Penny Banner
| Penny Banner | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Birth name | Mary Ann Kostecki |
| Born |
August 11, 1934 St. Louis, Missouri |
| Died | May 12, 2008 (aged 73) |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Penny Banner |
| Billed height | 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) |
| Billed weight | 165 lb (75 kg) |
| Trained by | Marines in Judo Class |
| Debut | 1954 |
| Retired | 1977 |
Mary Ann Kostecki (August 11, 1934 – May 12, 2008), better known by her ring name Penny Banner, was an American professional wrestler.
Best known for her time spent in the American Wrestling Association (AWA), she was also the Commissioner of the Professional Girl Wrestling Association (PGWA) from 1992 until her death.
Growing up, Mary Ann Kostecki's family did not have television. She idolized Hank Williams Sr., a musician, when she was young.
Later, Kostecki began working at a cocktail waitress in St. Louis, while also acting as a nanny to three children. During this time, Sam Muchnick, president of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), came into the lounge where she worked, and her boss told him that Banner was capable of doing two-hundreds sit-ups. Muchnick bet her she could not complete the task, and after she did, she began getting calls to be a female professional wrestler.
Kostecki began her career in professional wrestling as a way to learn how to defend herself outside of the ring. She came up with the name Penny Banner because she admired Charlton Heston, who used the surname Banner in a movie, and the first name Penny was also significant to her.
Banner was known for her "dirty" wrestling style, saying "boos are better than no audience reaction at all".
She held many titles in her career, including the NWA Women's World Tag Team Championship three times between 1956 and 1960 and the AWA World Women's Championship in 1961. In 1959, a match with NWA World Women's Champion June Byers, which ended in a draw, although Byers had consistently beat her in matches for three years prior. She was then booked into a match with Byers in Indiana for the newly formed American Wrestling Alliance (AWA) in August 1961, but Byers no-showed. Instead of their scheduled match, the AWA booked a battle royal, which Banner won to become the first AWA World Women's Champion. She vacated the title when she moved to North Carolina with her husband and child.
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