Fabulous Moolah

In all honesty, Fabulous Moolah (real name Lillian Ellison) should have been the very first wrestler inducted into our women-wrestling.org Hall of Fame. If there’s one lady truly deserving of the title "The First Lady of Professional Wrestling" she is it.
Born in 1923, Moolah’s career began in 1949, and what an illustrious career it turned out to be. Until her semi-retirement in 1995 (which is when she became the first ever female wrestler to be inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame), she has taken on everyone and anyone and she was always in the focal point of the ladies wrestling universe. Her over-50-year-long career has turned her into a true legend and according to many, the name Fabulous Moolah has pretty much become synonymous with ladies wrestling over time.

Hailing from Tookiedoo, SC, Lillian Ellison’s first encounter with professional wrestling happened at the age of 10 when her father began taking her to wrestling matches. She developed an avid interest in the sport after she saw the great Mildred Burke in action. At the age of 14 she got married and had a daughter. After her divorce – still only 15 – she left her daughter with a friend and embarked on what would turn out to be the most monumental professional wrestling career of all time.

Trained by Mildred Burke herself and her husband Billy Wolfe, Moolah had her first wrestling match on May 26, 1949, in the Boston Arena. June Byers was her opponent in that match. The early part of her wrestling career – early 50s – saw her act as professional wrestling’s first valet, for Buddy Rogers and Tony Olivas. Her career took a radical turn in 1955, when she joined the older Vince McMahon’s Capitol Wrestling Corporation.
In 1956, she won a 13-woman battle royal to claim the Women’s World Champion title, an accomplishment which would later earn her recognition as the NWA World Women’s Champion. She would hang on to that title on and off for the next 30 years, setting the record for the longest ever title reign in the history of sports.
Her above said battle royal victory earned her a new ring-name too: Vince McMahon began calling her the Fabulous Moolah, and thus a legend was born.
June Byers – by then retired – returned to the ring to attempt to relieve Moolah of her belt, but she was unsuccessful.

Byers retired for good in 1964, after which Moolah became the NWA Champion and with it, the undisputed Women’s World Champ.
Mooloah first lost her belt to Bette Boucher in 1966, but she got it back a few weeks later. She dropped her belt to Yukiko Tomoe in 1968 on her Japanese tour, but yet again, she claimed it back shortly thereafter. In 1972, she blazed yet another trail for ladies professional wrestling, becoming the first woman to be allowed to wrestle in the Madison Square Garden. As a result of that, the ban on ladies wrestling was lifted in the entire State of New York.
For the next 8 years, the title belt stayed safely wrapped around her waist, until she lost it to Susan Green in 1976. Yet again, she regained the title shortly thereafter.
In 1978, she briefly dropped the belt to Evelyn Stevens, after which she successfully kept it for the next 6 years. During the 70s, she also got her hands on the NWA Women’s World Tag Team Championship, having teamed up with Toni Rose.

When Vince McMahon Jr. began expanding his WWF in the early 80s, Moolah became WWF ladies’ champion and the most notorious part of her career began. In 1984, a feud between Cyndi Lauper (yes, THAT Cyndi Lauper) and Lou Albano ushered in the age of the Rock’n’Wrestling Connection. Moolah lost her title to challenger Wendi Richter in the Brawl to End it All, on July 23, 1984. Following the loss, Moolah cleaned up her act for a while, pushing protégé Lei Lani Kai to defeat Richter for the title in February 1985. Richter got the title back, but then The Original Screwjob happened: Moolah, attired as the Spider Lady and wearing a mask, defeated her in a match prior to which no one had told Richter she would end up losing the belt.
Moolah then held the title for two years, only briefly giving it up once to Velvet McIntyre. She lost the title for good to Sherri Martel on July 24, 1987. She remained active in the WWF afterwards, leading her team (herself, Velvet McIntyre, the Jumping Bomb Angels and Rockin Robin) to victory over the team of Sherri Martel, Judy Martin, Lei Lani Kai, Dawn Marie and Donna Christantello, at the very first Survivor Series.

Through the early 90s, she continued wrestling and making appearances for the WWF. In the late 90s, she mounted a return with Mae Young, but by then, her role was mostly limited to a comedic one. On October 17, 1999, Moolah – then 76 – defeated Ivory to once again wrap the WWE Women’s Belt around her waist. She lost it shortly thereafter through. On September 15, 2003, Moolah defeated Victoria on Raw, on her 80th birthday, becoming the first ever octogenarian to wrestle an official match for the WWE. Her last WWE appearance was in August 2007, at SummerSlam. She died on November 2, 2007, at the age of 84.

Although Moolah’s accomplishments and contributions to the sport of women’s professional wrestling are undeniable and unparalleled, there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding her career. Through her Girl Wrestling Enterprises, Ellison trained numerous ladies who would go on to become highly successful wrestlers. She in fact was responsible for a large chunk of the talent to grace the nation’s rings during what some refer to as the Golden Age of Women’s Professional Wrestling. She was apparently extremely demanding of the ladies whom she trained, earning a rather shady reputation in the process. Some of her trainees accused her of not actually performing the training herself, while others said she had sexually abused her pupils, pimping and having sex with her female wrestlers herself. One of those pointing an accusing finger at her in this respect was none other than Luna Vachon. On top of all these nasty accusations, Ellison was also thought to have used her financial influence in wrestling circles to deprive some of the ladies of opportunities, thus effectively destroying their careers.

The bottom line: good and bad tossed into the middle, it is safe to affirm that the Fabulous Moolah was indeed THE most influential character in the history of ladies professional wrestling from just about every angle. Wielding such great influence, she unfortunately sometimes used her status and standing in bad faith, for twisted purposes.
Her WWE Hall of Fame page is: http://www.wwe.com/superstars/fabulousmoolah

The Fabulous Moolah dominating one of her opponents


Moolah wrestling Wendi Richter as The Spider Lady