Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling

Acronym	G.L.O.W.
Founded	1986; 39 years ago (1986)
Style	Women's professional wrestling
Headquarters	Las Vegas,Nevada (1986–1992)
Founder	David McLane
Owner(s)	Meshulam Riklis (1986–2001) Ursula Hayden (2001–2022)
Successor	'Unofficial: Powerful Women of Wrestling Women of Wrestling
Website	gorgeousladiesofwrestling.com

Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (also known by its initials asGLOW orG.L.O.W.) is awomen's professional wrestlingpromotion that began in 1986 (the pilot was filmed in December 1985) and has continued in various forms after it lefttelevision. Colorful characters, strong women, and over-the-top comedy sketches were integral to the series' success. Most of the performers were actresses, models, dancers or stunt women hoping to enter show business.

David B. McLane created the series while working as an announcer and promoter with Indianapolis-basedWorld Wrestling Association (WWA) after seeing fans react to women's wrestling. The show runnerDick the Bruiser believed that Indianapolis audiences would not be receptive to a wrestling promotion featuring female wrestlers and dismissed the concept as an unprofitable novelty.

Undeterred, McLane went to Hollywood and posted casting notices inThe Hollywood Reporter andVariety, leading to over 500 women showing up for auditions at The Hyatt on Sunset. The first audition was atGold's Gym,^[1] and the dozen finalists selected trained for six weeks at the Broadway Boxing Gym^[2] at 108th and Broadway^[3] in the South Los Angeles neighborhood ofWatts. McLane hired professional Mexican wrestlerMando Guerrero to train them and later brought in wrestling veteranCynthia Peretti (professionally known as Princess Jasmine) to take over from Guerrero. Peretti also wrestled in the series as "Pepper".

McLane partnered with the television distribution company Independent Network Incorporated (INI), headed by formerLorimar-Telepictures executive Irv Holender. Holender's previous credits included producingGumby, which was revived about the same time. It was through Holender that McLane metMeshulam Riklis, chairman of Rapid-American Corporation, a conglomerate which included ownership of theRiviera Hotel and Casino on theLas Vegas Strip. Riklis arranged for the Riviera Hotel to host GLOW. Holender's firm was in charge of distribution (in ajoint venture with aNew York City based syndicator, MG/Perin) and McLane headed the venture.Matt Cimber, who had recently directed the movieButterfly, starring Riklis' then wifePia Zadora, was brought in to provide creative services and direct the shows.^[4]

A number of the original dozen wrestlers moved to Las Vegas^[5] and were supplemented by local women, many of whom had been actresses andshowroom dancers. Lauri Thompson, a future Las Vegas attorney and lead dancer in theFolies Bergère at theTropicana,^[6][7] played Susie Spirit. Thompson recruited others, creating a recruiting chain of other friends and dancers.^[1] One of those, Lorilyn Palmer, who played Colonel Ninotchka, took over training the new women.^[5] According toDavid McLane, the first actress hired wasJeanne Basone (who was working as aphlebotomist at the time) as the character Hollywood. Basone also appeared inPlayboy, part of a pictorial titled Lethal Women. She went on to do stunt work and started her own wrestling production companyHollywould Productions.

The show was introduced at the 1986NATPE Convention. Following the successful initial sale to 30 major television markets in the US and six other countries, McLane brought inJackie Stallone, mother ofSylvester Stallone, to playkayfabe GLOW owner and themanager of theGood Girls. Kitty Burke as Aunt Kitty, was the manager for theBad Girls. Stallone had been promoting a physical fitness gym for women only.

The syndicated GLOW TV show was produced for four seasons (1986–1990). Seasons 1 and 2 were shot at the Riviera on Saturday afternoons with a casino crowd. McLane and the majority of the original cast left the company in a dispute over the domination of low brow,blue,Hee Haw style comedy Cimber had infused into the show. McLane's new promotion becamePowerful Women of Wrestling. Seasons 3 and 4 were filmed at a former warehouse building approximately three miles east of the Riviera hotel which would later be aHarley-Davidson outlet. Cimber cast new actresses to play the wrestlers.

They wrestled approximately eight matches per live event.^[5] The show itself differed fromVince McMahon'sWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF) in that the venture held live events only for the purpose of taping television programming, versus running live shows in various city locations each week. They had actual television seasons consisting of 26 episodes that were each rerun once to complete the year, with a total of 104 episodes produced and aired. As Cimber focused on producing, Andrew Hecker directed later episodes. A fifth season was being shot when the show went off the air in financial turmoil. Hecker directed an initial revival attempt in 1991, which became thepay per view special,GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling: Canvas Carnage, which included clips from every performer in the company's history including McLane's return as host.^[8] McLane later createdWomen of Wrestling, also directed by Hecker and syndicated to TV stations by MG/Perin, in 2000.

McLane performed as the ring announcer and host for Seasons 1 and 2. McLane's announcing voice was replaced in Season 2 to add more comedy feel to the episodes, using Miles Headlock (a computer generatedknock-off ofMax Headroom),^[9] and "Motormouth" Mike Morgan (who sounded a lot likeHoward Cosell). Steve Blance was the seniorreferee in Season 2 before becoming GLOW's "commissioner" in Seasons 3 and 4. He was the regular recipient of a GLOW Girl beatdown in Season 2. Johnny Cafarella (as "Johnny C.") was the ring announcer for Seasons 3 and 4, was the figurehead owner (buying David McLane's "interest" in a storyline) and also served as company manager after the departure of McLane in 1987.

Each of the GLOW performers had their ownrap song (personalized lyrics using the same backing track). It was shown onvideotape prior to that wrestler's match. Similar to other wrestling promotions' use of wrestler-specificentrance themes, thisgimmick may have been influenced by theChicago Bears' "Super Bowl Shuffle". The music for the rap was written by Hank Donig, who did the music for the first two seasons supervised by Morris I. Diamond. Music for Seasons 3 and 4 was created by Brian Bogle and Ed Ryba under the name "Music out the Yang". Hecker gave each performer personalizedDigital video effects including3D effects and personalized logos, with Ann DeVilbiss as graphic designer.

GLOW began re-airing its entire third season and three episodes of season four on the streaming serviceTubi under the name "The Original Ladies of Wrestling" as of 2020.^[10]

The GLOW company was owned and operated since 2001 byUrsula Hayden, who portrayed Babe the Farmer's Daughter, Princess of Darkness, and Donna Matrix. Her first venture with GLOW was a sold-out 2003 live event at theEl Rey Theatre in Hollywood California. Followed by aDirecTV pay-per-view produced by Ursula Hayden and Johnny Cafarella, Glow's ring announcer season 3 and 4. In April 2012, GLOW returned to Las Vegas for a show that reunited former GLOW participants Hollywood (Jeanne Basone), Babe the Farmer's Daughter, Gremlina, Lightning, Thunder Bolt, Melody Trouble Vixen, Ashley Cartier, Godiva, Daisy, and Corporal Kelly. The show also featured new GLOW wrestlers, includingSara Deathray andVH1. Then later in 2012 she appeared in the documentaryGLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. It premiered on April 27, 2012, at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and won the Best Documentary award at theSan Diego Comic-Con Film Festival. In 2017 after a few years of working with writersLiz Flahive andCarly Mensch,GLOW – a scripted comedy-drama series based on the actual wrestling promotion – was picked up byNetflix. Hayden served as a series consultant for the show^[11] until its cancellation due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. Hayden died on December 3, 2022.

A documentary film,GLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, was released in 2012. The film was directed by Brett Whitcomb and written by Bradford Thomason. It features the music ofESG. The film premiered to positive reviews at theHot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, and has since been featured inNew York Magazine,LA Weekly,RogerEbert.com, VICE, /Film,The Village Voice, andMental Floss magazine. It won the Best Documentary award at the 2012San Diego Comic-Con Film Festival, and Audience Choice Best Documentary at Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, Alabama.^[12][13][14]

GLOW is a TV series that premiered onNetflix in 2017. A scriptedcomedy drama, it tells the fictional story of a 1980s professional wrestling promotion that is based on the actual Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. It was created byLiz Flahive andCarly Mensch, and starsAlison Brie,Betty Gilpin, andMarc Maron.^[15][16]

• Official website
• GLOW atTwitter
• GLOW atInstagram
• Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling atIMDb
• GLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (2012 documentary) atIMDb

• 1986 American television series debuts
• 1986 establishments in Nevada
• 1990 American television series endings
• American professional wrestling television series
• American women's professional wrestling promotions
• Defunct professional wrestling promotions
• Entertainment companies established in 1986
• First-run syndicated television programs in the United States
• Performing groups established in 1986
• Professional wrestling in the Las Vegas Valley
• Women in Las Vegas

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