- 1 day ago
Chronicling the rise and fall of the first ever all-female wrestling show through the stories of those who lived it.
• 华丽女子摔角的故事，通过亲历者的讲述，记录了史上首个全女子摔角节目的兴衰历程。
• 真实起源：记录了1986年至1989年（部分延续至1992年）间，美国历史上第一档全女性黄金时段职业摔角节目 GLOW（Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling，华丽女子摔角） 的兴衰起伏
• 节目特色：由 David McLane 创建、Matt Cimber 执导、Mando Guerrero 训练。节目将夸张的肥皂剧剧情、喜剧短剧、说唱表演与摔角结合，巅峰时期曾吸引7百万观众
• 纪录片内容：影片结合了当年珍贵的电视节目片段，以及15年后对原班摔角手（如 Matilda the Hun、Mountain Fiji 等）的采访问答，展现这群女性幕前风光与幕后的真实人生。
• 华丽女子摔角的故事，通过亲历者的讲述，记录了史上首个全女子摔角节目的兴衰历程。
• 真实起源：记录了1986年至1989年（部分延续至1992年）间，美国历史上第一档全女性黄金时段职业摔角节目 GLOW（Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling，华丽女子摔角） 的兴衰起伏
• 节目特色：由 David McLane 创建、Matt Cimber 执导、Mando Guerrero 训练。节目将夸张的肥皂剧剧情、喜剧短剧、说唱表演与摔角结合，巅峰时期曾吸引7百万观众
• 纪录片内容：影片结合了当年珍贵的电视节目片段，以及15年后对原班摔角手（如 Matilda the Hun、Mountain Fiji 等）的采访问答，展现这群女性幕前风光与幕后的真实人生。
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TVTranscript
00:00:36Here we have it fans, the Rubiera Hotel Convention Center, it's standing room only, and they're
00:00:43here to see the giants of the wrestling world, Mountain Fiji and Matilda the Hun.
00:00:57Ooh, Mountain Fiji, you better watch out baby, Matilda the Hun will jam you with that billy
00:01:05club.
00:01:05This is a Gestapo match, anything goes.
00:01:09Matilda the Hun choking Fiji, popping her in the eye.
00:01:13Matilda the Hun has control over Mountain Fiji right now.
00:01:20Choking her in the corner with that designated white flag, surrender flag if you will.
00:01:26Oh, what a slap there by Mountain Fiji.
00:01:30Fiji going after Matilda the Hun.
00:01:33Fiji trying to put those 350 pounds in use.
00:01:37Oh, look at this.
00:01:39Matilda going over.
00:01:45The winner of the match, Mountain Fiji.
00:01:51The winner of the match, Mountain Fiji.
00:02:08Briefly, you could say GLOW was a show about women's wrestling.
00:02:13But briefly, we'll never describe it.
00:02:16Women's wrestling.
00:02:17Now, it's been around for years, but never quite like this.
00:02:22It was something new.
00:02:24It was women kind of taking over.
00:02:26These beauties are bound to destroy each other.
00:02:29Professional wrestling basically was a male-dominated sport.
00:02:33GLOW was something that really gave the female athletes a chance to get on TV and excel.
00:02:40There was no male image on GLOW.
00:02:43There was no big guys leading us to the ring.
00:02:46And it was all women.
00:02:47I always kind of thought of it as like a vaudevillian show mixed with a little bit of like Saturday
00:02:53Night Live mixed with, you know, female wrestling.
00:02:56Americana goes up to the road, takes her over.
00:03:00What a match!
00:03:01It was the 80s.
00:03:03Everyone had money.
00:03:04Everyone was young and happy and out running around having fun.
00:03:08The sexual climate was charged.
00:03:11We're standing there in our giant glittery hair and little outfits.
00:03:16It wasn't just wrestling.
00:03:18We had the little skits and we sang the songs.
00:03:21And it was very cartoon character, like good guys and bad guys.
00:03:25And I felt like it was very empowering.
00:03:27We're strong and we're capable and there's nothing wrong with being a professional athlete.
00:03:31That's true.
00:03:33It was women coming out.
00:03:36It was so unusual to see a bunch of girls, number one, rapping.
00:03:40So we were rapping in these little short costumes.
00:03:55The Chicago Bears were very popular and they had come out with their rap and so rapping at that level
00:04:01was kind of trendy.
00:04:06Everything was exaggerated.
00:04:09It poked fun at the economics.
00:04:10It poked fun at the Cold War with Russia.
00:04:13It went beyond what the World Wrestling Federation had ever done.
00:04:22Because of our wild makeup and our scampy costumes and the fact that we weren't afraid to call it entertainment.
00:04:30American whips are all the same.
00:04:33They cry like babies when I give them pain.
00:04:35I fight to win and that's for shock.
00:04:37America, I'm superior.
00:04:43Music, comedy, and real good fighting.
00:04:46And bitch fighting is good.
00:04:48People love that.
00:04:50It doesn't have to be, is wrestling real?
00:04:52Is it fake?
00:04:53Doesn't matter.
00:04:54Because they're like live comic strip characters.
00:04:58And that's what makes it fun.
00:05:02We have got a correct-a-jack show today, fans.
00:05:05The comic book hero, Lightning, squares off against the British bombshell, Godiva.
00:05:11We were all a character and we were in that character mode pretty much 24-7.
00:05:17We had to call each other by our character names.
00:05:20We were not allowed to call each other by street, or real names.
00:05:24Real names.
00:05:25Yeah.
00:05:25We had to be MTV and jailbait.
00:05:28As a matter of fact, it's hard for me even looking back to remember whose name, what the real name
00:05:34really is.
00:05:35From Beverly Hills, California, Tina Ferrari!
00:05:44I am Lisa Moretti and I played the part of Tina Ferrari on the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling
00:05:50and actually was part of the original group that shot the pilot.
00:05:54I've got so much respect for Tina Ferrari.
00:05:57She's one of the most beautiful women in globe.
00:06:00She fights fairly and she never breaks the rules.
00:06:04When we first got the call, we're going to go to this audition.
00:06:07It's about ladies wrestling.
00:06:08We're like, come on, I don't want to do that.
00:06:10Bunch of big girls throwing me around.
00:06:12I have no idea or no desire to know about wrestling.
00:06:16I don't know anything about it.
00:06:18And why would we want to go get beat up?
00:06:19You know?
00:06:20Come on.
00:06:21She says, well, I think they're paying us to show up.
00:06:23Okay, I'm there.
00:06:27Well, I was in the medical field.
00:06:28I was a phlebotomist, somebody who draws blood in a lab.
00:06:32And I wanted to be an actress.
00:06:34Well, I got with the agency and the agency happened to have this audition.
00:06:38They did an open call and they didn't advertise that there was going to be any type of wrestling whatsoever.
00:06:44Now, when I got there, there was a bunch of girls there.
00:06:47And this guy comes out and says, this is going to be about women's pro wrestling.
00:06:52And I swear to God, a third of the girls got up immediately and they left.
00:06:57Tina and Ashley.
00:06:59We really kind of didn't know what the hell we were doing.
00:07:02As far as TV, I think that some girls were there because they wanted to be in television.
00:07:06Like my tag team partner, Ashley, she was called upon to show up for an audition for a TV show.
00:07:12Of which she did several auditions during the week for different kinds of shows.
00:07:16This was just one of them.
00:07:19I got this call from my agent to go on this audition.
00:07:23Very exciting children's show and I was very jazzed about it.
00:07:27I was looking at it as a stepping stone to being this big actress.
00:07:33This was an opportunity for us, you know, to be on TV, get started with something,
00:07:38and then you just kind of hope that it evolves into, you know, something bigger.
00:07:43I mean, these were not like creme de la creme model girls.
00:07:47We didn't cast from, you know, bikini model agencies or anything.
00:07:52These were girls that got an acting casting call.
00:07:57Imagine having an idea of putting good looking girls in the ring,
00:08:01and they figure, first let's make them good looking, then let's see if they can wrestle.
00:08:07Nowadays there's all kinds of like wrestling camps and wrestling schools.
00:08:10There wasn't really any of that.
00:08:12It was a lot more closed up than that.
00:08:15They started the camp. I call it Camp Glow.
00:08:18The sleazy old smelly gym.
00:08:20It was nasty and stinky and dirty and the mats had blood stains on them and each corner had a
00:08:28spittoon.
00:08:28When I showed up there was at least a hundred girls there to actually go through the physical audition for
00:08:35Glow.
00:08:36Imagine beautiful girls that you kind of can't relate to, you know, because I never really felt like I was
00:08:40one of those.
00:08:41And then up in the ring in the dirty, stinky ring is Mondo.
00:08:45And he looked like the only guy in the room that fit.
00:08:52One of the famed Guerrero family, Mondo Guerrero, and the family was tremendous.
00:08:57Gory Guerrero, he had the sons, Chavo Guerrero, Mondo Guerrero, Hector Guerrero, Eddie Guerrero, wrestling dynasty almost.
00:09:06And he trained the girls.
00:09:08Poor Mondo, he took the gig as a gig, you know, he's having a payday, right?
00:09:13This poor guy shows up and he's thinking, what the hell am I going to do with all these things?
00:09:19How am I going to make them ready for a wrestling show on television?
00:09:23So one of the things that Mondo did is he demanded everyone's respect and attention.
00:09:28He gets us doing some drills and, of course, he can't start throwing us around.
00:09:32I mean, you've got to take it in way baby steps.
00:09:34People can get hurt just getting into a wrestling ring.
00:09:37So, I mean, not two minutes later, these blonde girls were hanging on the ropes.
00:09:44I think he was teaching us how to sell pain, you know, how to act like we're writhing in pain,
00:09:48which is kind of funny.
00:09:49And it's kind of hard to do for the first time.
00:09:52But these girls started laughing.
00:09:53To grab the respect that I needed on those girls, on me, I grabbed one.
00:09:58I forgot who it was.
00:10:00Telling me it was fake and I grabbed her and I put her to sleep.
00:10:04I just knocked her out.
00:10:06Right there in front of everybody could see it.
00:10:08When she went down, she started flip flopping like a fish.
00:10:11They believed then.
00:10:12They believed then.
00:10:13And from then on, it was nothing but serious work with it.
00:10:17And instead of feeling sorry for her, I was just like, I love this man!
00:10:22I am so sold on this!
00:10:24I want to come back for some more!
00:10:30The training, to me, was hardcore.
00:10:33The training was, oh, it was so painful.
00:10:36I could barely walk down the hall going like this, you know.
00:10:39I was like, oh, I've got to lift my arm to push the button on the elevator to get down.
00:10:43I've got to go back down and beat myself up again.
00:10:46We were working four hours in the morning with like an hour, two hour break,
00:10:51and then four hours in the afternoon.
00:10:53It was almost like they wanted to see if they could break you.
00:10:58Wanda said, okay, which one of you girls can ram your head into the turnbuckle,
00:11:02turn over and land on your back?
00:11:04And I was the first one.
00:11:05They're like, I can do it, I can do it.
00:11:07And they would drill on little things.
00:11:10Like, when we get a body slam, we always land like this.
00:11:13Well, let's practice that.
00:11:15Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
00:11:18Chin, chin to the chin, chin to the chin, chin to the chin.
00:11:20You have to, the timing, the timing of the arm hitting the back at the same time.
00:11:24You're rolling back and forth, just rolling.
00:11:27Then you start lifting one leg up, boom.
00:11:29Then the other leg, boom.
00:11:30Then the other one, boom.
00:11:31Then both of them, boom.
00:11:32Then both of them, boom.
00:11:33Then both of them, then you get up and boom.
00:11:34Then you get up to the top rope and you go, boom.
00:11:36And if you can control that, you can take anything.
00:11:42The ones that made it, the ones that stuck through, it surprised you.
00:11:47Because it wasn't the obvious choices.
00:11:49It wasn't who you thought it was going to be.
00:11:51It was just boom, boom, boom.
00:11:53I mean, it all just happened so quickly at that point.
00:11:56And before I knew it, I was packing my bags in L.A.
00:11:59and moving out to Las Vegas to the Riviera Hotel.
00:12:06In the beginning, we were staying at, actually at the Riviera Hotel.
00:12:13They took a stage.
00:12:15They turned it into a sound stage for the show and moved us into our rooms.
00:12:21And that was it.
00:12:23They wanted us, actually, to get rid of our apartments, wherever any of us were living.
00:12:28The suggestion went out, you know, that you don't need it.
00:12:32You're going to be living here.
00:12:33At first, when you show up in Vegas and you're living in the Riviera and you're on the strip
00:12:38and you're seeing all these lights, three days of it is just amazing.
00:12:42The fourth day, you're seeing circus, circus, circus, circus, circus, circus.
00:12:47You're going to shoot somebody.
00:12:48It was like real, you know, Squaresville.
00:12:52So it was hard to kind of feel like you had a life, you know.
00:12:55So the emotional and the psychological change that you were exploring, that was traumatic at times.
00:13:09After a couple of weeks, they got us apartments, literally just down the street from the Riviera.
00:13:17Once we were chosen and it was sorted that you're a good girl, you're a bad girl, you know, we,
00:13:23you know, roomed that way.
00:13:27When we go to the Riviera to the buffet, you know, or if they say we were just walking through
00:13:32the casino or whatever,
00:13:35we would just stay in character, you know, good girls over there, bad girls over there.
00:13:39Mount Fiji is going to town, fans.
00:13:43Hey, stop it, Matilda the Hunts. Stop it.
00:13:48One of the best ones at it was dementia.
00:13:52Demi, without any makeup on, could just, I mean, she could just walk through and the girl could go without
00:14:01batting her eyes for over 10 minutes.
00:14:03Hey, you, don't throw yourself down.
00:14:08You're about to see the best show in town.
00:14:12It was a very, very surreal place to be because you had freedom, but not enough to do what you
00:14:22kind of wanted to do.
00:14:25They really wanted to monopolize as much time as they could have.
00:14:29They didn't want us to have any life of our own outside of GLOW.
00:14:33We had curfews. We had a definite set of rules and regulations about stuff like partying and late nights and
00:14:41all that stuff.
00:14:41You know, good couldn't hang out with the bad, bad couldn't hang out with the good.
00:14:45We got fined, $50 fine if we got caught, and $250 fine if we weren't homing by a certain time.
00:14:52By the way, you're two weeks late with the rent.
00:14:56The ones that were, quote, the wild ones got the room with me, you know, and Mom would always make
00:15:02sure that they were in bed, you know, by 10, you know, in the room by 10, in bed by
00:15:0711, you know.
00:15:10All the girls were in fear of getting busted for a curfew, and then we'd be sneaking around doing stuff
00:15:17just to get away with it.
00:15:18We'd be out late. We'd try and sneak in. We would have all these code words for going to do
00:15:24our laundry and all kinds of stuff.
00:15:26I always got in trouble. We were very tightly reined, and I was just a little bit rebellious.
00:15:32I was thinking, you know what, I'm 24 years old. I can do what I want.
00:15:38All right, all right. Quiet down, girls. I got a new rule for you. No more cooking in the locker
00:15:46room.
00:15:47We've got complaints from the neighbors. Seems your food drove all the rats next door.
00:15:54My name is Steven Blance. Originally, I was the behind-the-scenes person, first the comedy writer and then the
00:16:00head writer.
00:16:01And then in the second season, I became the referee.
00:16:05Hey, I'm the ref. Obey the rules. Don't try and make us look like fools, because I'm the law, and
00:16:11there's no doubt.
00:16:12If you do wrong, I'll count you out.
00:16:16In order to describe what happened for women on the GLOW set, I think you have to get an idea
00:16:21of what was happening with women's wrestling at the time.
00:16:25First of all, women's matches were a rarity. They were an oddity.
00:16:31There were two things that drew people. They were midgets, always packed the house, and the ladies packed the house,
00:16:36because it was unusual.
00:16:37And so they weren't used a lot. They were used to bring in people and build a house up, you
00:16:41know, sell more tickets.
00:16:42Until GLOW, there really wasn't a glamorous exposure of women. Women were thought of as dykes, unfeminine.
00:16:50Why would you join wrestling? There's something wrong with you. You know, that was kind of the attitude.
00:16:56If you weren't signed by a big organization, what you did was basically drive all day through states to get
00:17:05to the arena to wrestle for maybe $15 or $20.
00:17:11I was a wrestler before GLOW, and they wouldn't let me wrestle a man. Not allowed in the State Athletic
00:17:17Commission. So they told me I could wrestle a bear.
00:17:20So they put me in the ring with a 750-pound, seven-foot bear. And I lasted longer than the
00:17:26men. And so they knew they had somebody formidable to deal with, and I wasn't going anywhere.
00:17:31You know, places where they would have wrestling were kind of slimy in those days, especially for women.
00:17:37Now comes this TV show one hour every week of women's wrestling.
00:17:44Direct from the Riviera Hotel in the entertainment capital of the world, Las Vegas, Nevada,
00:17:49it's the show with more battling beauties, more amazing action, and more smiles per hour, the all-new GLOW, Gorgeous
00:17:56Ladies of Wrestling.
00:17:58It was a small, low-budget show. I used to make jokes about it being so low-budget and the
00:18:04promoter being so cheap that I put David McClain in a phone booth and said his office was the phone
00:18:11booth.
00:18:12Hello, Allstate Insurance. This is David McClain from GLOW Productions. Have I got a great idea for you. For a
00:18:20small fee, I can let you use Matilda the Hun as a spokesperson for your homeowner's policy.
00:18:27You see, if they don't want to renew, she can threaten to come over to their house.
00:18:37Hello?
00:18:39GLOW was created by David McClain. It was a dream that he had to bring wrestlers on television, and female
00:18:48wrestlers, because David had watched wrestling since he was a little boy, and he was just a huge fan.
00:18:54So he finally had these auditions and had all the talent, but he really needed the money for the show
00:18:59to run. He got introduced to Matt Simber somehow.
00:19:08Our director was Matt Simber, who is a Hollywood legend. He started on stage, was married to Jane Mansfield, and
00:19:18he went to Hollywood to direct films. He actually directed Liza Minnelli's first show and Orson Welles' last film appearance.
00:19:29Let's get some order in this court.
00:19:31I'll see what's so funny.
00:19:35We're the one they call Black Six.
00:19:39Matt Simber, the infamous Matt Simber.
00:19:43Matt Simber was a trip.
00:19:46He was very hard, very strict.
00:19:48Matt Simber was very good friends with Mr. Rickless, who owned the Riviera Hotel, and was married to Pia Zadora
00:19:54at that time. He was big time.
00:19:57Matt and Mr. Rickless were friends going way back. Matt had directed movies for Mr. Rickless with his wife, Pia
00:20:03Zadora. Matt drove a Maserati, which I later found out was a gift from Mr. Rickless for doing one of
00:20:10the movies.
00:20:11They had a very close relationship. Mr. Rickless really took care of Matt.
00:20:15To get Rickless, you had to keep Simber, and to have Simber, you had to have Rickless.
00:20:19But I don't know that David necessarily wanted Simber to direct the show, because I think David kind of thought
00:20:25he was taking reins, and he wanted a little bit more creativity with it.
00:20:29I'm David McClain. I'm your host. You've seen my glow girls coast to coast. You've seen them fight and take
00:20:36a stand. They've conquered all of TV land.
00:20:39His idea was to combine the glamour and the grit. Matt's idea was to make it all campy, ridiculous, silly.
00:20:49He had to have Matt to have the money. So that's how we got Matt Simber as our director.
00:20:57Matt Simber was very clever. While the girls were training, he watched them, and he developed their characters largely out
00:21:04of who they already were.
00:21:05Glow was a character-driven show. It was really designed to emphasize each character. For me, I really lived and
00:21:16breathed little Egypt.
00:21:18We were in the ring for the first time, kind of all, you know, getting stretched and warmed up, and
00:21:23Matt Simber walked up to me, and he goes, jailbait.
00:21:27All you girls are such a disgrace. Just wait till mama owns this place. At ringside, I'll cast my spell,
00:21:34and you'll be among the bodies that fell.
00:21:37As to how a big bag mama came to be, as far as I know, this was a concoction of
00:21:43Matt Simber.
00:21:43Tonight, because of my voodoo, you will grovel at our feet, you understand?
00:21:48She was supposed to be the Louisiana voodoo queen. I would, like, throw dust on them, and then they'd be
00:21:54under my power, and I'd make them do things that they wouldn't normally do.
00:21:58Would it be? I think Fiji is caught in a spell.
00:22:02They had a costume for me, and I hated it, and I wore it right in the beginning, but I
00:22:06started changing the costume.
00:22:08Hey, I'm Hollywood. Sure, I like to have fun, but I don't mess with drugs.
00:22:13I'd go into a lingerie shop, and I'd get corsets and gloves and fishnets, and I started creating that character
00:22:20the way I saw her fit.
00:22:23They saw me as a bad guy right away, don't know why. They came up with Godiva, and I sort
00:22:28of researched it and gave her a British accent and said, hey, can I have a horse?
00:22:33From Coventry, England, the British bombshell, Godiva!
00:22:41He took their quirks or their whatever it was about them that made them unique, and he says, that's you,
00:22:47just magnify it. You're that person.
00:22:49Magnify it and put it in outer space on some of them.
00:22:53Arlene and Phyllis!
00:22:55The rope is too damn high!
00:22:58I told you about the rope!
00:22:59The ropes are not too high!
00:23:01Yes, they are too high!
00:23:03She can't get in!
00:23:04The ropes are too high!
00:23:06Well, come under them then!
00:23:08Why?
00:23:10Push the rope down!
00:23:13We were in our 20s, you know, doing 65.
00:23:17They wanted sexy housewives, and I'm like, no, if you want us to create characters, we're not doing sexy housewives.
00:23:24They're not good or bad. Everyone's a whore.
00:23:26Very nice for the little children to be half-naked. That's very good!
00:23:30You know, to them, they're all, all the girls are whores, so, you know, we're just there to clean up.
00:23:36You're a hussy! Look at him! Look at the painted tramp! Look at him! Look at him!
00:23:42It was really fun to do, and it was, it was no stress at all. It was no stress.
00:23:47And the wrestling that we did in that was just, as bad as we were, as wrestling as housewives, was
00:23:54as bad of wrestlers as we really were.
00:23:55We sucked. We really sucked. I mean, we were. I got injured while we were training, and I thought, oh,
00:24:04I am not, I am not gonna hurt myself again.
00:24:07So when we did, you know, Spike and Chainsaw, everything was, um, about special effects.
00:24:13At a combined weight of 310 pounds, from the heavy metal capital of the world, Los Angeles, Chainsaw and Spike,
00:24:22the Heavy Metal Sisters!
00:24:35Donna's favorite movie at the time was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. We were all standing around, she said, how about
00:24:40the name Chainsaw?
00:24:41And Simber goes, yeah! And then somebody goes, and she can cut stuff up, and have a real blade.
00:24:49I'm just listening to this, and he's going, yeah, yeah! And then he hands me some money and goes, go
00:24:54to Sears, and get the chainsaw and assemble it!
00:24:57And I'm thinking, my God, I'm a Jew from the Valley. We hire people to do this. I don't, I'm
00:25:02not mechanically inclined.
00:25:04Contusions, bruises, a gaping hole. A fight with chainsaw really takes its toll. Come wrestle with me, I'm so insane.
00:25:11The only sensation you'll feel is pain.
00:25:14I'm super heavy metal bound. When it comes to fight, I don't mess around. They say I'm evil. They call
00:25:21me Spike, cause I use my torch whenever I strike.
00:25:25We'd set stuff on fire and cut stuff up. Who gets to do that? And I have to give Matt
00:25:31Simber a lot of credit for that, because he did, he knew what was going to work.
00:25:35When he met with us pre-production, before we actually aired, he was, he would just use that as his
00:25:43opportunity to drill in our minds what he expected from all of us.
00:25:48And then afterwards, if he didn't get it, he used that opportunity to drill how we let him down, how
00:25:56we failed at our jobs.
00:25:58I remember Matt telling me that, you know, our job was to get the performance out of the talent, the
00:26:05girls, in any way we could.
00:26:07We'd cajole them, you know, encourage them, whatever it took to get that performance. And that made sense to me.
00:26:13And so that's what we did.
00:26:15Matt called me fat almost every day of my life, which was very frustrating. Told me I had a fat
00:26:21ass all the time.
00:26:23If I put olives on my salad, I remember one time on tour, he told me how fattening olives are.
00:26:28It didn't matter who you were, people's buttons were being pushed.
00:26:32I was just a kid. I was 19. So for me, you know, it was, it was worse than getting
00:26:37screamed at by a parent, because it just comes out of nowhere.
00:26:41And you just don't really even know how to handle it. So I was, it's borderline terrifying.
00:26:47We were having one of our nightly meetings at the glow house and we were watching videotapes or whatever.
00:26:53And I don't know. It was like Matt saw me up on the screen and he goes, tell me.
00:26:58He goes, your ass looks like a bunch of mashed potatoes.
00:27:02And I was just so hurt. And, but he was just so mean. He just did that in front of
00:27:07everybody.
00:27:08He did that. That was, that was a, um, a common, um, what, motivational tool.
00:27:13He would use what's in front of like humiliate you in front of everybody.
00:27:17One of the first things that a leader does, they start to manipulate their group so that they act and
00:27:24behave the way they want them to.
00:27:26So he had all these strategies that are real similar to what you would do if you were a abusive
00:27:32husband or, you know, a verbally abusive wife or a, you know, all that kind of sicko stuff.
00:27:39But, you know, maybe it comes with being as genius and creative as he was.
00:27:44Let me tell you, Matt Simber joins us. You're the creator and TV director of glow.
00:27:48You feel you're presenting a new image for women. Is that so?
00:27:51They have a great image for young, young girls, particularly.
00:27:54Our demographics show that most of the people who watch glow, the largest segment are college students, which see, who
00:28:00see the camp and the fun.
00:28:02Okay. And a lot of young girls who really emulate them. They, they show women as independents.
00:28:09Glow wasn't meant to be successful. Glow was almost an infomercial.
00:28:14It was done with commercials with Fabergé and Brut and the Riviera Hotel, because Mishula Mirklas owned all those companies.
00:28:21And he was putting the commercials into the television show and then giving it away.
00:28:27Don't be a fool, fool. You, Fabergé, your momma knows best.
00:28:32It's only a rumor, so no one can quote me that it's gospel.
00:28:37But originally glow was supposed to have been a tax write-off.
00:28:44It wasn't really thought that we were going to be a success.
00:28:50Bingo, we made money.
00:28:52You like this violence?
00:29:01It was just exciting.
00:29:04People at first didn't know what to make of it, but they watched. And it grew.
00:29:09If you're not watching wrestling, you're missing a major part of our culture.
00:29:18We sold our show to 200 markets, the very first television convention.
00:29:28All of a sudden, it became the water cooler show. People were talking about it.
00:29:33Many people across the country now are watching a new syndicated TV show called GLOW, which stands for Gorgeous Ladies
00:29:39of Wrestling.
00:29:40The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.
00:29:42Will you please welcome the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, the girls of GLOW.
00:29:49Every week, the ratings seemed to go up. We were beating other shows, you know, other wrestling shows in the
00:29:55same time slot.
00:29:56They'd never seen anything like this. And the male wrestlers were jealous, and they'd stopped in their tracks and sneer
00:30:01at us.
00:30:02Godiva, specifically. What's the very first game you ever learned to play?
00:30:06Candyland.
00:30:07There it is.
00:30:10All these shows knew who we were. I didn't know that Mary with Children executive producers knew who we were.
00:30:16So, what time's your match?
00:30:17I don't know. I just hope I don't get another car salesman.
00:30:20They fight.
00:30:22Count your blessings. Lawyers leave greasy spots.
00:30:27Okay, check this out. Playboy, December 89.
00:30:30I'm just gonna show you something really fast, because I think this is the one that was signed by Hugh
00:30:37Hefner himself.
00:30:39Look at that. He signed my picture. I'll give you this. There you go.
00:30:48Look at that lipstick. It looks awful. Look at my hair. It looks like, it looks like wheat. Dried up
00:30:55wheat.
00:30:55When we got Jackie Stallone to be our manager, the good girl's manager. She was really the star. We were
00:31:01really excited to have her.
00:31:02This is Sylvester Stallone's mother, Jackie Stallone, right here.
00:31:08The movement was growing. We were getting really popular in some major markets and didn't know it until we went
00:31:15to a press conference in L.A.
00:31:17And we're walking down the street and people are going nuts. Oh, my God, it's Ninochka. Oh, my God, it's
00:31:22Fiji. Oh, my God. It's like, and we're like, oh, my God. You know, it's like we're on a different
00:31:27planet.
00:31:27Hi, everybody. I'm Babe, the farmer's daughter.
00:31:30When I did the Donahue show and married with children and got two paid spread in the TV Guide, I
00:31:35was like, whoa.
00:31:36I don't think I even wanted to look at it. I just was enjoying what I was doing and having
00:31:39fun.
00:31:40I just was so happy to be doing the show.
00:31:42Now, I assume most of you could get a job, you know, on one of the big shows in Vegas,
00:31:45walking out with no top. And isn't that a lot easier?
00:31:49Um, not for me. I couldn't walk out for me.
00:31:54We were constantly in character.
00:31:57I became Ninochka, um, because I was Ninochka 24-7.
00:32:05Ninochka had so much confidence, and she wasn't afraid of anything. And it was very free to be her. I
00:32:12could say anything I wanted to.
00:32:14Tina Ferrari's the capitalist dream. She won't look so cute face down in the ring. She thinks she's so sexy
00:32:19and so very strong. I will destroy her. It won't take long.
00:32:23I was actually engaged during GLOW, but the guy fell in love with Ninochka, and he thought I was that
00:32:31strong and that confident and that, and when he found out I wasn't really like that, he was, he dumped
00:32:36me really quick.
00:32:38Isn't that sad?
00:32:40Little Egypt should never wear her veils into the ring.
00:32:45When she wrestles, she should wear a shroud.
00:32:51Sometimes we'd have to just go and do like promotional parties and stuff. And I have no idea how I
00:32:55ended up alone at a party without knowing anybody. And I'm in character. And people are laughing at me. And
00:33:01finally, I'm just like, I'm going. I hate this.
00:33:04So this, these four people in particular were laughing. It just so happened that I was leaving and they were
00:33:10leaving. And so now we're in some parking garage and I'm walking behind them and they're kind of giggling at
00:33:15me. And then I don't know why, but I increased my, my stride. And then they were like, Oh, she's,
00:33:21she's coming faster.
00:33:22And I could hear him say that she's coming faster. So they start to go faster. And I was like,
00:33:27Oh yeah, they're running to their car and they're opening and they can't get in fast enough. And there's somebody
00:33:33at the back. She's coming. And I ended up being able to actually say to one of them, I said,
00:33:40you know, you may want to think twice before you laugh at somebody. I said, cause they might just follow
00:33:45you home and kill you. And she's like, Oh my God.
00:33:59When we filmed the show in Las Vegas, fans would come from all over the United States just to see
00:34:05the show.
00:34:07The showroom at the Riviera hotel only fit 200 people and it got to be too much. Cause there'd be
00:34:122000 people waiting outside the door to get in. So they said, we got to move to a bigger facility.
00:34:17And even then people would be outside hoping that somebody gets tired and go.
00:34:22So they can come in.
00:34:27In the moment, I didn't really realize it was a huge deal. When we went on the road, we got
00:34:32some indicators, especially into the South and places like that where wrestling was huge.
00:34:38People were out in, in massive numbers everywhere we went.
00:34:42People are, they want an autograph so bad. I had the hardest time leaving. I was probably the last one
00:34:47on the bus every time.
00:34:50Oh, I used to love to make a boo.
00:34:52If I get them the boo and I make children cry. Oh, that was good.
00:34:57Matilda, the hun love to eat raw meat.
00:35:00And she would just take a raw steak and just like eat it in the ring and be like,
00:35:04I'm going to eat you next to your little kid. Uh, and, and the kids would scream.
00:35:08You know, they were, they were really afraid of her.
00:35:11I can sort of tell from the fan mail that I got, which was probably three to 400 letters a
00:35:16week.
00:35:17And they were from little kids saying, gee, I want to be just like Susie Spirit when I grow up.
00:35:22What do you eat for breakfast?
00:35:24People would send jewelry, money.
00:35:27Some little boy stole his mom's wedding ring and sent it to Sally, the farmer's daughter,
00:35:32because he just loved her. And it came in a regular envelope.
00:35:36Like he just stole it from his mom and stuck it in there and sent it to her.
00:35:40It was never the intention to, to be a kid's show. It's just, that's just how it unfolded and developed.
00:35:47I love that the show was geared towards kids, but also was really super palatable to those guys in fraternity
00:35:55houses
00:35:55that would wake up with their hangovers and watch us on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
00:36:00She's got to buy the fur. She grabs a garbage can and dumps Grimlina right where she belongs.
00:36:08We got away with a lot. There was a lot of politics going on in those sketches.
00:36:18It was politically incorrect and everybody loved it.
00:36:22Matt Simber pushed the envelope every possible way he could.
00:36:26He tried to offend every group that he possibly could.
00:36:29I'm going to take all of the jewels, take them out and sell them so I can buy military arms
00:36:36for my country.
00:36:38Sometimes I didn't really think about the horrible things I was saying about America.
00:36:48We were in Alabama or somewhere in the South and apparently they were actually afraid for my safety
00:36:55because there was a whole big group there in the audience that actually really wanted to come and kill me.
00:37:01I probably stepped on the American flag or did something really horrible like that.
00:37:04I don't have that American flag anymore.
00:37:06Matilda the Hun in Hollywood and Vine versus Fiji, little Fijian Americana.
00:37:11Here's the American girls coming in and here comes Matilda the Hun in Hollywood and Vine marching in.
00:37:18Deutschland, Deutschland.
00:37:20It was amazing.
00:37:23That's what got the audience fired up.
00:37:26They were performing along with us because they could so identify with whatever character they had wanted to be.
00:37:34Good versus evil.
00:37:35That's one of the underlying messages.
00:37:38The good guys usually won.
00:37:41USA!
00:37:42USA!
00:37:43USA!
00:37:45Get off of your skin!
00:37:47And Mount, excuse me, Fiji.
00:37:52Yes, I am Mount in Fiji.
00:37:54I am originally from Pongo Pongo, American Samoa.
00:37:57Fortunately, I made the 1980 Olympic team.
00:37:59Unfortunately, we had a boycott with Afghanistan, so I couldn't make it.
00:38:02But thank God for GLOW because it's been a very special entity for me.
00:38:07And God bless everybody who's been tuning in.
00:38:09And see you at the Riviera Hotel and Casino.
00:38:11Yeah!
00:38:13Mount Fiji was an Olympic shot putter.
00:38:16She was a Samoan who was 5'10", 350 pounds, and the nicest, gentlest, sweetest woman.
00:38:27The giant out of the ring, Mount Mount Fiji!
00:38:31Mount Fiji!
00:38:34Fiji was absolutely 100% dedicated to GLOW.
00:38:38She loved it.
00:38:39She believed in it.
00:38:41She made us believe in it.
00:38:42GLOW's a hit from coast to coast.
00:38:45No need to brag, no need to boast.
00:38:47Let's have a luau with the roast.
00:38:49From Fiji to the fans, I'll make the toast.
00:38:52She was very, very strong.
00:38:54She could pick you up and throw you without moving her feet.
00:38:57Matt said she could never leave her feet.
00:38:59And nobody could get her off her feet.
00:39:01Even when like six people tried to do it.
00:39:03No way, baby!
00:39:04I love Mount Fiji.
00:39:06I used to call her Shirley Temple because she was so good and so forthright.
00:39:13When she picked me up over her head and threw me out of the ring, it was just spectacular.
00:39:20Unbeknown to the public, a lot of times we roomed together.
00:39:26But, you know, when that red light came on, it was good versus evil out there.
00:39:31You know, I'm doing my part and she was doing hers.
00:39:35She was very gentle wrestling even.
00:39:37You know, she was very delicate when, you know, she slammed into you.
00:39:42It was in a gentle way.
00:39:44She was a gentle giant.
00:39:46Which five of you ladies think you can lift me over your head?
00:39:49Raise your hand.
00:39:51No, come on, Fiji.
00:39:52No way in the heck could you do that, hon.
00:39:54Yes, I can.
00:39:55No, you can't.
00:39:56No, you can't.
00:39:57No, you can't.
00:39:58Let me.
00:39:59Matt, let me.
00:40:00Stop.
00:40:01No, let me tell you why you can't.
00:40:04The reason you can't is because I won't let you.
00:40:08That's the biggest reason.
00:40:11Yeah.
00:40:12You stay away from me, Pete.
00:40:13No.
00:40:15You stay away from me.
00:40:16No!
00:40:16No!
00:40:23My name is Emily Dole, and I portrayed Mountain Fiji on Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.
00:40:29Hoi!
00:40:33I haven't done that in 15 years.
00:40:38Los Angeles were trying to form a women's football team.
00:40:42So I went to try out, but it flopped.
00:40:45So they told us, try out for this character.
00:40:48It's going to be a wrestling show.
00:40:50And I said, wrestling show?
00:40:51So I went to where the audition was, and Matt Simber came out, and he said, he just looked
00:40:56out the room, and he goes, I want to see you.
00:40:57I want to see you right now, right now, right now.
00:41:00I said, oh, my God.
00:41:01So I went inside and said, okay, turn around, turn around, turn around.
00:41:04Very good, very good.
00:41:05You like children?
00:41:06I said, yes, I love children, sir.
00:41:08Do you know how to impersonate characters, like, you know, actors and actresses?
00:41:12I go, Carmen Miranda.
00:41:13I go, Tico, Tico, Tico, Tico, Tico, Tico, Tico, Tico, Tico, Tico, Tico, Tico, Tico,
00:41:19Tico, Tico, Tico, Tico.
00:41:20Tico, Tico, Tico, Tico, Tico.
00:41:21Hey, VG.
00:41:22Hola, Justice.
00:41:24I heard Big Bad Mama tried to strangle your pet vegetable.
00:41:27Oh, she, she made Artie choke.
00:41:32All right, you're hired.
00:41:33See you in about a week in Vegas.
00:41:34So I go, oh, really?
00:41:36I go, okay, okay.
00:41:37He goes, yeah.
00:41:38So I paid my ticket, and I was took a report to the rear-end hotel, and they said, this
00:41:43is your room, your keys, and good luck to you here.
00:41:47I said, thank you.
00:41:48So I made the change.
00:41:56I think Glow was probably the most important thing Mount Fiji ever did, because she
00:42:04created a character that was loved and respected by the fans, as well as her co-wrestlers.
00:42:15Everything I've done, I'm very proud of, because when I look back, I go, there's nobody that
00:42:20could have done that kind of role.
00:42:22And she slams it to the mat.
00:42:24Incredible.
00:42:25That's over 350 pounds.
00:42:27Anyone else would need a crane to lift her.
00:42:30The Mount Fiji character, that was a big, that was a big diamond that was shining bright
00:42:38for me on the top of the mountain.
00:42:40And I've been to the top of the mountain.
00:42:42I, like, drop back right now, just for a little bit.
00:42:47Her life after Glow was difficult, and she suffered a lot, emotionally, mentally, physically.
00:42:58She's in a nursing home.
00:42:59She's been in a nursing home for years.
00:43:03Came to the rescue, Charles.
00:43:07Way too much on the same thing, okay?
00:43:09I'm going to pull a sheet, okay?
00:43:11Okay.
00:43:11Ready?
00:43:12One, two, three.
00:43:14Oh, thank God.
00:43:15Bless your heart.
00:43:19Well, from what I understand about Fiji now, she has very bad knees.
00:43:24And the weight has been a real issue for her.
00:43:27And I think she may have diabetes, too.
00:43:29Many people, from their weight, get diabetes.
00:43:32Thank God I never did.
00:43:34I don't think she regularly worked out, you know, and I always have.
00:43:38So I don't know if that's a difference or not.
00:43:44I mean, wrestling is a serious, you can get really injured.
00:43:47I mean, most of the injuries, you do it to yourself in a way.
00:43:51Wrestling is probably not the best thing for a woman's body.
00:43:55It doesn't mean that women can't do it and do it really well.
00:43:58But you're getting hit by a car every day.
00:44:02And here's where a lot of the injuries come.
00:44:06What I found out a lot is that most of them like to reach over and they don't believe that
00:44:12their butt can go over their head and they're going to be safe.
00:44:15So they like to arch and try not to, they wrestle the move.
00:44:18They don't accept it.
00:44:21I got injured in the ring and I couldn't wrestle anymore.
00:44:26Both of my shoulders, I have torn rotator cuffs.
00:44:29I totally lost my ACL ligament in my right knee.
00:44:33That wasn't from a fall.
00:44:34That was from, that was from the mats not put together correctly at the time on match day.
00:44:41And the paramedics make their way back to the ring by this time to tend to the fallen dancing girl.
00:44:45The ring, it wasn't a standard wrestling ring.
00:44:49It was plywood with carpet foam.
00:44:52And the edges of the ring weren't covered.
00:44:54And I caught my knee on the edge of that plywood.
00:44:58And I tore my meniscus and my ACL.
00:45:00Ooh, a devastating big splash.
00:45:03I didn't want to get fired.
00:45:04And I just sat there and I was in agony.
00:45:08There's no way to fight without really fighting.
00:45:10I have never found out how to do that.
00:45:11I mean, we had to connect.
00:45:13We had audience on four sides.
00:45:15If you didn't connect, they'd start chanting bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.
00:45:20And it doesn't make for good television with an entire room of people chanting that.
00:45:26There was pushing and more pushing, you know, of like, do bigger, do better.
00:45:31The crowd would be out there chanting and chanting and going, you know, break her arm, break her arm.
00:45:36But anybody that's seen the footage of Susie Spirit's arm coming out, I mean, they replayed it a million times.
00:45:42Nobody wanted that to happen.
00:45:44There it is, the bone that was torn from its socket.
00:45:49And this is the incident that caused it.
00:45:54The headhunter pushing that right leg into Susie Spirit's right arm and pinning it back.
00:46:04It was just as much my fault as it was Bobby's fault.
00:46:10I jumped over her, went to grab the outside of her legs.
00:46:14She stumbled.
00:46:16And when she fell, it pushed my arm backwards.
00:46:21So I tore the tendon off.
00:46:23And it was actually laying there on the mat.
00:46:26And I had to pick it up.
00:46:28The doctor came in and I thought, oh, could you just put my elbow back in because I have to
00:46:33go to work tonight.
00:46:34And he said, oh, no.
00:46:35We're going to set your arm and then we're going to put you in a cast.
00:46:38And it's going to be about six to eight weeks.
00:46:40Well, then I needed the Demerol.
00:46:42I was okay with the injury and I was okay with it healing.
00:46:45But I was not okay with it taking six to eight weeks.
00:46:47And I think the rush of everything and it really being reality and not just another part of the script
00:46:54started to sink in.
00:47:04I always felt I needed to do the big moves along with the little girls.
00:47:08I felt I should show them that anything can be done.
00:47:10And I did and I enjoyed it.
00:47:12But I didn't realize the impact it would have on my spine.
00:47:15You don't know when you turn 50 what's going to happen.
00:47:18And I didn't get famous until I was 35.
00:47:21And that's when you should be retiring.
00:47:23Matilda.
00:47:24One, two, three.
00:47:26It's an upset.
00:47:28Tammy Jones is the winner.
00:47:30We'll be back in a moment.
00:47:35There's many times when I've questioned, why am I doing this?
00:47:39Because it's insanity.
00:47:41You get a lot of kudos from the audience and it really amps you up and gets your adrenaline going.
00:47:46And you think you're superhuman.
00:47:48And then, of course, I was always a daredevil and had to prove I'm superhuman.
00:47:51I would jump from the top ropes right onto the cement.
00:47:55And, you know, I've always been 250, 300 pounds.
00:47:59That's a lot of weight.
00:48:00Gravity takes its toll.
00:48:03I questioned myself so many times why I continued to do this.
00:48:07And I still loved it, no matter what.
00:48:10You have challenged Hulk Hogan.
00:48:13Yeah.
00:48:13And he didn't wrestle you.
00:48:15Hulk Hogan, I've challenged him.
00:48:16I've written letters to the World Wrestling Federation.
00:48:18I've challenged him and the moolah and all those so-called wimps who hide whenever I'm around.
00:48:23I'll challenge any man, woman, or beast in the ring.
00:48:27Right here, right now, anywhere, anytime.
00:48:30I was forced to retire in 1996 and I was 50.
00:48:37So, I lasted until I was 50 and they had to take me out, you know, crying and force me
00:48:44out.
00:48:44The only way they could force me out was because my feet went bad.
00:48:48And I had two toes amputated from my right foot.
00:48:51So, I have this peripheral neuropathy thing and I can lose my balance and fall.
00:48:56So, that's not too good as a wrestler, although it might be good for my opponents.
00:49:00But, I never really have retired, I mean, because my husband and I started producing private wrestling tapes.
00:49:07And so, I was directing and training still.
00:49:10I can still wrestle if I'm on my hands and knees.
00:49:13And just at Christmastime, I delivered a slam-o-gram to a senior citizen here where I live.
00:49:19So, I don't know if they'll ever take it out of me.
00:49:22It just comes in different forms now, you know.
00:49:28So, as much as I loved it, it hurt.
00:49:30I mean, it really, it was painful.
00:49:33It was emotionally draining.
00:49:36Because, honestly, you had to be pushed past your physical limits of what you could normally do.
00:49:45Unfortunately, in the industry, lots of times women get hired just because they're pretty.
00:49:51And they, you know, might have been more inclined to succeed in a modeling world or a modeling industry.
00:50:00And then they get thrown into this world and the first thing that happens to them is they get caught.
00:50:05They get bit by the bug.
00:50:07They want to wrestle.
00:50:08But it takes a different kind of weirdo, you know, that enjoys that kind of tomboy activity.
00:50:16It's not cut out for all of us.
00:50:20You know, you had a group of 20 and 21-year-olds, you know, young ingenue types that, you know,
00:50:28really hadn't been out there either in the wrestling world or in film and television.
00:50:35And, you know, they're looking for an opportunity.
00:50:37They don't want to piss anybody off.
00:50:39They kind of want to just, you know, try to play by the rules, you know, somewhat and try to
00:50:45make a career for themselves.
00:50:49Some of them were just scared.
00:50:51You know, they didn't know where they were going.
00:50:53They didn't know if GLOW was going to lead to another job for them.
00:50:56They didn't see how they were going to parlay this into their next adventure in life.
00:51:04And I don't think that there was really any guidance on that with GLOW.
00:51:10It sure was an exciting hundred shows.
00:51:13Well, I don't think there are many people going to forget the gorgeous ladies of wrestling.
00:51:17No, they really deserve the tribute.
00:51:20After all, hundred shows, four years.
00:51:25I have a feeling this is the end of a beautiful friendship.
00:51:30At the end of GLOW's Run, you know, it was very successful.
00:51:33We were going into our fifth year.
00:51:34The ratings were through the roof.
00:51:36We were, you know, pretty much at our zenith.
00:51:38And what happened was the man, Mr. Rickless, who owned the Riviera Hotel and was the primary investor,
00:51:45decided to pull, you know, his money out of the project for personal reasons.
00:51:52I think there may have been some issues in his marriage, whatever, that conflicted with him, you know, pursuing GLOW.
00:52:00I heard a nasty little rumor that the reason why it stopped was because Mishulam Rookless' wife, Pia Zadoras,
00:52:09said, you better stop the show or I'm divorcing you, because he liked to play with the girls, and she
00:52:18was mad.
00:52:19So he stopped the show.
00:52:21Kibosh, boom, over.
00:52:22We talked about doing some other things, like maybe doing live shows and that sort of thing after it ended.
00:52:29David McClain thought he could do it by himself, didn't think he needed Matt Simber,
00:52:33and found out that, no, they couldn't do it.
00:52:36They couldn't make it work without Matt Simber.
00:52:38They couldn't agree.
00:52:40They tried to get it going again, some of them, and it just, nothing happened.
00:52:45It just fell apart.
00:52:47We were told that maybe we would be getting calls back, but not, no one could say when.
00:52:54We were never notified that there was no Mark Lowe.
00:52:57The phone didn't ring, and the phone didn't ring, and the phone didn't ring.
00:53:01So we never had that moment of like, oh, my God, this is the last time I'm going to see
00:53:04you.
00:53:05This is going to be my last match.
00:53:06It wasn't like that.
00:53:09There was really no closure.
00:53:15I was really sad.
00:53:17No going away party, no explanation, no cancelling from the stations.
00:53:24I was brokenhearted because I was so much in love with Matt Simber, the director.
00:53:30And the things that I know now, I can tell it to his face and just laugh about it and
00:53:35say,
00:53:35do you know I had a crush on you and I loved you?
00:53:38I would say it to him.
00:53:40Life is too short, you know.
00:53:41Life is too short.
00:53:43And if you've got something to say somebody, tell it right there, because you never know.
00:53:46You might not get another chance to say it.
00:53:48So if I saw him again, I would say, do you know you made my heart pitter-patter?
00:53:57It's unfortunate, you know, that like, life happens and everybody kind of parts ways.
00:54:04There were a lot of women there that were just in the same boat that we were, you know,
00:54:10wanted to act, were a little bit scared.
00:54:14We became like a little family, really, really.
00:54:17I mean, you could laugh and joke and cry and it was, yeah.
00:54:25I think a lot of us didn't really appreciate it until years later.
00:54:29You know, you think then about the love we all had for each other and the sisterhood and
00:54:34the camaraderie.
00:54:35When we were in the thick of it, it was just the day-to-day struggle of doing it and
00:54:42getting
00:54:42through it.
00:54:48I think about GLOW all the time.
00:54:52It was a sisterhood, you know, it was.
00:54:54Even though it was thick and thin, what have you, but it was great.
00:54:59It was great.
00:54:59It was a great experience for all of us, for all of us, yeah.
00:55:12It's like, it's like, for the past 15 years, it's been a missing part of me.
00:55:26Like that piece of the puzzle has been taken out and it needs to be replaced back here.
00:55:33And I worry about them, where are they, are they eating, are they doing okay, how's their
00:55:38family, what are they up to, you know.
00:55:41I want to thank them in person, in my own words, for making me show, for making me be
00:55:48the star of that show, the star of GLOW.
00:55:53You know, when people tell me I'm the icon, I say thank you, but there were 35 others in
00:55:59that show.
00:56:01But I want to, you know, pledge to them that, I want to try to love them, and I thank
00:56:07them.
00:56:08And I'll be indebted to them forever.
00:56:19We are the only all-female wrestling show that's ever been, as far as I know.
00:56:28The only thing I've ever seen, and I think we made a very important contribution to society
00:56:33all together, and I'd like everyone to get their credit for that.
00:56:47I think, for me, um...
00:57:03Now, Fiji, I heard physically isn't doing well, and I'm not sure what the stories are of everybody
00:57:12else.
00:57:13I have great stories, because I feel like I had a really blessed life after GLOW, and
00:57:20I just want to hear the other wrestlers say the same thing.
00:57:25I just want, you know, I just want to know that things are good for them.
00:57:47Hey!
00:57:48Looks good.
00:57:50Wow.
00:57:52Nice.
00:57:53Hi!
00:57:54I like the pink.
00:57:54Yes?
00:57:55Yeah, that's very nice.
00:57:57Very appropriate.
00:57:58These are both pretty, too.
00:58:00Nice.
00:58:00You know, it's been over 20 years since I've seen these girls.
00:58:07This is something I've kind of dreamed about.
00:58:10I didn't realize it was going to turn into a reality.
00:58:13Hi!
00:58:15Hi!
00:58:15Hi!
00:58:17Hi!
00:58:18Hi!
00:58:20Hi!
00:58:22They were so excited when they heard that we were connecting again.
00:58:30This reunion, I'm just so hyped.
00:58:34I'm so excited about it.
00:58:36I'm going to go in the day early, so that I can get to spend a little extra time with
00:58:40them.
00:58:42Little Egypt actually called me and said there was going to be a reunion.
00:58:45Now, I hadn't talked to Little Egypt in 20 some years.
00:58:49And I said, you know, I need to think about this, you know, give me a couple of days, you
00:58:53know, I'll get back to you.
00:58:54Because I separated it into two categories, okay?
00:58:57There's the girls who are like sorority sisters.
00:59:02But then all of a sudden you've got the production side of it, you know,
00:59:06and there were one or two people on the production side that I absolutely adored.
00:59:10But there were others that made me think twice, you know, like,
00:59:14do I really want to subject myself, you know, to possibly running into them again?
00:59:25Actually, when I saw Matt, I was surprised that he was so quiet.
00:59:30You know, I don't know. He seemed a little reserved, to tell you the truth.
00:59:35You remember him, that dirty old Italian.
00:59:38After I really thought long and hard about it,
00:59:41I realized that I got out of it what I wanted.
00:59:45I wanted a career in film and television.
00:59:49GLOW launched me.
00:59:50I continued.
00:59:53I shouldn't have any qualms about that.
00:59:55Hey, you haven't changed a bit.
01:00:05It told me he was proud of his work
01:00:08and that he cared about the show
01:00:10enough to show up regardless of what he was feeling
01:00:13or what he might have thought.
01:00:15He got there and he was there for the girls
01:00:18and I think he was especially there for Mount Vigi.
01:00:20I don't think he wanted to let her down.
01:00:24I'm so anxious, sis, to be, you know, to go into this gathering
01:00:29because I haven't seen most of these girls, I'd say about 15 years.
01:00:33So to see them all again, I don't want to cry.
01:00:36I'm going to have this hanky you gave me for my lipstick
01:00:38but I'm going to use it for my tears.
01:00:40It'll be tears of joy, not tears of sadness.
01:00:43You know what?
01:00:43When we enter, I'm going to go like this.
01:00:46Let's see if I stick to my words.
01:00:48I don't see all the girls and whoever's there.
01:00:50I go, hello, darling, how are you?
01:00:53Where's the food?
01:00:56I came for a luau.
01:00:59When she comes in, takes a look around the room
01:01:03and sees 40 people maybe standing there.
01:01:08Now granted, we all look a little bit different.
01:01:11It might take her a while
01:01:12but if she focuses slowly on each one of us
01:01:17she might actually be able to recognize us.
01:01:21I think it's going to be huge for Mountain Fiji.
01:01:24I just am so excited for her
01:01:26even though she doesn't know what's going to happen yet.
01:01:30Matilda Hun told me,
01:01:32I can't tell you.
01:01:33Mom's the word.
01:01:34I can't tell you else to be there.
01:01:37Anxious.
01:01:38It's like, you know,
01:01:40like it's Christmas time waiting for the prize.
01:01:46And it's worth the wait.
01:01:50We're here.
01:01:51Oh my gosh.
01:01:54Kidding me.
01:01:55Oh my goodness.
01:01:58Oh.
01:01:59That's okay, yeah.
01:02:00Mm-hmm.
01:02:01Thank you very much.
01:02:02All right.
01:02:03How do I look, girls?
01:02:06Hello?
01:02:08Hello?
01:02:10Hello?
01:02:41We're all champions in the ring, we're all from the streets, we're all from the city, we're all from the
01:02:47world where there is no pity, slam, bam, it's a wrestling jam, come on ladies, give us all a jam,
01:02:55we're the big team belt, and in the ring, we're gonna have fun and do our own thing.
01:03:11Geg, Geg, Geg, Geg, Geg, Geg!
01:03:18Oh, I'm gonna win.
01:03:21Oh my God.
01:03:23Oh my God.
01:03:23I got a real sequence.
01:03:27Yeah!
01:03:27Yeah!
01:03:30Come on, guys.
01:03:31Come on, she's rocked, baby.
01:03:35Remember the tic-a-tic-a-tico.
01:03:37Tic-a-tic-a-tico.
01:03:39Oh, that's a blanching.
01:03:41Come on, baby.
01:03:43It's so good to see you.
01:03:45Oh my gosh, look who's here.
01:03:47The man that I truly love, my Prince Charlie.
01:03:52Hi, Matt.
01:03:53How you doing?
01:03:55How you doing?
01:03:56I'm fine.
01:03:57I'm fine.
01:03:58You know, I always had a crush on you.
01:04:03I truly was in love with this man.
01:04:07Do you know that I truly love Matt Simber?
01:04:09From afar, I'm like, you know, like savoring.
01:04:12Oh my gosh, he's so handsome.
01:04:18But even though I heard rumors you're a womanizer, I didn't care.
01:04:27But you know, if I must say, to see every one of you today, I look at all your faces,
01:04:33and it brings back memories.
01:04:36Such good memories.
01:04:37You can't get rid of the memories.
01:04:39And you know, even though there were good times, bad times, but this guy would say, you know what?
01:04:43If you don't like what you're doing here, there's the door.
01:04:53Fiji had a very close relationship with Matt Simber.
01:04:56She'd always call him Coach.
01:04:57I think a lot of the girls actually, when they saw how much Fiji really depended on Coach,
01:05:03and really, yes, Coach, yes, Coach, yes, Coach.
01:05:05Then a lot of the girls kind of started coming around and going, okay, you know, what's here?
01:05:11What do we need to respect?
01:05:12Goodbye, everybody.
01:05:14Goodbye, everybody.
01:05:16Goodbye, everybody.
01:05:17Goodbye, everybody.
01:05:18Goodbye, everybody.
01:05:19He treated me very well, too.
01:05:20So, you know, it's hard to talk bad against him when he did so much good.
01:05:24But he was a prick.
01:05:40Matt Simber's creativity, and maybe even his mean, bossy director skills,
01:05:47all these innocent girls that were young and athletic and cute, the costuming,
01:05:52and then, of course, just the pizazz of the set, being that it was pink and purple.
01:05:58It's just really, really a great thing that came out of that.
01:06:07When I look back on GLOW now, I think of it as being one of the most exciting times of
01:06:14my life.
01:06:15A lot of fun.
01:06:17Wish it didn't end.
01:06:21I still have this dream that maybe one day, just one more time, we'll get to do it again.
01:06:29Being on that show, being a part of the history, being a part of it, was the most fun I
01:06:36ever had in my life.
01:06:40Who knew, you know, that I'd be a gorgeous lady of wrestling?
01:06:49You know, I'm not saying everything was sunshine and roses, but it was an amazing experience.
01:06:53I'm glad when I was 25 years old that I had this unique experience.
01:07:01For those of us that, you know, weren't at a university with a sorority, these are my sisters, man, you
01:07:09know?
01:07:11You know, when I got married, my mom said, do you want the money or do you want the wedding?
01:07:15And I thought, you know, I want the wedding because I want to be able to have those memories.
01:07:19The money's just going to go.
01:07:20And the memories of GLOW are like that.
01:07:26I knew that I would look back and be so glad that I did this.
01:07:30Because whoever gets this opportunity and how neat to have it with my best friend and my sister.
01:07:37Whoever thought wrestling was going to become that big a part of our life.
01:07:41But we used to get so used to, you get so used to slamming your body into walls and, you
01:07:45know,
01:07:45we would purposely like slam against walls to like, you know, toughen ourselves up.
01:07:50So when we would have like parties, we'd be, we'd be throwing each other around, hitting the walls.
01:07:55They'd call the police because we were making so much noise and people thought we were killing each other.
01:08:04Of course, the industry, the lifestyle kills a lot of our dear friends way too young.
01:08:11So there's this whole part of me that's really mad at the industry, but I love the wrestlers.
01:08:16And I respect them so much as these really talented people.
01:08:22What is it about us that makes us alike?
01:08:27What makes us alike is that we're different from most gals.
01:08:38How about I do my rhyme, my verse?
01:08:42Fiji, Fiji, I love to hear.
01:08:44Thank you fans, you're all so dear.
01:08:46I'm always happy I don't sing blues.
01:08:49When you're on my side, how can I lose?
01:08:51Hoi!
01:08:52Hoi!
01:08:55Hoi!
01:08:59Hallelujah!
01:09:11Here's the glow crown.
01:09:13It's just like we are.
01:09:14It's a little, a little battered, a little worn.
01:09:18You know, not totally broken.
01:09:21But it still sparkles.
01:09:33Just so many people.
01:09:35I am mama.
01:09:36And like I said, I am big bad mama.
01:09:40I'm mama.
01:09:52I had three things I wanted to do.
01:09:55TV, pose and playboy and give out an Academy Award.
01:09:57Well, I probably won't give out the Academy Award, but I've already done the other two.
01:10:00And so I'm, I'm, I'm grateful for that.
01:10:04That was pretty fun.
01:10:08Break your eye.
01:10:17When we'd interview, you know, we would just start talking about something.
01:10:20And I would say, I feel very, very good about myself because I've lost, I've lost weight.
01:10:27I've lost a significant amount of weight.
01:10:28And I think that you could stand to lose some weight also.
01:10:32Well, it's not that I need to lose weight.
01:10:34No, it is actually that you need to lose weight.
01:10:35It's not that it's shifted.
01:10:37It seems like it's shifted a little bit.
01:10:38It's shifted and added.
01:10:40No.
01:10:40It's not so much added.
01:10:41No, it is so much added.
01:10:57I said it took forever.
01:10:59I had glitter in my hair for 10 years after Glow ended.
01:11:03Glitter is like permanent.
01:11:21We do know that all Americans are basically very lazy and are puny wimps.
01:11:27So I whipped them into shape.
01:11:40It was really about just connecting again and trying to have that opportunity to tell
01:11:48each other how much we loved each other and how much we enjoyed working with each other.
01:12:01Yeah, I'd like someone to come up to me and think I'm some feeble little old lady in a chair
01:12:06or whatever they think.
01:12:07And I'd like do just like this.
01:12:09And I'd go, oh yeah?
01:12:12Come on.
01:12:13Take a piece of me.
01:12:14Come on.
01:12:16Not all people sitting in wheelchairs are weak.
01:12:26Yeah, that's better.
01:12:29Ah!
01:12:30I'm getting fired up now.
01:12:31Come here.
01:12:31Come on, guys.
01:12:32Come on, camera guys.
01:12:33Come on.
01:12:33I need you.
01:12:34Come on.
01:12:37That's awesome.
01:12:54Now, my dear, we're going to test your reflexes.
01:13:04Reflexes, fine.
01:13:08I heard California doll invented a new type of parachute.
01:13:13Yeah.
01:13:14It opens on impact.
01:13:22And what would you say is the difference between palestina and say Matilda the Hun?
01:13:26Oh, about 200 pounds.
01:13:28Hahaha.
01:13:32I want to dance.
01:13:36Dance.
01:13:38Dance.
01:13:39Dance.
01:13:41Dance.
01:13:41Dance.
01:13:41You, you, who, who, who.
01:13:50Woo!
01:13:54Woo!
01:13:54Woo!
01:13:54Woo!
01:13:55Woo!
01:13:55Woo!
01:13:55Woo!
01:13:56Woo!
01:14:12The girls are a dance best friend
01:14:17They're always loyal to the end
01:14:22You can give her diamonds
01:14:25You can give her purse
01:14:27All she really wants is that man of hers
01:14:32The girls don't
01:14:35The good girls might
01:14:37If you don't get mad
01:14:40And make a fight
01:14:42The good girls don't
01:14:45The good girls do
01:14:48You can treat them right
01:14:50And love them good
01:15:02Hey, you
01:15:04Silt yourself down
01:15:06You're about to see the best show in town
01:15:11It's got lots of glitter
01:15:13It's got lots of glass
01:15:16And if you don't like it
01:15:18We're gonna kick your
01:15:21We don't do dishes
01:15:23And we don't give sink
01:15:25Game to play, so
01:15:28Give them something
01:15:29You're not at the opera
01:15:32So anything goes
01:15:34Come on down to the next slide
01:15:37And you'll see some logos
01:15:39We're nasty and mean
01:15:41We're the sisters of the might
01:15:43We like to be seen
01:15:45And we love to fight
01:15:48We're nasty and mean
01:15:50Just show us to the map
01:15:52We'll give us some sissies
01:15:55And we'll not complain
01:15:57We're nasty
01:15:58We're nasty
01:15:59We're nasty
01:16:01I'm mean
01:16:02We're nasty
01:16:03We're nasty
01:16:04We're nasty
01:16:05I'm mean
01:16:06We're nasty
01:16:08We're nasty
01:16:09We're nasty
01:16:10I'm the mean
01:16:11We're nasty
01:16:12We're nasty
01:16:13We're nasty
01:16:17My girls have the strength and speed
01:16:20To wipe out all of Kitty's breeze
01:16:22That's right
01:16:24And when we're done
01:16:25Please don't be bitter
01:16:27Because all that's left is Kitty litter