Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling
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| Acronym | G.L.O.W. |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1986 |
| Style | Women's professional wrestling |
| Headquarters | Las Vegas, Nevada (1986-1992) |
| Founder(s) | Matt Cimber |
| Owner(s) | M. Ricklis (1986–2001) Ursula Hayden (2001–present) |
| Website | gorgeousladiesofwrestling |
Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, also known as GLOW or G.L.O.W., is a women's professional wrestling promotion begun in 1986 (the pilot was filmed in December 1985) and continued in various forms after it left television. Colorful characters, strong women, and over-the-top comedy sketches were integral to the series' success. Most of the performers were actresses, models, dancers, and/or stunt women hoping to get into show business through wrestling.
GLOW was created by Matt Cimber as an evolution of a somewhat different original concept by David B. McLane. That began as an aftermath of Jackie Stallone's physical fitness gym for women only, Barbarella's. Mando Guerrero trained all of the women initially. After they moved the show to Las Vegas Ninotchka took control over training the new women.
The syndicated GLOW TV show was produced for four seasons (1986–1990) from the Riviera Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. Seasons 3 and 4 were in fact, filmed at a former warehouse building approximately three miles east of the Riviera hotel which is currently a Harley-Davidson outlet. During the casting for the pilot, not all of the women were taking it seriously, so Mando Guerrero put one woman in a submission hold and made her cry. They cast twelve women for the show and trained them for six weeks prior to the shoot. They wrestled approximately eight matches per show, which eventually was sold. Some of the women moved to Las Vegas to continue working with the promotion. The show itself differed from Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in that they had actual seasons where some wrestlers were dropped, changed, or added before the new season began. Each season consisted of 26 episodes that were each rerun once to complete the year, with a total of 104 episodes produced.
Commentators for GLOW included Miles Headlock (a computer generated knock-off of Max Headroom), and "Motormouth" Mike Morgan. Steve Blance was the senior referee in season two before becoming GLOW's "commissioner" in seasons three and four. He was always the recipient of a GLOW Girl beatdown in season two. Johnny Cafarella (as "Johnny C.") hosted seasons 3 and 4, was the figurehead owner (buying David McLane's "interest" in a storyline) and also served as company manager after the departure of McLane in 1987. Jackie Stallone (Sylvester Stallone's mother) was the figurehead owner and manager of the Good Girls, and Aunt Kitty (Kitty Burke) was the manager for the Bad Girls. James Maybury of Lowell, MA was president and founder of the "GLOW Fan Club" from 1987 to 1990. Maybury has the world's largest collection of GLOW memorabilia and is currently working on opening a GLOW museum in Dracut, MA.
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