Old School Fan

SMASH World Championship - Fatal Four Way Shawn Michaels vs Matt Hardy vs Sean O'Haire vs Billy Kidman D-Von Dudley vs Justin Credible Mystery Partner Match: D'Lo Brown and ??? vs Kaz Hayashi and Jimmy Yang Mystery partner - Mark Henry Brock Lesnar vs Chris Sabin Shannon Moore vs Mark Jindrak Mark Henry vs Johnny Stamboli Insanity Project vs Nova and Kazarian

Big Time Wrestling* @ Victoria Pavilion October 23, 1964 - Calgary, Alberta Eric Froelich defeated Sandor Kovacs by pinfall following a dropkick. Karl Gotch defeated Mr. Guillotine by submission via a crossface chickenwing. Bob Morse defeated Igor Kalmikoff by pinfall following a powerslam. NWA International Tag Team Championship (Calgary) The Fabulous Kangaroos (Al Costello & Roy Heffernan) © fought Don Leo Jonathan & Marcel Martel to a time-limit draw. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Big Time Wrestling was the name Stampede Wrestling went by from 1951 to 1965.

April 1964 Two months into training at the Mildred Burke Wrestling School, Renée Martel and the other students got some news when Mildred stepped into the ring to start another day of training. "Alright, girls, gather 'round," Mildred called to the trainees, who climbed into the ring. "I got a surprise for all of you here. I invited a guest trainer to stop by the gym today to give you some pointers on the topic of today's session and she gladly agreed to drop in, so let's hear it for our guest trainer today - Ann Calvello!" The students began applauding as veteran competitor Ann Calvello*, once a student of Mildred's herself, stepped through the ropes. "Okay, okay, save the kudos for later," Ann said after acknowledging the girls' applause. "Now, today's lesson is something all wrestlers - even the aspiring ones - need to know all about, and that's the art of selling your opponent's moves. When your opponent does a move on you, it's your job to react to the move like it was done for real. When it's done right, that'll get the audience believing you really got hurt by the move, like a punch or a thumb to the throat. "Now, I'm gonna need a volunteer to help me demonstrate how to sell a move," Ann continued. A few of the girls raised their hands as Ann scanned around the ring for someone to pick - then she locked eyes on her choice. "You there, come on up, hon," she said, pointing at Renée and beckoning her over. "Alright hon, let's show how selling a thumb to the throat is done for example," Ann said as Renée went to stand beside her. "Now, watch what I do as I get her in a headlock," she then said whie using her left arm to headlock Renée. "I start quickly moving my thumb toward her throat, but I make sure to stop just short of actually hitting the target full-on and just make light contact instead." As she spoke, Ann showed how the move was done through demonstration. "Now when I make contact with the thumb, you have to react like you were gouged in the throat for real and you need to time your reaction just right," Ann continued, then saying to Renée, "'kay, hon, you set to do this?" "I'm ready," Renée said with a nod. "Alright, here goes," Ann said, then she delivered the thumb shot to Renée's throat as she described. Renée reacted by clutching her throat and coughing, then staggering for a couple of steps before dropping to one knee, then she stood back up with her hands extended out and said "Ta-daa!" with a grin on her face as the girls laughed lightly. Ann then went up to Renée and patted her on her shoulder. "Good job, kid, way to sell the move for a first try - just leave the last part you did out next time," Ann said, garnering more giggles from Renée and the other girls. "Okay, now everyone partner up and give it a try," she said as the students paired up to practice selling opponents' moves. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * After the training session wrapped up, Ann caught up to Renée as she got out of the ring. "I saw how you did in there during the session, you did great work," Ann said. "What's your name, by the way?" "Renée," the teen girl replied. "Renée Martel." "But really, out of all the girls trainin' here, you're really showin' a lot of promise," Ann said. "Mildred even told me she considers you one of her prized students. Keep at it and you just might go a long way in the business if you decide to make a career of it." "Ah, merci beaucoup," Renée said with a grin and an embarrassed giggle. "You know Ms. Burke pretty well yourself, don't you?" "She helped train me when I wanted to get started," Ann said. "Her husband back then, Billy Wolfe, supervised the training, but I found out quickly after I graduated just how much of a sleazebag Wolfe was, so I steered clear of him. Because of that, I didn't get much in the way of bookings until things fell apart between him and Mildred and I decided to side with her." "Ah," Renée replied with a nod. "So how well have you done in wrestling since then?" "I captured the Florida Women's title a few times while I was out that way," Ann remembered. "I also won titles in Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio and Texas over time. I even challenged Fabulous Moolah for her title a few times two or three years back, but I never got the belt from her. It wasn't for lack of trying, though - I outwrestled and dominated her in all our meetings, so she got a yellow streak and got herself disqualified to save her belt every time. Ever since then, she won't get in the ring against me anymore." "You were that good against her?" Renée said. "Pretty much anyone that gets in the ring against Moolah would be," Ann remarked. "I'll tell you something I found out a while back and quite a few other girls also did, Renée - as a wrestler, Moolah makes a much better politician. She may be the World Champion, but she's really a glorified bum who only gets by by fighting dirty, by controlling the women she trains and through manipulating promoters and being protected by them. She never could wrestle worth a damn - just ask any opponent she ever faced. Thanks to Moolah, women's wrestling is getting set back decades and the competitors and the sport aren't being taken seriously like they were when Mildred was wrestling." "Oh, wow," Renée said, both fascinated by Ann's career to date and by hearing what Ann told her about Moolah. "So if you decide to make wrestling a career, make the most of it," Ann advised Renée. "And above all, enjoy it. There'll be ups and downs, but there are few careers out there as exciting as wrestling is." Renée then smiled, pleased about the encouragement she got. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Thanks to the endorsement she got from Ann, Renée got through the rest of Mildred's training with flying colors and ended up graduating from the Mildred Burke Wrestling School with honors months later. Mildred advised her to stay in school for the time being and to wait until she turned 18 before making her ring debut, and she also encouraged Renée to stay in touch. That would not be the end of Renée's training, however, as the winds of fate would take her and her father Marcel in a new direction soon afterward, specifically sending them up North... * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Yep, that Ann Calvello, roller derby legend IRL. Due to roller derby never being invented ITTL, she trained for wrestling under Mildred Burke's mentorship and debuted in the ring in 1948, capturing several regional women's titles as noted above and becoming one of the premier villains of women's wrestling (though she also had periods of fan support as a hard-nosed babyface as well, including in her bouts against the perennially despised Moolah). She'll also appear again later in this diary as Renée advances in her career.

The Good Brothers VS. Fred Yehi & Wheeler YUTA Dicky Mayer VS. Karl Fredericks Hikuleo VS. Ken Broadway

True of a lot of folks, who decided that no wrestling on Monday nights was a lot better than WWF "sports entertainment" on Monday nights.

Just got done watching the video. I always speculated that the "Purple Haze" nickname that Sullivan bestowed on Mark Lewin was taken from the Jimi Hendrix song of the same name - maybe Sullivan was a Hendrix fan back in the day?

After returning from lunch to her wrestling training facility, Mildred Burke, accompanied by Marcel Martel and his daughter Renée, approached the wrestling ring where some of Mildred's students had already stepped inside while others were still hanging around the ringside area on the floor. "Okay everyone, let's step back in and pick up where we left off," Mildred called as she climbed up the ring steps and stepped between the ropes. "Well, this is it, Renée," Marcel said to his daughter as he looked over to her. "How're you feeling?" "A little nervous, but I can do this," Renée replied as she looked into the ring, seeing all the other ladies there as they prepared to resume their training. "Okay, good girl," Marcel said in encouragement as Renée started to get in the ring as well. "Give it your best." "Alright, we've got a newcomer here joining our ranks today," Mildred announced to her other students as Renée stepped through the ropes. "Girls, this is Renée." "Hi," Renée greeted the other students in a slightly shy manner, with most of the girls returning the greeting. "Okay, we'll continue with learning how to take falls properly and to protect yourselves while doing so," Mildred said. "Like I mentioned before, you need to make sure to tuck your chin against your chest when you do the falls. Yvonne, show everyone how it's done." Right then, Yvonne, a beehive-haired brunette, stepped up and demonstrated a fall to the mat as Mildred instructed, then repeated the move while the other girls watched. "Now, since you're new here and you've seen how it's done, Renée, want to give it a try?" Mildred said. "You kidding?" Yvonne remarked, adding to one of the other students in a snide aside, "She looks like she'd break a nail and break down in tears if she tried it." The girl Yvonne remarked to, a blonde wearing her hair in a flip bouffant similar to Renée's hair, simply rolled her eyes. "Anything else you want to add, Yvonne?" Mildred spoke up after catching the wisecrack her student made. "Nope, nothing," Yvonne said, raising her hands while pretending innocence. "Okay, Renée, go ahead," Mildred said. Stepping to the middle of the ring, Renée attempted a fall to the mat, remembering to tuck her chin as she did so. "Alright, good for a first try," Mildred said encouragingly. "Just keep practicing and you'll have it down pat before you know it." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * After a week of the students learning to do falls, rolls and bumps in the ring, Mildred soon moved on to teaching her students to run the ropes in the ring. The girls were surprised to discover upon their first attempts at running the ropes that doing so was harder than it looked and that it was also painful to do at first, at least until they got used to it. Soon, it came Renée's turn to take a run at the ropes, but as she bounded off the ropes, Yvonne, who was standing nearby, jutted her left foot out subtly, just enough to cause Renée to trip and fall to the canvas. Realizing that she had felt something trip her up and that she had passed Yvonne as it happened, Renée got back up and confronted her. "Hey, what was that?" she snapped at Yvonne. "What? What're you talking about?" Yvonne said, feigning innocence again. "You tripped me up as I passed by you when I came off the ropes!" Renée said angrily. "Hey, if you can't do a simple move without tripping over your own two left feet, that's not my problem," Yvonne retorted, denying any wrongdoing. "Hey, what's going on here?" said Mildred, who had overheard the argument as she came back into the gym after momentarily tending to some office business, as she stepped through the ropes to intervene between the two girls. "Look," Renée said as she pointed at Yvonne, "ever since I first got here, all you've done is give me a hard time! I've had it up to here with it, and you're quitting it now!" "Really? You want to make something of it?" Yvonne replied tauntingly. "If you do, then come at me, little girl - I'm ready." Realizing what was about to happen as the other students stood back and surrounded the middle of the ring to egg the impending fight on, but knowing of Renée's amateur training, Mildred let it go but was prepared to intervene if Yvonne, who had developed a reputation for subtle bullying of some of the other students (particularly including Renée), tried anything foolish. Yvonne charged at Renée, but the teen girl caught her tormentor by surprise with a leg trip takedown, sending Yvonne down to the mat. Renée then got on top quickly and grasped her hands around Yvonne's waist to try to flip her onto her back, but Yvonne broke away and backed off momentarily. "Oh, you want to do this?" said Yvonne, chagrined at getting bested by Renée with the takedown. "It's on now!" She then charged at Renée again in hopes of roughing her up and humiliating her, but Renée dodged the charge, caught her foe from behind and threw her with an amateur-style suplex, then pounced again and grabbed Yvonne's left leg as she tried scrambling to escape and attempted to flip her onto her back again with a half-Nelson before Yvonne bailed from the ring to the floor. The other students in the ring cheered and applauded Renée for her efforts at standing up to Yvonne. "Okay, that's enough of that," Mildred said as she stepped in to settle things down. "Let's get back to work. Yvonne, come on back in." "No thanks, I don't need this," Yvonne, stung at being bested by Renée and her amateur moves, said resentfully as she kicked the ring steps before she angrily stormed off toward the door to the front office. "I'm outta here!" Watching Yvonne storm through the door and out of sight, the bouffant-haired blonde, named Margo, turned to Renée. "Hey, nice work," a smiling Margo said as she patted Renée on the back between her shoulder blades. "She had it coming too for the garbage she pulled on some of us here this past week." "I just did what I had to," Renée replied with a shrug of her shoulders. "I never liked bullies anyway." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * After that night, Yvonne washed her hands of the training sessions and never returned to the wrestling school, choosing to seek employment elsewhere. On the other hand, Renée, Margo and the other students continued their training under Mildred; some dropped out as well over time after finding the training harder than they expected, but most of the girls stayed the course and made remarkable progress, particularly Renée. Marcel made time to attend a few of the sessions in between his matches with WWA to watch Renée's progress and was impressed at how his daughter was doing.

TNA iMPACT! #22 Predictions Ultimo Dragon vs. Jerrelle Clark Comments Jeff Hardy vs. Scoot Andrews Comments: Ray Gonzalez vs. Kanyon Comments: TNA Knockouts Championship Battle Royal Qualifier Veronica vs. Beth Phoenix Comments: TNA X-Division #1 Contendership Bryan Danielson vs. Kid Kash Comments: Sting vs. Elix Skipper Comments:

AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam- September 22nd, 2021 Prediction Key: Texas Death Match: Cody Rhodes vs Dustin Rhodes Comments: Death Triangle vs Andrade El Idolo, Rush, & Chavo Guerrero Comments: Leyla Hirsch vs Hikaru Shida Comments: The Dark Order (Evil Uno & Stu Grayson) vs Team Taz (Jermaine Reed & Powerhouse Hobbs) Comments: The Men Of The Year vs Matt Sydal & Dante Martin Comments: AEW Women's Championship Match: Britt Baker © vs Kris Statlander Comments: AEW Rampage: Grand Slam- September 24th, 2021 Prediction Key: Adam Cole & Matthew Murphy vs The Varsity Blondes Comments: NWA Women's Championship Match: Tay Conti © vs Hikaru Shida Comments: AEW World Tag Team Championship Ladder Match: Proud-N-Powerful © vs The Young Bucks Comments:

I'll admit I'm a bit biased because my first exposure to the AWA came via their TV show out of Winnipeg (AWA Major League Wrestling) starting in the fall of 1984, but I'll say that the TV shows being posted here, showing the AWA's slow climb back to prominence under Bob Lurie and leading up to an inevitable Sarge vs. Lawler showdown in the ring, are entertaining, while the behind-the-scenes views in other posts offer insight. Nice work all-in-all, keep 'em coming.

Going to be interesting seeing a Dustin/Cody showdown coming down the pike. Can't wait to see who ends up proving himself the better Rhodes brother between the two.

Team Filthy (Lawlor & Limelight) VS. Fred Rosser & PJ Black Clark Connors VS. Ren Narita Adrian Quest VS. Schaff

February 1964 America was still reeling following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. In its wake and following the swearing-in of then-Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson to the top office soon after the event, social change was soon to come on the horizon. In need of ways to mend from the JFK assassination, Americans looked for those ways through various means - including welcoming the arrival of Beatlemania to American shores, which itself musically heralded the arrival of the British Invasion. Color television became increasingly popular as the Big Three networks broadcast most of their programs in color (though alas, none of them offered professional wrestling on their schedules, the last networked wresting show until 1985 - Wrestling from Marigold Arena from Chicago - having ended national airing to become a local show in 1955, several years before the advent of color TV). In the sports world, the boxer formerly known as Cassius Clay, having just changed his name to Muhammad Ali, was capturing the imaginations of boxing fans everywhere en route to capturing the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship (and was still over a decade away from having some involvement in wrestling), while Shea Stadium, the new home of baseball's New York Mets and the future site of three WWWF/WWF-produced Showdown at Shea wrestling supercards, would open its doors for the first time that April. In wrestling itself, Lou Thesz had recently celebrated the first anniversary of his third reign as NWA World Heavyweight Champion (and his sixth reign as a World Heavyweight Champion overall, dating back to his first World title win in 1937 in the pre-NWA era), while Bruno Sammartino had not yet completed his first year as WWWF World Heavyweight Champion, Dick the Bruiser and Wilbur Snyder would establish the World Wrestling Association in Indianapolis, and June Byers recently gave up the NWA World Women's Championship she had won from Mildred Burke via controversial means back in 1954 when she retired at the start of the year following injuries from what became a career-ending car accident in late-1963, leading to the Fabulous Moolah, who had won her own version of a World Women's Championship in 1956 and was in the midst of establishing her own dynasty in women's wrestling, becoming universally recognized as the NWA World Women's Champion. Meanwhile, nearly a year after the death of Billy Wolfe and the resulting decline of his influence in women's wrestling in favor of the rising influence of Moolah, a newcomer had just arrived at the address of the Mildred Burke Wrestling School in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Encino, California and was about to step through its front door... * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The secretary/receptionist in the front office at Mildred's training facility was sorting through some papers at her desk just before noon when a young lady came through the door. "Hi there, can I help you?" the secretary asked upon seeing the girl. "Yes, I'm here to see Mildred Burke," said the girl, who spoke with what sounded like a slight French-Canadian accent. She was also tall in appearance, her brown hair was styled in a flip bouffant with bangs combed to one side (similar to that favored by former First Lady Jackie Kennedy) and she looked very pretty, in a girl-next-door kind of way. "She's busy in the back with her students right now, but it's almost lunch hour anyway, so I'll go get her. Follow me," said the secretary, who motioned for the girl to follow her through a doorway to a space in the back, set up with a wrestling ring and other training equipment. In the ring, Mildred was busy instructing several women on how to properly take falls when the secretary called her over and said something to her. Mildred looked over at the girl standing at a distance from the ring, then nodded and turned back to her students. "Okay, that's it for now - let's break early for lunch," Mildred said to the other women, who then dispersed from the ring to head off for lunch. Walking over to the girl, she then greeted her. "Hi, my secretary said you wanted to see me," Mildred said, extending her right hand for a handshake. "And your name..." "Martel," said the girl, accepting the handshake. "Renée Martel." * "Hi, Renée," Mildred replied. "You don't sound like you're from around here. Where're you from?" "Quebec, Canada," Renée said. "From Drummondville, actually. I'm here because my father's wrestling around here right now." "Ah, I see," Mildred said, nodding. "Who's your father?" "Marcel Martel," Renée replied. "He's working for the Eatons here in Los Angeles." "Oh, that Marcel Martel," Mildred said with a laugh upon hearing that name, familiar with his exploits in local promotion Worldwide Wrestling Associates as she followed that promotion on TV. "I figured he sounded familiar. So, what brings you here?" "I had a talk with my father and I asked if I could come to your school and get trained by you," Renée said. "He said it'd be okay if it was alright with you." "Ah, okay," Mildred said. "How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?" "Sixteen," Renée replied. "I'll be turning 17 in June." Upon hearing Renée mention her age, Mildred became uncertain. "Well, I don't generally train anyone who's under age 18," she reasoned. "I have some background in amateur wrestling," Renée then explained. "Over at my school, my father was able to influence it to start an amateur wrestling program for the girls at the school. He also has a strong background on the amateur side and in shoot wrestling too - he got that training years ago from the promoter up in Calgary, Stu Hart." When she heard all that (and especially after hearing Stu Hart be name-dropped), Mildred then became intrigued. "Well, now you've got my interest," she said. Heading toward the door from the training space to the front office, she then said to Renée, "We should talk about that over lunch. There's a coffee shop half a block down the street from here we can go to. Did you come here by yourself?" "Oh, no," Renée said. "My father brought me down here and he's waiting in his car out front." "Okay, let's invite him along for lunch then," Mildred said as she and Renée approached the front door leading out to the street. "While we're there, maybe he can tell me about his time training with Stu Hart." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * IRL, Renée Martel was a Canadian pop/country music singer/songwriter from Quebec, active from the mid-1960s until her death on December 18, 2021. ITTL, she will be the main focus of this diary as she seeks to train to become a professional wrestler under the mentorship of Mildred Burke. Her image, taken c. 1966, is the one that appears at right in the picture in the lead post at the top of this thread.

On the upcoming Crockett Cup matches: Outlawz Inc. vs. Stuka Jr. & Guerrero Maya Jr. TenKozy vs. Brody King & PCO The Butcher & The Blade vs. Aussie Open

WCW United States Heavyweight Title Match Diamond Dallas Page © vs ??? Bonus: Who will answer the open challenge? Kevin Nash Bill Goldberg vs Stevie Ray WCW World Cruiserweight Championship Number One Contender's Match Rey Mysterio Jr vs Psychosis WCW World Television Championship Match Booker T vs Disco Inferno © The Steiner Brothers(w/ Ted DiBiase) & Ray Traylor vs The nWo [Vicious & Delicious & Konnan] Chris Benoit & ??? vs The Flock [??? & ???] Bonus 1: Who will be Benoit's partner? Eddie Guerrero Bonus 2: Which two members of The Flock will wrestle? Raven & Saturn Lex Luger vs Scott Hall Show Bonus Bonus 1: Who is the new WCW President? JJ Dillon Bonus 2: What's their announcement? Hogan/Sting rematch

Brody King VS. TJP Chris Hero VS. Kevin Knight Fred Yehi & Wheeler YUTA VS. Barrett Brown & Steve Manders

Worldwide Wrestling Associates @ Olympic Auditorium February 12, 1964 - Los Angeles, California The Mummy defeated Tony Perez by pinfall following a bodyslam. Ernie Ladd defeated Ted Christy by pinfall following a legdrop. Édouard Carpentier defeated The Preacher by pinfall following a Senton Bomb. The Fabulous Kangaroos (Al Costello & Roy Heffernan) defeated Pepper Martin & Prince Ava when Heffernan pinned Ava. Ernie Ladd wrestled a second time and defeated The Preacher (also wrestling a second time) by submission to an Abdominal Stretch. WWA World Heavyweight Championship Fred Blassie © battled Marcel Martel* to a time-limit draw. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * IRL, Marcel Martel was a Canadian country music singer-songwriter from Quebec, active from the 1940s until his death in 1999. ITTL, he instead became a professional wrestler active in his native Quebec and across several territories in Canada and the United States, using a cowboy gimmick for his wrestling persona. How he ties into this diary will be revealed in the next post.

Thanks for the support so far. This diary's going to cover quite a bit of ground and from what I have planned, will stretch into the 1980s (during the Rock 'n Wrestling era and the heyday of Jim Crockett Promotions and its later transformation into WCW) to about the early 1990s, so stay tuned.

Nearly an hour after the end of the Atlanta Auditorium card and the arena had emptied out as the crowd went home, Mildred Burke had just finished getting dressed after showering and was packing her gear as she got ready to head back to the hotel where she was staying when a knock came on her locker room door. A female voice called from outside the door, "Ms. Burke, you okay in there?" Though she felt somewhat tired after the night's events stemming from her match against June Byers, Mildred decided not to turn the visitor at the door away. "Sure, come on in," she said. The door opened and a young member of the arena's concession staff opened the door. "The ring crew's just finishing taking the ring apart and the staff's about to lock up soon after the chairs get put away," the staffer said. "You all set to go?" Mildred let out a resigned sigh as she zipped up her sports bag. "Yep, just about," she replied. "I just had to hang back here a while. I love the fans and their support and all, but I just didn't feel like facing them after what went down after the match got called." "Sorry to hear that," the snack bar staffer said. "I watched some of your match from the snack bar in between serving the last few customers tonight and I saw you came back strong against Byers during the second fall after you lost the first. I was sure you'd take the next two falls and win, so I can't figure why the match got stopped." "I can," Mildred said as she grabbed her bag and left the locker room with the staffer. "In one word - Billy." "Who?" the puzzled staffer asked as she and Mildred walked down the backstage hallway. "My ex-husband and ex-manager," Mildred replied, referring to Billy Wolfe. "It's a long story, though. Two years of dealing with him and his shenanigans and his politicking after I called him out on his skirt-chasing and left him over it. It wouldn't surprise me that he got the ears and the wallets of a few people and influenced the outcome of the match in Byers' favor." "Not very good," the staffer said out of sympathy. "But you'll get a rematch and get your title back from her, right?" "She and Billy can say what they want," Mildred replied, talking about the match outcome. "But as far as I'm concerned, she didn't take me in two falls, so she can't claim to be a legitimate champion. The way I see it, I'm still the rightful champion and nothing can change that unless it changes legitimately in the ring." "Okay," the staffer said as she and Mildred approached an exit door to the parking lot where Mildred's car was parked nearby. "What'll you do in the meantime?" Mildred thought about her answer a moment. "I'll figure out something," she said with a half-smile as she opened the door and stepped through it into the night air. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Indeed, Mildred would do something about it in due time. Proclaiming that she had not legitimately lost to Byers despite the latter's claims of being the new NWA World Women's Champion, Mildred returned to her promotion, the World Women's Wrestling Association and recognized herself as its World Champion. She then took a group of some of her wrestlers and went on a tour of Japan that November to face off against some of that country's top female wrestling talent in a series of events that helped greatly popularize women's wrestling in Japan. She continued to defend her title until she retired from active wrestling in 1956. In the next few years that followed, Mildred used her WWWA promotion as a training school for young female wrestlers looking to break into the sport. During that same time frame, one of her former students, a brash hotshot who began going by the ring name Slave Girl Moolah, began making waves of her own the same year Mildred retired when she won a tournament in Baltimore on September 18, 1956 to gain recognition as a World Women's Champion in the Northeast (though not universally recognized by the NWA, which continued to recognize Byers). Billy Wolfe, meanwhile, tried to make lighting strike twice as he looked for his "next Mildred Burke" to recapture the magic and the capacity crowds his ex-wife had drawn as NWA World Women's Champion, coming close with a find named Karen Kellogg (who won a tournament to become the World Women's Lightweight Champion on November 3, 1962 in Bluefield, West Virginia). Wolfe, however, died of a heart attack on March 7, 1963 in Warrenton, Virginia, and Kellogg, whom he had been grooming for stardom, faded from the wrestling scene soon after. Going into the 1960s and the events of the early part of that decade (including JFK-mania), Mildred continued training new students for wrestling careers. Little known to her at the time, though, one prospective student would come into the picture in due course...

Cody Rhodes © vs. Brian Cage Nick Aldis & ??? vs. The War Kings BONUS: Who is the mystery partner? I'll go out on a limb and guess his old British Invasion partner Rob Terry Jazz © vs. Allysin Kay Willie Mack © vs. ??? Laredo Kid vs. Tajiri Zicky Dice vs. The Question Mark

PLACE YOUR BETS 1. Cowboy Bradley & Little Beaver vs. Sky Low Low & Little Brutus 2. Eric The Red vs. Jack Vansky 3. Willie Farkas vs. Mario Milano 4. Cowboy Bob Ellis vs. Prof. Toru Tanaka 5. Gene DuBois vs. "Krippler" Karl Kovacs 6. Gorilla Monsoon vs. Ernie Ladd 7. WWWF International Tag Team Championship, 2/3 Falls: Tony Marino & Victor Rivera © vs. Killer Kowalski & Waldo Von Erich 8. WWWF World Heavyweight Championship: Bruno Sammartino © vs. Ivan Koloff

The year is 1954, and long-reigning World Women's Wrestling Champion Mildred Burke is well into her 18th year of her second reign as the champion, soon within sight of a 19th year with her prized title. Her then-husband and manager, women's wrestling promoter Billy Wolfe, had done much to elevate women's wrestling from sideshow status to the equal of men's wrestling, with female grapplers often headlining on cards usually dominated by male wrestlers; not only did the World Women's title become prominent during Burke's reign, but Wolfe had also created a World Women's Tag Team Championship, and several regional women's titles were also created during that time frame. When Wolfe took out membership in the National Wrestling Alliance in 1949, Burke's title and the other women's championships came under NWA oversight while she and the other female wrestlers under Wolfe's management became available to all NWA members. The last few years of her title reign, however, has proven to be rocky behind the scenes. For all the good he had done for women's wrestling, Wolfe developed a reputation as a womanizer and often cheated on Burke with the women who traveled with him as part of his stable. Burke soon had enough and in 1952, she divorced Wolfe, who went out of his way to make trouble for his ex-wife by freezing her out from other NWA promoters, who then declined to officially recognize women's wrestling at their annual meeting in Chicago in September 1953, which Burke had been forbidden from attending due to Wolfe's manipulations. Wolfe, who previously had sold out his share of the women's wrestling business to Burke and was prohibited from promoting for five years as part of a non-compete clause, violated the clause after just a few months by getting back into promoting and engaged in anti-competitive practices against Burke, whose company Attractions Inc. declared bankruptcy and was placed in the hands of a trustee who then named Wolfe as its administrator. After Wolfe weaseled his way back into the women's wrestling business, things became very contentious between him and Burke. Wolfe had organized a tournament in Baltimore that saw his daughter-in-law June Byers gain recognition as a World Women's Champion (albeit not universally recognized), while Burke (who had founded her own promotion, the World Women's Wrestling Association, in the early 1950s) continued on as champion. Burke also had the support of the majority of female wrestlers in the sport, who refused to wrestle for Wolfe despite his bold proclamation of being the booker for Burke and her stable of wrestlers. With the animosity between Burke and Wolfe about to come to a head, a match had been arranged between Burke and June Byers in Atlanta on August 20 for Burke's NWA World Women's title. Burke, who had some legitimate heat with Byers because of the latter's association with Wolfe through her marriage to his son, trained for the match with the intent of keeping her title, but Wolfe had other ideas, engineered through some behind-the-scenes shenanigans with Atlanta's wrestling commission... * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * This diary, created to follow the course of an up-and-coming young wrestler over the course of her career following training under the guidance of Mildred Burke, will combine fantasy elements with real life. It will also be presented as an alternate history from the real world. As part of that alternate history, there will be two major changes to the timeline in this diary: One, in this alternate history, midget wrestling never existed, so women's wrestling has more prominence here and would be a more frequent presence on wrestling cards here than in real life (IRL). Two, the sport of roller derby was never invented in this timeline (ITTL); as a result, the women who had been involved in roller derby IRL instead become professional wrestlers ITTL. Also, the main focus in this diary, the young up-and-comer, will be a real-life personality who never had involvement in wrestling IRL.

Just started following this diary recently and it looks awesome. Can't wait to see what comes next. Meanwhile, I have an idea for a diary involving women's wrestling: RISE OF A STAR: Starts at about the time of the controversial match in Atlanta in 1954 where Mildred Burke is stripped of the NWA World Women's Championship (which is then handed to June Byers in the screwjob finish cooked up between Burke's ex-husband Billy Wolfe and the local wrestling commission). Although Burke is the initial focus at the beginning, she will not be the main focus, as that will shift to a young trainee who comes under Burke's wing as the time frame shifts to the early 1960s. This diary will combine real world and fantasy elements.

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="rufc4eva" data-cite="rufc4eva" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="52619" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>these are great, any plans to expand on this ?</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Like perhaps, Pacific Northwest, Stampede and Memphis/CWA.</p>