Laprade Pat - Sisterhood of the squared circle: the history and rise of womens wrestling

It all started in the carnivals. You had the bearded women. You had the clowns. You had the feats of strength. And then there were the wrestlers who would take on (and defeat) anyone from the crowd. Sometimes, that wrestler happened to be a woman. And most of the time, she could beat a man in a heartbeat.

By the 1930s, womens wrestling had graduated from the carnival sideshows to popular (albeit often controversial) attractions presented alongside mens matches. For some adventurous women, professional wrestling was a way to travel, to earn money, and to live a life of excitement. These women wanted something different from settling down, starting a family, and doting on a husband who brought home the bacon.

There were perks to a wrestling life. Some women were able to see the world, from Los Angeles to New York, Paris to Tokyo, and all points in between. But it was also a life filled with unscrupulous promoters, some of whom felt entitled to sexual favors in exchange for presenting womens matches on their cards, always trying to pay as little as possible. It was a world of backstage politics and squabbles, of constantly moving from town to town, and of perpetual aches, pains, and injuries.

It wasnt just a job. It was a vocation, a lifestyle that was completely different from the norm. It was a profession that presented women as major-league athletes and entertainers at a time when a womans place was supposed to be in the home.

In the 40s and the 50s, Billy Wolfe, Mildred Burke, and the Fabulous Moolah helped womens wrestling expand into an international attraction. The advent of television turned wrestlers both male and female into TV stars, bringing them out of the arenas and into viewers living rooms. If this was the golden era of womens wrestling, the next two decades werent. But when Vince McMahon Jr. broke all of wrestlings unwritten rules and took his World Wrestling Federation national in the mid-1980s, he put womens wrestling once again in the forefront, turning a shy young girl named Wendi Richter into a household name.

That didnt last long though, and with an edgier product on its way, the presentation of womens wrestling in the 1990s changed a great deal. Women were presented purely as sex objects, competing in bra and panties matches or other novelty matches designed to show as much skin as possible, an act womens wrestling still has trouble getting rid of today. At the same time, in Japan and on the indies, womens matches outshone the men at times, and women displayed unmatched athleticism, intensity, and showmanship. The new millennium brought a mix of all this, with women being portrayed as divas or being part of a revolution.

This is a look at the history of womens professional wrestling, from the carnivals to that so-called womens revolution. Its a look into the lives of some remarkable women whose dedication, talent, and hard work have made a lasting impact on the world of wrestling women who struggled hard to be more than just an attraction or a novelty act.

Vince McMahon once approached Trish Stratus backstage and complimented her on her match. Stratus pantomimed dialing a phone and said, Hello, 911? Id like to report a robbery. It looks like the women have stolen the show. Thats what this book is all about. Womens wrestling, finally rising back to its rightful spot: in the main event.