Hi everyone,
I indicate in my profile that I’ve been obsessed with women’s wrestling for half a century. Well, my friends, I’m not exaggerating. I’ve been cleaning up my basement and as I was going through some old boxes, I found my treasure chests (5 boxes full) of women’s wrestling and catfighting memorabilia going back nearly 50 years. I hadn’t opened these boxes in at least 20 years (well, at least since the internet became mainstream) and had forgotten how much stuff I had accumulated, especially from the 70s and 80s, although my oldest items are my two prized “Girl Wrestling” magazines from 1965. That was towards the end of the “Golden Era” of women’s professional wrestling. I have attached a picture of one of them below just to show you what they look like.
In the coming weeks, I’ll be going through my boxes of magazines, brochures, pamphlets, booklets, catalogs, 8mm movies, BETA and VHS videocassettes, photos and more, mostly from the 70s and 80s eras, and even a couple of copies of the AM-FEM Women’s Amateur Wrestling Directory, for those of you who may remember that publication. I’ll take some pics and will talk a bit about some of what I have. Many are from companies that you probably never even heard of (e.g.: Superior Studios, Impact Productions, NEWAWA), and some are from well-known companies (California Supreme, Bellstone, Triumph Studios, Curtis Dupont, DWW, Golden Girls, etc.), but when they were just starting. Others were very good in my opinion but, for some reason, didn’t seem to be as popular (Lady Hawke and Video Sports Limited come to mind).
Think about it for a second; no internet until the early 90s… In the 70s and 80s, everything was delivered by mail. We had to buy a magazine, cut out a clipping advertising a company that sold women’s fighting movies and or pictures, send it along with a money order, then, wait 6-8 weeks for a catalog or pamphlet to arrive, usually in black and white. After browsing through it and selecting a movie (reel-to-reel 8mm movies with no sound in the 70s; BETA or VHS cassettes in the 80s) or a photo set, we’d send another money order and wait another 6-8 weeks for delivery. It could easily take 3 to 4 months to obtain some of the material. Talk about being patient. Oh, BTW, I live in Canada, so that may explain some of the delay. But today, if a movie doesn’t download within 5 minutes, the client writes up a complaint…
I used to go to bookstores in the 70s and early 80s and browse the mainstream pro wrestling magazines, and if a magazine had an article on women’s wrestling, any article, I’d buy it. Although I wasn’t impressed by fake apartment house wrestling, it was popular then, so I’d buy the magazine anyway because there was not much else to choose from. The result: I probably have a few hundred pro wrestling magazines from the 70s and 80s stacked in my boxes. Many look brand new. I recall The Ring Wrestling magazine as being pretty good at highlighting women’s pro wrestling. I’ll take a few pics later to demonstrate this. And yes, I even have some of those Cavalier magazines that were famous for their catfight pictorials.
Just for fun, I’ll keep this thread going by rummaging through my stuff, and posting a few pictures that I’ll take once in a while of what I have, and provide a bit of background just to demonstrate some of the “old school” stuff that I pulled out. If you’re reading this Rockin’ Roxanne, you’ll probably get a kick out of it.
For example, anybody remember sexy catfighter Lori from B&J Enterprises, or how about Brandy Law and Sheri Whitlow (before her days at California Supreme) at Sundance Studios, or Ealer-Dayton’s Ali Day against Patti Austin? If you don’t, then I’m way too old for this forum.
Ok then, how about Joan Wise’s glossy black & white brochures called “Fighting Femmes” with the likes of Helen Lustgarden and Jan Hefner. This was before the days of Treena Collins, Robin and all those other sexy catfighters from Joan Wise and the spinoff Jaguar Videos.
Oh, and I really had a crush on those California girls at Judell DuLong’s Amazon Club. Cute blonde Liz Melez (she really tried hard, but rarely won), the Skarvan sisters (especially Nancy), nervous Laurie Hatch, smiling Cindy Brooks, tough as nails Treena Antonelli just to name a few, and of course, the boss herself, the legendary Judell DuLong. I have a snap shot of her somewhere, standing beside her car (a Buick Regal or Grand National, I think) wearing a T-shirt that says “Wanna wrestle”. Gotta love it!! She sent, by mail, pages and pages of matches, all inscribed by typewriter, with the title, price and a long detailed description of the girls, what they wore, what they were thinking, the match itself, along with sample snap shots in colour, just as if you’d had taken them with your own camera. When you ordered a movie or picture set, she’d attach a hand-written thank you note. It was like getting her autograph. Geez, you know, I kept everything, even those notes…, in perfect condition as if she had written them yesterday. I have at least one 8mm movie (yep, on a reel, with no sound) of an Amazon Club match that I had ordered from her, I remember one of the fighters as being Laurie Hatch. BTW, I have a couple of pictures of Judell in action on my Profile page. They were taken from the Net a while ago.
More recently, in the early 90s, Crystal published its magazine called “Catspats” that included stuff from the Hellfire Club (you can find some of those catfights online today). I have a few editions of that magazine (example below) and other similar cat fighting magazines from roughly the same time that I’ll show you later.
When I organize my stuff, my messages will be a bit more structured and I’ll take a bunch of sample pictures to share with you. Hope you’ll enjoy them…
I have to say though, with the advent of the internet, everything changed dramatically, and for the better. With fast and easy downloads, file sharing and streaming, Dailymotion, YouTube, XVideos, numerous fetish sites, forums and blogs, DeviantArt, the Female Fight Theatre, and tons more, including of course, the FCF, well…, it’s a whole new world. In the early days of the Internet, I do recall a gift from heaven in the form of a website called the Combative Woman's Web Site (xxxxxxxS) from IRL fighter Barbara that saw the light in 1992. In my humble opinion, a turning point in opening up IRL women’s wrestling at the time. PLease correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that she started the Voice Verified concept with her "Barb's Corner". Barb’s site no longer exists, but to me, and I suspect many other, more mature fans of female wrestling and catfighting, that site was THE best site out there in the mid90s. I looked forward to her regular updates in the Links section, where she explained in detail what the sites were about. And more importantly, she wrote some interesting and intelligent advice to women on how to get started and what to expect in the world of private female fighting, the types of fights, the attire, etc. by walking through some of the scenarios, types of fights, risks, etc. She broke it down into four main topics: Doing, Thinking, Watching and Talking. You could sense that she was talking directly to the women who wanted to learn more about this unique “activity”. For those of you who never heard of the xxxxxxxS, there is a tribute site at
https://sites.google.com/site/combativewomen/home. It doesn’t come close to the original site, but it contains some good extracts of what I mean about advice to help women enter the world of private female fighting. Trust me… It’s worth a look. Just check out the section on "Doing" for fun.
Anyway, back to reality. I’m thinking of selling most of my magazines and many of my older films, or trading them for DVDs or other items that any of you may wish to consider trading. I have no idea how much my magazines are worth today. I can figure that out later. I’ll list them eventually for those who may be interested. Many are in excellent to mint condition. As for the brochures, pamphlets and catalogs, I’m thinking of sharing them with my fellow members of the FCF who would be interested in this stuff, by giving them away. The vast majority are in perfect condition. We can talk about that a bit later. Maybe some fun contests or draws. I welcome your suggestions…
Stay tuned for the next update… Um, ever heard of a Canadian company from Toronto called Soowandis? Probably not… Well, I’ll show you one of their booklets, with pics of the fights.
Cheers from Wrstlvr.
