The Greatest Ever, Just Ask Her

In the Name Threes round this week, I mentioned Leilani Kai, Joanie Laurer and Wendi Richter as being three WWF/WWE Wrestling Champions, and of all the women who've held the title, I recognize maybe two more names (Trish Stratus was a model in Toronto, and Sable, well, I can categorically say I am not the father of her Dannielynn, her Bahamian love child, and I want the mainstream media to finally acknowledge this in print. Right, Prince Anhalt? Good).

But of course, the greatest women's wrestler ever, The Fabulous Moolah, held the "Women's World Wrestling Championship" belt for 28 years, which even for a showbiz thing in a discipline where there weren't all that many contenders until recently is still an impressive athletic achievement. I think of it the same way I think of an actor doing a role for that long, like Yul Brynner doing The King of Siam in film & on Broadway for thirty years, or Mary Martin doing Peter Pan until Cathy Rigby was old enough (I know lots of other gymnast types played Peter Pan over the last half-century, but this is a trivia blog, not a place for facts).

If you get a chance to see the documentary Lipstick & Dynamite, about the pre-glory days of women's wrestling, do it. It's funny and excellent to hear these women laugh about their horror stories of life on the road. It's making the rounds of the cable channels now.

Have a good President's Day weekend, y'all. In the words of Abraham Lincoln, "Don't dis my homies!"