pfeffer would threaten to reveal the pre-planned nature of wrestling if any other promoters did not do as he liked. As a result, Ellison began selling cosmetics door-to-door and Lee opened a service station to make enough money to pay their bills. They later began to book their wrestlers, including Judy Grable
Judy Grable
Nellya Baughman was an American professional wrestler who was best known by her ring name Judy Grable. She was an active wrestler during the 1950s and 1960s...
in Boston, under promoter Paul Bowser
Paul Bowser
Paul Forbes Bowser was a professional wrestling promoter who was active from the 1920s to the 1950s in the Boston area.-Wrestler:...
.
In the late 1950s when the once-dominant promoter of women's wrestling, Billy Wolfe
Billy Wolfe
William Harrison “Billy” Wolfe was a professional wrestling promoter who was active from the 1930s to the 1950s. Wolfe was the husband and manager of Mildred Burke and ran a traveling troupe of women wrestlers alongside her.-Early life:...
, was out of business, Ellison and Lee began to book their female wrestlers for more and more shows. They began calling their promoting business Girl Wrestling Enterprises (GWE). Ellison demanded a lot from the girls of GWE, including that they had to keep their hair and make-up done, act like a lady, and not date men who were in the professional wrestling business. In addition to women, Ellison also trained midget professional wrestlers, including Katie Glass
Katie Glass
Katie Glass , better known by her ring name "Diamond Lil", is a retired professional wrestler.-Professional wrestling career:...
in the 1960s.
Over the years, various female wrestlers have come forward with stories accusing Moolah of being a pimp
Pimp
A pimp is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The pimp may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing a location where she may engage clients...
that often provided various wrestling promoters with unsuspecting female wrestlers that would be used as sex objects. One of the most notorious accusations is from the family of Sweet Georgia Brown (Susie Mae McCoy). McCoy, who was trained and booked by Moolah and her then-husband Buddy Lee, told her daughter that she was often raped, given drugs and made an addict in an intentional attempt by Moolah and Lee to control her. Ida Martinez, who wrestled during the 1960s, also recalls that many of the regional promoters “demanded personal services” before they would hand over a lady wrestler’s pay.
Sandy Parker
Sandy Parker
Sandy Parker is a retired Black Canadian female professional wrestler. She debuted in 1969, wrestling in Canada, the United States, and Japan. In Japan, she worked for All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling, holding numerous titles...
, a lesbian former pupil of Moolah's, also claims that Moolah forbade her from going to any gay bars and tried to persuade her to date men. Parker says this enranged her, because "(Moolah) was two faced because she had her own little dalliances that we all knew about."
As well as allegedly exploiting female wrestlers sexually, Moolah has been accused of using her financial influence to control the women's wrestling scene. Rhonda Sing stated that Moolah contacted her and offered to let her wrestle Wendi Richter
Wendi Richter
Wendi Richter is a retired American professional wrestler. She began her professional wrestling career in companies such as the National Wrestling Alliance, where she teamed with Joyce Grable, with whom she held the NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship twice. In the 1980s, she joined the World...
in a couple of pay-per-view matches, but demanded she receive half of Sing's pay check; a stipulation Sing was unwilling to accept. Moolah also used her influence to take over the spot originally held by her protegé Mad Maxine
Mad Maxine
Mad Maxine was a female professional wrestler. She is best known for her height and having a green mohawk during her stint in the World Wrestling Federation...
on the animated series Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling. Maxine was about to receive a big push by Vince McMahon
Vince McMahon
Vincent Kennedy "Vince" McMahon is an American professional wrestling promoter, announcer, commentator, film producer, actor and former occasional professional wrestler. McMahon is the current Chairman, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee of professional wrestling promotion WWE...
but left the WWF shortly afterwards, as Moolah was unwilling to provide her with additional bookings.
Ellison founded the Ladies' International Wrestling Association, a non-profit organization to help retired professional wrestlers, in the late 1980s. In the 1990s, she spent most of her time training female wrestlers at her school in Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
. She also began training men, including Del Wilkes
Del Wilkes
Del Wilkes is a former American professional wrestler. Over the span of 14 years, he performed in various promotions such as American Wrestling Association, All Japan Pro Wrestling...
, and in 1995 trained more men than women. She also spent time training in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
at Verne Langdon
Verne Langdon
Verne Langdon was an American musician, composer, singer, songwriter, keyboardist, record producer, actor, makeup artist and writer...
's Slammers Gym.
Other media
An animated version of Moolah was included on a CBSCBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
Saturday morning cartoon
Saturday morning cartoon
A Saturday morning cartoon is the colloquial term for the animated television programming that has typically been scheduled on Saturday mornings on the major American television networks from the 1960s to the present; the genre's peak in popularity mostly ended in the 1990s while the popularity of...
during this lucrative time, titled Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling. In addition, she appeared in one of Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
's music videos, "Goonies 'R' Good Enough". An illness in the mid-1970s meant Ellison had to pull out of the Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby
William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, educator, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, the...
movie Mother, Jugs & Speed
Mother, Jugs & Speed
Mother, Jugs & Speed is a 1976 black comedy film directed by Peter Yates. It stars Bill Cosby , Raquel Welch , Harvey Keitel , and Larry Hagman as employees of an independent ambulance service trying to survive in Los Angeles.-Plot:...
, which had a role written specifically for her. In 2002, Moolah wrote her autobiography, The Fabulous Moolah: First Goddess of the Squared Circle. The book has been criticized for keeping kayfabe
Kayfabe
In professional wrestling, kayfabe is the portrayal of events within the industry as "real" or "true". Specifically, the portrayal of professional wrestling, in particular the competition and rivalries between participants, as being genuine or not of a worked nature...
(the stance that wrestling storylines are real) and did not reveal a lot about her time controlling women's wrestling. Defending herself against these claims, Ellison retorted it was hard to fit all of her almost five decade career into one book.
Moolah and Young, along with several other lady wrestlers, starred in the 2004 film Lipstick and Dynamite
Lipstick and Dynamite, Piss and Vinegar: The First Ladies of Wrestling
Lipstick and Dynamite, Piss and Vinegar: The First Ladies of Wrestling is a 2005 documentary film about the early days of women's professional wrestling in North America...
a documentary about the women wrestlers from the 1950s era. They also appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...
promoting the film.
Personal life
Ellison's first husband was Walter Carroll, who became the father of her daughter Mary. Mary wrestled briefly but decided against pursuing the profession. Ellison had six grandchildren, five biological and one adopted. Ellison and Carroll divorced shortly after their daughter's birth. Later, Ellison married wrestler Johnny Long. Marital conflicts developed when Long wanted Ellison to be a housewife instead of a career woman. In addition, Ellison claims Long was a "womanizer". Ellison and Long divorced. Ellison also says that she dated country singer Hank Williams, Sr.Hank Williams, Sr.
Hank Williams , born Hiram King Williams, was an American singer-songwriter and musician regarded as one of the most important country music artists of all time...
for four months in 1952.According to Ellison, Williams proposed to her, but Williams's drinking and heroin abuse forced the couple to go separate ways. She further claimed that he wanted Ellison to quit her wrestling career, which she did not want to do. Two months after the breakup, Williams died due to an overdose.
Later, Ellison met a wrestler named Buddy Lee, whom she claims was the "love of her life." They were eventually married, and after divorcing in 1970 after nine years of marriage, they remained friends until Lee's death in 1999. The divorce was attributed to Lee's affair with Rita Cortez, one of the wrestlers the duo was training. In the early 1980s, Ellison opened Moolah's Hideaway, a bar and grill which was operated by her daughter Mary and frequented by Andre the Giant
André the Giant
André René Roussimoff , best known as André the Giant, was a French professional wrestler and actor. His best remembered acting role was that of Fezzik, the giant in the film The Princess Bride...
.
Beginning in 1991, Ellison lived with Mae Young
Mae Young
Johnnie Mae Young is an American Semi-retired professional wrestler and currently a WWE Ambassador.Young was an influential pioneer in women's wrestling, helping to increase its popularity during World War II and training many generations of wrestlers...
in a house in Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
. Her estate was located on a road named Moolah Drive. A midget professional wrestler named Katie Glass
Katie Glass
Katie Glass , better known by her ring name "Diamond Lil", is a retired professional wrestler.-Professional wrestling career:...
also lived with Moolah for over forty years. Another wrestler, Donna Christantello, also lived with Ellison on-and-off for forty years, ending in May 1999.
During her return to the ring in 1999, Ellison began experiencing occasional dizziness, and as a result, her doctor requested that she begin to wear a heart monitor. A few days later, Ellison was admitted to the hospital for what turned out to be two clogged arteries and viral pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
. She stayed at the intensive care unit
Intensive Care Unit
thumb|220px|ICU roomAn intensive-care unit , critical-care unit , intensive-therapy unit/intensive-treatment unit is a specialized department in a hospital that provides intensive-care medicine...
of the hospital for 24 days, during which she was unconscious for fifteen days. After leaving the hospital, she again slipped into unconsciousness in the bathroom at her home, crushing several vertebrae. She underwent successful back surgery in mid-December.
Ellison died on November 2, 2007. According to her daughter Mary, the possible cause of death was a heart attack or blood clot related to a recent shoulder replacement surgery.
In wrestling
- Finishing moves
- Backbreaker
- Schoolgirl
- Small package
- Signature moves
- Diving headscissors takedown
- Jumping snapmare
- Missile dropkick
- The Moolah Whip (Moolah grabs the opponent by their hair and whips them through the air)
- ManagersManager (professional wrestling)In professional wrestling, a manager is a secondary character paired with a wrestler for a variety of reasons. The manager is often either a non-wrestler, an occasional wrestler, an older wrestler who has retired or is nearing retirement or, in some cases, a new wrestler who is breaking into the...
- Harvey Wippleman
- Wrestlers managed
- Mae YoungMae YoungJohnnie Mae Young is an American Semi-retired professional wrestler and currently a WWE Ambassador.Young was an influential pioneer in women's wrestling, helping to increase its popularity during World War II and training many generations of wrestlers...
- Terri RunnelsTerri RunnelsTerri Lynne Boatright Runnels is a former World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Federation professional wrestling manager, television host and occasional wrestler....
(WrestleMania 2000WrestleMania 2000WrestleMania 2000 was the sixteenth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view produced by the World Wrestling Federation . It took place on April 2, 2000 at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, California...
) - Leilani KaiLeilani KaiPatricia Schroeder , better known by her stage name Leilani Kai, is a semi-retired professional wrestler. She began training with The Fabulous Moolah right after finishing high school...
- The Elephant Boy
- "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers
- Mae Young
Championships and accomplishments
- Cauliflower Alley ClubCauliflower Alley ClubThe Cauliflower Alley Club is a non-profit fraternal organization, which includes a newsletter and website, comprising both retired and active professional wrestlers and boxers in North America....
- Ladies Wrestling Award (1997)
- National Wrestling AllianceNational Wrestling AllianceThe National Wrestling Alliance is a wrestling promotion company and sanctions various NWA championships in the United States. The NWA has been in operation since 1948...
- NWA Women's World Tag Team ChampionshipNWA Women's World Tag Team ChampionshipThe NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship was a women's professional wrestling tag team title sanctioned by the National Wrestling Alliance from the early 1950s through 1983...
(2 times) – with Toni RoseToni Rose-Professional wrestling career:Rose grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. She decided to become a professional wrestler at the age of seven, but first attended high school and college. She trained under The Fabulous Moolah in 1965... - NWA World Women's ChampionshipNWA World Women's ChampionshipThe NWA World Women's Championship is the National Wrestling Alliance's women's singles professional wrestling title. It is descended from the original Women's World Championship won by Mildred Burke in 1935 from Clara Mortensen. June Byers was then recognized as the succeeding champion after her...
(5 times)
- NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship
- Pro Wrestling IllustratedPro Wrestling IllustratedPro Wrestling Illustrated is a professional wrestling magazine. PWI is currently based in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania and published by Kappa Publishing Group.-History:The first issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated was released in 1979...
- PWI Stanley Weston Award (1991)
- Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
- Class of 2003
- World Wrestling FederationWorld Wrestling EntertainmentWorld Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
- WWF Women's ChampionshipWWE Women's ChampionshipThe WWE Women's Championship was a professional wrestling championship in the World Wrestling Entertainment promotion. Created in 1956, it was the oldest active professional wrestling championship in World Wrestling Entertainment history until its retirement in 2010 as a result from a unification...
(4 times) - WWF Hall of FameWWE Hall of FameThe WWE Hall of Fame is a hall of fame for professional wrestlers maintained by WWE. It was officially created on the February 1, 1993 episode of the World Wrestling Federation's Monday Night Raw television program...
(Class of 1995) - WWE.com placed Moolah #2 on their list of the top 25 most impactful women
- WWF Women's Championship
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
- Worst Match of the Year (1984) vs. Wendi RichterWendi RichterWendi Richter is a retired American professional wrestler. She began her professional wrestling career in companies such as the National Wrestling Alliance, where she teamed with Joyce Grable, with whom she held the NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship twice. In the 1980s, she joined the World...
on July 23
- Worst Match of the Year (1984) vs. Wendi Richter
- Other
- JWPA Women's Championship
- USA Women's Wrestling Championship
External links
- WWE Hall of Fame Profile
- FabulousMoolah.com
- Fabulous Moolah at Online World of Wrestling