The Phantom of the Ring — Lipstick, Dynamite and Glowworms, Part 19
October 27th, 2008Part 19 of an in depth look at the growth of women’s wrestling, from noted ring historian The Phantom of the Ring.
The Phantom of the Ring
Lipstick, Dynamite and Glowworms Part 19
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Divas Supporting Cast, Part 1
Aside from the stars, there were supporting performers in the WWE, whose job was to make those stars shine even brighter in the WWE firmament. Following are profiles of some of these important, yet underestimated, players
Tori (born Terri Poch on August 20, 1967) began her career in 1988 as a valet for Scotty the Body (Raven) in Portland based Pacific Northwest Wrestling. In 1990 she joined the Ladies Professional Wrestling Association as Terri Power, and on February 23, 1992, defeated Lady X for the LPWA Championship at the Super Ladies Showdown in Rochester, Minnesota. She retired undefeated, as the LPWA folded shortly thereafter.
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In summer, 1992, Poch began wrestling for All Japan Women, competing in the Japan Grand Prix (finishing ninth) and in the Fuji Network Tag Team Tournament with Kyoko Inoue as her partner. She left AJW in 1993, taking a holiday from wrestling.
In the autumn of 1998, she was hired by the WWF and made her debut on the December 28th RAW Is WAR by entering the ring before a match to hand a yellow rose to Sable. She continued playing the obsessed fan, constantly watching Sable from ringside, over the next few weeks. At the Royal Rumble (January, 1999) she helped Sable defeat Luna Vachon in a Strap match, later introducing herself as Tori and trying to gain the respect of Sable, but in vain. Tori later challenged Sable to a match for the Women’s Championship at WrestleMania XV, but lost due to interference from Sable’s new bodyguard, Nicole Bass.
Tori feuded with Jacqueline and Ivory in 1999. After losing to Champion Ivory at SummerSlam, they faced down in the first women’s hardcore match in the WWF, on the September 6th Raw.
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Tori returned in November at Survivor Series, where she joined Mae Young, The Fabulous Moolah, and Debra to defeat Ivory, Luna, Terri Runnels, and Jacqueline. In another angle, she also became the girlfriend of Kane, which led to a short feud between Kane and Viscera after Viscera made unwelcome advances toward Tori. The angle with Kane peaked on December 20 when he lost to the champion Big Show. Stipulations in the match stated that if Kane lost, Tori would have to spend the holiday weekend with Kane’s former tag partner, X-Pac.
Kane continued to feud with X-Pac, and on January 27, Tori turned heel, leaving Kane to join with X-Pac and his partner Road Dogg. In a feud with the Dudley Boyz, Tori hit Bubba Ray with a flying splash, driving him through a table. Two weeks later, at King of the Ring (June 25, 2000) Bubba Ray returned the favor by powerbombing Tori through a table.
A torn labrum necessitated surgery, which kept her out until January 1, 2001. She did make an appearance on the October 30th Raw, confronting and slapping X-Pac for failing to protect her.
Tori returned in January, 2001 as The Black Ninja, a masked figure dressed in a black body suit. She helped Raven retain the Hardcore Championship by attacking his opponents and acting as a getaway driver. This led to a match between Raven and the Ninja versus Crash Holly and Molly Holly. She was unmasked on the March 11th Sunday Night HEAT and revealed as Tori. That was her last appearance on television.
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She worked as a trainer on WWF Tough Enough in the summer of 2001, before being released in September. She then retired from wrestling to concentrate on a career as a yoga instructor.
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Nicole Bass-Fuchs (born October 26, 1964) first gained fame as a bodybuilder, taking first place in the 1997 NPC Nationals, and competing in the Ms. Olympia that same year.
Bass debuted in Extreme Championship Wrestling in 1998 working alongside Justin Credible, Chastity, and Jason, and feuding with Tommy Dreamer, Mikey Whipwreck, and Beulah McGillicutty.
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She was hired by the WWF, making her debut as Sable’s bodyguard at WrestleMania XV on March 28, 1999. A later feud with Debra McMichael resulted in a mixed tag match between Bass and Val Venis and Jeff Jarrett and Debra at the May 23, 1999, Over the Edge PPV. Bass continued to second Venis until she accidentally hit him with Jarrett’s guitar after losing a bikini contest to Debra. The next week, her interference in a match between Debra and Ivory caused Debra to lose the WWF Women’s belt. Shortly afterward, Bass left the promotion. She filed a lawsuit against the WWF for sexual harassment, claiming she was sexually assaulted backstage by Steve Lombardi. In 2003 the case went to court and was later dismissed.
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Miss Kitty, aka The Kat, was born Stacy Carter on September 29, 1971, and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. She met future husband Jerry Lawler at a charity softball game in Memphis, two months before her nineteenth birthday. After Lawler separated from his wife, Carter moved in with him, and the two married on September 29, 2000.
She made her WWF debut on Raw in August, 1999, as Miss Kitty, an assistant to Debra, appointed by Debra’s charge, Jeff Jarrett. When Jarrett left the WWF after losing the Intercontinental Championship to Chyna, the angle was that Chyna also won the services of Miss Kitty. Carter then became “Chynette,” coloring her hair black and dressing like Chyna.
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As Miss Kitty she won the WWF Women’s Championship at the Armageddon PPV (December 12, 1999) in a “Four Corners Evening Gown Pool Match.” To win the match she stripped then-champion Ivory, Jacqueline, and Barbara “BB” Bush of their gowns. After the match, Miss Kitty celebrated by stripping out of her gown and briefly flashed her breasts to the crowd (the first example of intentional nudity in the WWF). By 2000, she was referred to as simply “The Kat”. She dropped the title on the January 31st Raw to Harvey “Hervina” Whippleman (Bruno Lauer) in a “Lumberjill Snowbunny Match,” which took place in a snow-filled pool surrounded by female wrestlers. The Kat then appeared at the January 23, 2000, Royal Rumble in the “Miss Royal Rumble Swimsuit Contest” in a bikini made out of bubble wrap. Mae Young, however, won the contest.
The Kat then began a feud with Terri Runnels. At WrestleMania 2000, Runnels, seconded by The Fabulous Moolah, defeated The Kat, seconded by Mae Young, in a catfight. After the match The Kat attacked Runnels and stripped off her pants to expose her thong. At a subsequent arm wrestling match at the Insurrextion PPV (May 6, 2000) she defeated Terri, but after the match, Runnels tore The Kat’s top off, exposing her breasts. The feud climaxed with a ‘Thong Stink Face’ match at SummerSlam, which The Kat won.
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In January, 2001, she began a new angle with Right to Censor, demanding equal time for the “right for nudity.” At the No Way Out PPV on February 25, Jerry Lawler, representing The Kat, lost a match to Right to Censor leader Steven Richards after the Kat accidentally hit Lawler with the Women’s Championship belt. As a result she was forced to join the stable. The angle continued to build on the following episode of Raw, as The Kat was forced to wear a burlap sack to the ring. But on February 27, 2001, Carter was released from the WWF in the middle of the angle. Jerry Lawler joined her and also quit. Reasons for her dismissal vary from Vince McMahon simply deciding to end the angle, to rumors of Carter’s backstage negative attitude.
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After leaving the WWF, Carter and Lawler worked various independent wrestling events, including Memphis Championship Wrestling. She left Lawler, and the wrestling business, in July 2001, filing for divorce shortly after. She worked selling real estate before applying for a cosmetology license in the town of Cape Coral, Florida.
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Barbara “B.B.” Bush (Katherine Dingman) first worked with the IWF as Cousin Brandy, the valet of The Tennessee Mountain Boys. She was hired for the WWF by Terry Taylor and made her debut on the Thanksgiving episode of Smackdown!. She played an EMT who is attacked by Ivory during a “Gravy Bowl Match.”
The following Monday on Raw, she was introduced as Barbara Bush, whose friends call her “B.B.” She challenged Ivory to an Evening Gown Match to which Ivory accused her of just trying to get over with the “perverts” in the audience and then tore off B.B.’s shirt. She made her in-ring debut at the Armageddon PPV, in the “Four Corners Evening Gown Pool Match” won by Miss Kitty. She also participated in the “Miss Royal Rumble Swimsuit Competition,” won by Mae Young and served as a lumberjill in the “Snow Bunny Match” between The Kat and Harvey “Hervina” Whippleman.
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Her last appearance for the WWF was on the February 10th Raw, which saw Bubba Ray Dudley drive her through a table. She was released a few days later, supposedly for dating the already-married Bob Holly, who divorced a short time later. She subsequently married Holly.
She then turned up in WCW as “Papaya,” Kwee Wee’s valet. She appeared only twice, amid rumors that husband Bob Holly did not want her working for the competition.
In mid-2002, Dingman appeared in TNA as “Taylor Vaughn,” winning a 10-woman “Miss TNA Lingerie Battle Royal.” On the July 31st Impact! She was brought out for an interview when Bruce (Alan Funk) came out to the ring and interrupted, saying that he wanted to be Miss TNA. In the subsequent match, Bruce pinned her for the crown. She tried to regain the crown the following week in an “Evening Gown Match,” but lost when Bruce pulled off her gown.
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Marlena (Terri Lynne Boatright on October 5, 1966), best known for her WWF career and as the ex-wife of Dustin “Goldust” Runnels.
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She was originally a make-up artist at CNN and worked in the same building where WCW was taped. While she was dating Brian Pillman, booker Ole Anderson invited her to work as a performer. She made her debut in 1990 as Miss Alexandra York, an accountant who led the faction known as The York Foundation [which included Terrence Taylor, Richard Morton, Thomas Rich, and Michael Wallstreet (Rotundo)]. She carried a computer to ringside and supposedly calculated the means and time needed for her charges to win their matches.
Terri debuted in the WWF at the 1996 Royal Rumble as the androgynous cigar-smoking character, Marlena (a name she was said to have come up with while lying on a tanning bed), the manager of the equally androgynous Goldust.
Marlena’s first angle involved being attacked by Chyna. Chyna made her debut by choking her from behind during a match between Goldust and HHH. Marlena then arm-wrestled Sunny, and was on the verge of victory when Sunny threw a bag of sand in her face. Marlena was replaced as Goldust’s manager on November 3, 1997, by Luna Vachon. She then became the manager and “girlfriend” of Val Venis. Their relationship ended typical WWF-style when Venis dumped her after she told him she was pregnant but could not be expecting a baby from him due to the fact he had a vasectomy. In November, 1998, Terri joined Jacqueline as the man-hating “Pretty Mean Sisters” (P.M.S.), later adding Ryan Shamrock (Alicia Nicole Webb) to the mix. They eventually added Meat (Shawn Stasiak) a male wrestler they abused. The angle eventually lost steam and the group split in August 1999.
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Terri worked in an 8-Diva Tag Team Match at the 1999 Survivor Series, teamed with Jacqueline, Luna and Ivory losing to The Fabulous Moolah, Mae Young, Tori, and Debra. Though the extent of her participation was standing outside the ring, she did have her top ripped off by Debra after the match.
In late 1999, Terri hosted the “Terri Invitational Tournament.” Edge and Christian (aka The New Brood) faced The Hardy Boyz, with the winner receiving $100,000 and her services as a manager. The Hardy Boyz won the Tournament, and won a subsequent Ladder match with the prize money suspended above the ring in a bag at the October 17 No Mercy PPV. Terri then managed the Hardys until being power bombed through a table by Bubba Ray Dudley on the January 24th Raw. Returning on February 27, she complained that the Hardys didn’t visit her in the hospital and interfered to cost them the match. She then managed Edge and Christian, but her interference cost them many matches and the duo fired her on an episode of SmackDown!.
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Terri’s next angle was a feud with the Kat, which built into an arm-wrestling match at the Insurrextion 2000 PPV. In June, 2000, Terri joined with Dean Malenko, and on the June 6th Raw, Jerry Lawler (representing The Kat) defeated Malenko in an “Over the Top, Off with the Top” Match, but Terri was covered up by Steven Richards before she could strip. Terri later managed Perry Saturn, and then Raven, becoming involved in a rather silly angle concerning a mop Saturn believed was alive. (Raven extracted Terri’s revenge by throwing the thing into a wood chipper.)
In late-2001, Terri replaced the recovered Trish Stratus as the host of the WWE recap. When the show was canceled she became a backstage interviewer. She wrestled Trish Stratus in a lingerie match for the Women´s Championship but lost. She also had brief feuds with Molly Holly and Stacy Keibler, defeating Keibler in the first ever Lingerie Pillow Fight, which ended with Keibler tarring and feathering Terri. On May 27, 2002, she even won the Hardcore Title, pinning a dazed Steven Richards, who shortly after pinned her to take back the belt. Offered a role as a wrestler, she declined, preferring to remain as a manager. In March, 2004, she requested and was granted her release.
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Terri married her first husband Dustin Runnels in 1993. They divorced in October, 1999. They have a daughter, Dakota, born on February 14, 1994. Terri married again in April, 2002, to Life Coach David Essel, but filed for divorce soon after.
She was reported to be making a comeback to wrestling with UWF in Virginia in May but is still being reported as “coming soon” on the promotion’s website.
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Molly Holly (Born Noreen “Nora” Kristina Greenwald on September 7, 1977, in Forest Lake Minnesota) was a power lifter in high school. At age 14 she broke the old Minnesota state power lifting record for her age group of 75 pounds by lifting 100 pounds. She also excelled at gymnastics.
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As soon as she graduated Forest Lake Area High School in 1996, she left home with $200 and drove to Florida. While working at Subway to make ends meet, it was suggested that she try out to be a pro wrestler. She took the advice, and in 1997 she began training for the ring under Dean Malenko in Tampa, Florida, making her debut on August 2, 1997, under the name Starla Sexton in the World Professional Wrestling Federation (WPWF). While there, she defeated the Wench for the WPWF Women’s title. On August 21, 1998, she won the New Dimension Wrestling Women’s Title from Malia Hosaka to win, but lost it back the next night.
She also appeared in the WWF as Starla Saxton, unsuccessfully challenging Jacqueline for the WWF Women’s Championship in October 1998 on WWF Sunday Night HEAT.
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She signed with WCW in 1999 and debuted as Miss Madness, one of Randy Savage’s valets in Team Madness, along with Gorgeous George and Madusa. They interfered in his matches until he fired her, blaming her for his title loss. She then became Mona, a babyface who wrestled in a blue cocktail dress. She went on to feud with Madusa, Little Jeannie, Asya, Dee Dee Venturi and Brandi Alexander. Nora and Madusa also trained the other women, including Savage’s real-life girlfriend, Gorgeous George, at the WCW Power Plant. However, in August, 2000, WCW released Nora in a cost-cutting move.
She signed shortly after her release with the WWF and was sent to Memphis Championship Wrestling to work into shape. While there she was known as Lady Ophelia and managed William Regal while feuding with The Kat, Bobcat, and Victoria.
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Later in 2000 she reappeared in the WWF under the Lady Ophelia name, wrestling dark matches and acting as valet for William Regal. However, late in October, she was repackaged as “Molly Holly” and sent to join her “cousins” Bob and Crash Holly, who were feuding at the time with T & A and their manager, Trish Stratus. A feud developed between Molly and Trish that saw Molly defeat Trish in a Six-Person Intergender Tag Team Match at the Survivor Series 2000.
In 2001, Molly was in an angle, forming a “relationship” with Spike Dudley, in the midst of the feud between her “cousins” and Spike’s “brothers,” The Dudley Boyz. This caused Molly and Crash to fall out, and led to her facing Crash in an intergender singles match, with Molly pinning Crash.
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In September, 2001, Molly took on a new persona as “Mighty Molly”, the super hero sidekick of The Hurricane (Gregory Helms). After splitting up with The Hurricane in April, 2002, she returned to her previous ring name, Molly Holly, and shortened her blonde hair, dying it brown, in keeping with her new gimmick as a prude, similar to Right to Censor. She pretended to be appalled by the other Divas degrading themselves, referring to herself as “pure and wholesome.” In line with the gimmick, she began feuding with Women’s Champion Trish Stratus, and defeated Stratus for the belt at King of the Ring 2002 on June 23. The feud with Stratus continued for several more months, with Molly bringing in Victoria as her enforcer. She dropped the title back to Stratus at the Unforgiven 2002 PPV on September 22, 2002.
Greenwald won the Women’s Championship for the second time by defeating Gail Kim on the July 28, 2003, Raw. She successfully defended the title later that year against Lita at Survivor Series before losing it to Victoria in a “Fatal 4-Way Match” on February 23, 2004. She feuded with Victoria for the next few months, leading to a “Hair vs Title” match at WrestleMania XX in March, 2004. Greenwald lost and had her head shaved. (She maintains that the head shaving was her idea.) Later in 2004, she feuded with Stacy Keibler.
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Greenwald’s final WWE pay-per-view appearance occurred at Taboo Tuesday 2004. Because of several women leaving the promotion and the introduction of the Diva Search program, Nora’s appearances on television diminished, mostly doing jobs to other women wrestlers.
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She left WWE in April, 2005. It was reported that she was disenchanted with the direction WWE was taking with the women, and hated her character being a heel, but Greenwald, in an autobiographical DVD entitled Nora Greenwald: Shootin’ the Shi Crap released in August 2005 (A portion of the profits from the sale went to the education fund of the daughter of the late Mike “Crash Holly” Lockwood.), states that she would like to keep the real reason she left WWE private, adding that Vince McMahon is leaving the doors open for her to return if she wants to in the future.
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Nora refereeing at WUW October 11, 2008 (Bobcat in background)
Photo by Karen Belcher
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Since leaving WWE she has been refereeing for several independent promotions. On October 7, 2006, Greenwald returned as a wrestler, pinning television personality Johnny Fairplay after delivering a low blow at an independent card. She filmed a scene for a wrestling documentary, Bloodstained Memoirs, in November, 2006. She also made a brief appearance on the Raw 15th Anniversary Show (December 10, 2007) in a backstage segment with Mickie James, William Regal and Hornswoggle.
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Nora refereeing at WUW October 11, 2008
Photo by Karen Belcher
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A devoted Christian, Greenwald works for Minnesota Teen Challenge, a one-year residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation program. She has also spent time on missions to Guatemala and volunteers as a minister at a woman’s prison.
Next: Divas Supporting Cast, Part 2
– The Phantom of the Ring
You can write to the Phantom care of Karen Belcher
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