WWE
announced the Fabulous Moolah Memorial Battle Royal for WrestleMania 34, but after media
and fan backlash, the name was changed just a few days later.
I am Luke Owen and this is why WWE cancelled the Fabulous Moolah Memorial Battle Royal.
On the Monday 12th March 2018 edition of Monday Night Raw, WWE announced the Fabulous Moolah
Memorial Battle Royal for WrestleMania 34, an all-female version of the Andre the Giant
Memorial Battle Royal.
WWE presented Moolah in a video package as a trail-blazer who was history-making and
a pioneer of women’s wrestling.
Despite fan backlash from the outset, WWE doubled down on their decision to dedicate
the match to Fabulous Moolah by replaying the video on Smackdown Live.
However on Thursday 15th March 2018, WWE issued a statement saying, “After further consideration,
we believe it’s best to proceed with the name ‘WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal.’
What remains most important is that this historic match is part of WWE’s unwavering commitment
to the Women’s Division.”
It was revealed rather quickly after the announcement that WWE hadn’t made the decision of their
own accord - and we’re instead pushed into it by the event’s sponsor Snickers [3-screen]
- who received calls and emails from WWE fans who were upset about the match.
Joseph Currier wrote in Figure Four Weekly, “[Snickers] called the decision to honor
Moolah "unacceptable" and noted that they were engaging with WWE to express their disappointment.”
So why was there fan backlash to a match dedicated to The Fabulous Moolah who WWE called a trail-blazing
pioneer?
In 2006 the family of Sweet Georgia Brown - who was trained by Moolah and her then partner
Buddy Lee in the 1950s and 60s - alleged that she was made to sex with men that Moolah would
send to her hotel room - and if she refused she would be badly beaten.
Murfee Faulk wrote in the Free Times from an account by one of Sweet Georgia Brown’s
daughters, “Sometimes her eyes swelled shut.
She had a tooth knocked out.
And she was threatened with worse.”
Not only that but the family allege that Brown was made to become a drug addict by Moolah
and Lee as a way to control her and her income.
Luna Vachon - who trained under Moolah - also felt that she was taken advantage of by both
Moolah and the male photographers that she hired.
Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet reached out to another one of her students, who wrestled
under the name Mad Maxine, who told him, “She skimmed their money, she ignored women who
were badly hurt, she pimped women out to creepy men and on and on.
She was not a mother figure..
I met her in my early 20s and I had never met such a monstrous person.”
Maxine debuted for the WWF in 1985 as a contender for Wendi Richter - and was even set to be
one of the main characters in Hulk Hogan’s Rock N Wrestling - but retired the following
year citing Moolah as the reason she left wrestling.
She told Slam Wrestling in 2014, “Moolah did send girls out to this guy in Arizona
and pimped them out.
I actually spoke to him on the phone and asked him what he was looking for.
He said, 'If I'm spending all this money, you know what I want’”.
She claims that Moolah took at least half of what she was earning from her guaranteed
WWF contract, and didn’t actually tell her about the plans to put her in Hulk Hogan’s
Rock N Wrestling.
When Mad Maxine retired, Moolah took her place in the cartoon and challenger spot for Richter.
Another trainee, Debbie Johnson, said in 2014 that Moolah was “plain evil” She added
in an interview with Lady Sports, “I wasn't allowed to have any friends except for the
other girls who were there, and I couldn't trust any of them.
If I told someone something in confidence, it always got back to Moolah, and I would
be dealt with for it.
If I p****d her off too much, she wouldn't let me work, and that meant starving, so I
had to walk on eggshells for a long time.”
Moolah allegedly had all her trainees sign exclusive contracts to her, and hand over
their paycheques before they got to look at them.
According to several students, she would then take between 25-35% of their earnings, but
also deduct food and travel expenses.
Students also had to live in the Moolah Compound, where she many have claimed she charged them
more rent than money they earned from bookings - which meant they fell into debt and further
into her control.
Johnson added in her interview with Lady Sports: “I worked my ass off for her for almost
two years before I ever had money coming to me, and the first time she paid me, I got
$125.00 and I thought I was rich!
The women who worked for her made her a very wealthy person.
It wasn't her talent that earned her what she had, but the talents of all of the women
that worked for her.”
In the 1960s and 70s Moolah worked directly with Vince McMahon Sr., and essentially single-handedly
promoted women’s wrestling in North America.
However because she was organising, she was always on top of the card - holding the women’s
championship for 28 years.
Even into her 60s and as a grandmother, Moolah remained at the top of womens wrestling.
Some students have even alleged that Moolah trained them poorly on purpose so they were
never as good as her in the ring.
And because Moolah controlled all of her student’s bookings, they had to stay in her good graces
otherwise they wouldn’t get any work.
Sandy Parker said in 2008, “I wasn't on her good side because I wouldn't do what she
wanted me to do.
That was one of the reasons I never worked Madison Square Garden because every time the
bookings came up, I'd be on her bad side.
As far as I am concerned I could wrestle just as good as any one of those girls who were
on [Moolah’s] good side.”
There’s also the story that in an act of spite, Moolah got the WWF to shut down the
women’s tag team division.
In the lead-up to WrestleMania V, there was reportedly going to be the culmination of
the feud between The Jumping Bomb Angels and The Glamour Girls for the WWF Women’s Tag
Team Championships.
However because both teams had stopped working for Moolah, she called Judy Martin of Glamour
Girls during WWF’s tour of Japan and told them the office wanted The Jumping Bomb Angels
to drop the belts on the tour rather than at WrestleMania.
Although there was some confusion between the four women they did the title switch,
but then got a call from the WWF who was upset that they went over their heads and screwed
up WrestleMania plans.
Lelani Kai said in her RF Shoot interview, “Pat Patterson or someone from the office
and said ‘you girls just screwed up’.
And Judy asked why and he goes ‘How could you just go over our heads and switch the
belts like that?
You just messed everything up for WrestleMania.’
We tried to tell them about Moolah and it's just like they didn't hear it or care - they
were just mad we switched the belts from them.”
The match was scrapped, and the belts were retired.
Then of course there was the very first WWE screwjob in 1985, when Moolah - dressed under
the disguise of The Spider Lady - pinned Wendi Richter for the WWF Women’s Championship
even though Richter kicked out at 1.
Richter told The Baltimore Sun in 2010 “All I knew was, with [Moolah], I’ve got to look
out for myself.
She’ll try to hurt you.
She’ll try to pin you.
And I knew she couldn’t pin me.
She couldn’t.
But what I didn’t count on was the referee getting paid off.”
However one of Moolah’s former students, Joyce Grable, has stepped forward to defend
Moolah and deny many of the allegations made about her.
Nigel Sherrod - who is on a one-man crusade to clear Moolah’s name - had Grable on his
YouTube channel where she said, “As far as I was concerned, she never sent me nobody.
And I had a good body back then, I was kinda pretty, long blonde hair, especially when
I was in Puerto Rico, Mexico... if she was gonna pimp somebody out, I'd have been number
one on the list.”
With all of this bad press reported by Moolah over the last decade or so, with many more
accounts and allegations than we haven’t listed in this video, why would WWE name a
match after her?
The answer should be obvious.
Meltzer wrote in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, “[Moolah] was always close with Vince McMahon’s
father, and she sold her world title belt to the current Vince McMahon when he expanded
in 1984 and became part of the family.”
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