Judy Martin

A member of quite possibly THE most famous tag team in the history of women’s wrestling, The Glamour Girls, Judy Martin was without a doubt one of the top personalities of the golden age of ladies pro wrestling. Massively built (she was 5’7” tall and weighed 176 lbs) and menacing-looking in the ring, she did indeed make a formidable team with Lei Lani Kai, grabbing titles left and right and dominating the big leagues of ladies wrestling (which was the WWF among others back then) for quite a number of years.

Her real name Judy Hardee, Judy Martin made her wrestling debut in 1979 and went on to have a 34-year long career in the squared circle. Although history mostly remembers her for her wins, her accomplishments and her dominant wrestling style, she racked up an astonishing number of losses during her career. As a matter of fact, she lost around 67% of all her matches, according to statistics which would pretty much make her a jobber.

Indeed, Judy Martin has jobbed for many of the greats in the US as well as in Japan. Being as big as she was and seemingly dominant, turned her into an excellent supporting-cast member when pushing other contenders to the top. A victory over Judy Martin was always a great accomplishment for everyone she went up against, despite the fact that many of the ladies had indeed taken her down, some of them a ridiculous number of times.

Martin first began considering becoming a pro wrestler after talking to a couple of male wrestlers following their bout in South Carolina. She began her training at the Fabulous Moolah’s school in 1979 and she kicked off her actual in-ring career in Japan. Needless to say, it was quite a rough ride for her in the beginning as the Japanese ladies quite clearly outwrestled their American counterparts at that time. Martin fell victim to many a diminutive opponent in Japan, before returning to the US and joining the WWF in 1981. In the WWF, she teamed up with various women and she challenged Wendi Richter for the title in singles competition. Her initial WWF stint was fraught with defeat every step of the way too. She later hooked up with Lei Lani Kai wrestling in the Indies and in Japan. The two of them returned to the WWF in 1987 as The Glamour Girls, and they made ladies’ wrestling history. They first showed up in the 1987 Survivor Series and they were eventually awarded the women’s tag team title. They feuded with the formidable Japanese tag team of Noriyo Tateno and Yamazaki Itsuki known as the Jumping Bomb Angels, trading the title back and forth a few times. Judy wrestled singles matches too, however those didn’t go down well for her: she had 3 singles matches against Olympia Hartauer in 1987 in various WWF house shows and she lost each and every one of them. Through 1988, she had a few singles matches too, losing one to Yamazaki Itsuki and two to Velvet McIntyre.
In 1989, she began challenging Rockin’ Robin in what turned out to be a ridiculously long list of in-ring disasters for her. In December 1988 she lost a match to Wendi Richter in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and then the Rockin’ Robin fiasco began later that month. Up until August 1989, she lost an astonishing 29 bouts to Robin in a row, without being able to sneak in a single win. Being owned by Rockin’ Robin this way didn’t help her confidence much. After Robin finally got off her case, she lost another bout to Wendi Richter and then another one to Candi Divine. In 1991, she lost a WCW bout to Bambi and then another one to Madusa.
Judy Martin suffered quite a bit at the hands of Wendi Richter too: the Queen of the Ring defeated her 26 times in a row through 1984 and 1985, in various WWF house shows, events and televised matches. She had singles losing streaks against Candice Pardue, Desiree Petersen and Velvet McIntyre too.

The bottom line: there’s little doubt in our minds that Judy Martin was quite probably one of the biggest ladies wrestling jobbers as far as singles action is concerned. The vast majority of her victories came in tag team matches when assisted by Lei Lani Kai. Fortunately for her through, that was the very part of her career which cemented her legacy.

Wrestling in the LPWA saw Martin sink into the same role: being a singles jobber while dominating the tag team scene with Lei Lani Kai. She wrestled for the AWA and the PGWA as well. Despite her losing ways in singles bouts, she’s racked up a few singles titles through her career as well: the AJWPW All Pacific title for instance for which she defeated Yukari Omori in October 1982, and the PGWA title for which she beat Susan Green in 1999 in a mixed tag team bout (she later lost that title to Green in a singles match). Judy Martin’s favorite wrestling move was the Judy Drop which was a modified Power Slam, from a Fireman’s Carry. Some credit Martin as the first wrestler to use the Powerbomb on the American continent, a claim others dispute.

Judy Martin in action in a WWF bout against one of the Jumping Bomb Angels


Judy Martin about to be victory rolled by Heidi Lee Morgan in a LPWA match