[Bear]

Back in the day, and much to my chagrin, it was difficult to find any woman on any of the pro circuits who I would categorize as "thick" or "curvy" or "heavyset".  Verne Bottoms, Rita Crawford, Bernice LaRue, Rhonda Singh (before she ballooned up to Bertha Faye), Diane Von Hoffman, and Leilani Kai for awhile (as one of the Golden Girls) were about the only ones.  And they never wrestled against each other.

In checking out matches on Youtube, I've counted no less than 30 young women performing on Indy circuits that I would happily place in one of those three categories.  They even "compete" against each other oftentimes.  I'm not a fan of pro wrestling, but I find it interesting to finally see women of physical substance getting the opportunity to show their stuff. 

Could it be that these promoters have discovered that there is a following, or a fan base for heavier women?  Have times changed enough that men are no longer shy about admitting their interest in such ladies?  I suspect that the answers to both questions are "yes," but I always appreciate comments and insights offered by other members on this board.    So feel free to fire away. 

[npom]

Back in the day, and much to my chagrin, it was difficult to find any woman on any of the pro circuits who I would categorize as "thick" or "curvy" or "heavyset".  Verne Bottoms, Rita Crawford, Bernice LaRue, Rhonda Singh (before she ballooned up to Bertha Faye), Diane Von Hoffman, and Leilani Kai for awhile (as one of the Golden Girls) were about the only ones.  And they never wrestled against each other.

In checking out matches on Youtube, I've counted no less than 30 young women performing on Indy circuits that I would happily place in one of those three categories.  They even "compete" against each other oftentimes.  I'm not a fan of pro wrestling, but I find it interesting to finally see women of physical substance getting the opportunity to show their stuff. 

Could it be that these promoters have discovered that there is a following, or a fan base for heavier women?  Have times changed enough that men are no longer shy about admitting their interest in such ladies?  I suspect that the answers to both questions are "yes," but I always appreciate comments and insights offered by other members on this board.    So feel free to fire away.

Interesting subject.  I also always enjoyed a busty full figured woman in the ring.  Back in my teens my best friend's mom, though not real heavy, fit that description. I uses to fantasize about her going up against the full figured wrestlers of the day. Joyce Grable, Mitzy Mueller, etc.  In my mind these ladies would toss my friend's mom all over the ring.

My favorite though was Sabrina. She was a big busty wrestler from New Zealand.  Here's a pic of her.

[Sinful Senorita Carmen]

Decent amount here

https://www.slampegs.com/slamminladies.com/index.html

[Bear]

Thanks for the link to the SLAM peg website.  Interestingly, the match between Diane Von Hoffman and Rosie Lotta Love is missing.  Or, at least, I couldn't find it. 

[bend5]

 What 1st got me interested in female wrestling was those rather snug fitting 1-piece suits the pro lady wrestlers wore back in the 60's and 70's...
 Most of those ladies weren't exactly that thin but those snug suits they all wore looked really good to me...

 Unfortunately all the pro lady wrestlers started wearing way too much clothing for my liking...

 Those somewhat curvier  lady wrestlers looked like the perfect example of what female wrestlers should look like...

[catfightlover40]

It is a "tad" bit more complex than that. From the 1930s until the 1950s, female pro wrestling was shunned in the US, yet most of the women who applied were genuine people, not specifically cast. Once the sexual revolution rolled around and promoters discovered the ton of money to be made on female pro wrestling, they have literally pushed out the pioneers for their own promotions. Some few heavy set women who did find work did so either as Welfare Queen in GLOW (who employed and trained physically attractive actresses to be wrestlers) or as other objects of ridicule since the main message was "we still go to wars because men are hunters and hunters are only interested in gazelles, not bulls".

It wasn't altruism that changed things... the internet is the only medium that doesn't exist on geographically separate lines, and most customers are not in-person attendance. The "gazelles" started gravitating toward jobs with less hassle and more income, so wrestling sort of returned to its roots of employing people who actually want to do it. The big promotions still employ former cheerleaders, so it's not a cathartic change by any means.

[bend5]

 I fully agree about it being way more complex than just 1 or 2 reasons why female pro wrestling wasn't that popular back in the early days...

 1st of all we're going back to an era where basically the woman's place was ,and I using the typical stereotype phrase of those rimes ,"Barefoot,pregnant and in the kitchen."...

 In the Chicago area we had BOB LUCE WRESTLING on TV and that was the only choice we had back then...

 They featured guys like  DICK THE BRUISER,THE CRUSHER,BOBBY HEENAN,WAHOO MCDANIEL,THE VALENTINE BROTHERS,THE SHEIK,VERNE GAGNE, plus others...

 Very very rarely did they feature a ladies match,maybe once every 2 months if even that...

 Another reason ladies pro wrestling never caught on as much as I thought it should've is,and I'm not in any way trying to start any argument or offend anyone,but truthfully at least IMHO,there's fewer women who can do many of the pro-style moves as good as most of the guys can...Maybe I'm wrong about that statement,maybe not...LOL

 Maybe 1 of the bigggest reasons pro lady wrestling never became popular is ,and I'm pretty sure this also applies to many types of todays fantasy female wrestling like topless and nude is because there's way more people (Both sexes but probably mostly guys) who prefer their female wrestlers to look more like thinner model types rather than the rather curvy heavier types who usually look more like what female wrestlers should look like...

 Also,like you alluded to in your final statement,most of the female wrestlers around the past 25-30 years also have other career opportunities other than wrestling which #1 usually pays quite a lot more and #2 many of those girls don't want to try doing many of those pro style moves because if they get injured trying to do any moves they haven't tried before  that might keep them sidelined awhile which could limit their future earning potential working elsewhere...

 Who knows,I'm just giving you my opinions...

[Bear]

Always interesting how the conversation evolves during the process of discussion and thanks for all who have contributed.  There are a few points that I think deserve comments.  First, men and women who aspire to be pro wrestlers, don't do it because they want to wrestle.  They do so because they want to perform.  After all, pro wrestling isn't wrestling -- it's a choregraphed show.  That's why GLOW tapped the ranks of unemployed actresses and dancers to fill its need for "wrestlers."  Other sources for productions like Golden Girls or Academy wrestling were local gyms, which were producing fit women, even many body builders who wrestled.  I would also contend that the women who wrestled at the Hollywood Tropicana were aspiring performers, HOWEVER they actually DID wrestle.   

Which brings me back to my original question and CFLover's comments regarding gazelles vs. bulls.  I would agree that most men prefer "gazelles" which is why most pro women wrestlers, the Tropicana girls, the Golden Girls, the GLOW women, etc. tended to be more Barbie-like.  However, I still believe that we're witnessing a small, but significant paradigm shift in favor of heavier women.  I saw this in the waning years of my teaching career.  Way back when, you would never see a heavier girl on the Cheer squad or in the dance class, and they never had a boyfriend.  Things are different now, which I think is a good thing.  Guys who prefer heavier girls are less shy about it, and I think this is reflected in the number of heavier women who we now find working (performing) on the Indie circuits, and the number of fans that follow them on Facebook or Youtube or wherever. 

My dream-come-true would be for some video producer to approach any number of these pro wrestlers and convince them to do a video with them really wrestling -- no script, no choreography, no shoes, just a straight-up Lady Hawke style match.  My assumption is that there is a considerable market available for this type of production.  Maybe I'm wrong, but if I had the ability, I'd definitely give it a try. 

[catfightlover40]

Always interesting how the conversation evolves during the process of discussion and thanks for all who have contributed.  There are a few points that I think deserve comments.  First, men and women who aspire to be pro wrestlers, don't do it because they want to wrestle.  They do so because they want to perform.  After all, pro wrestling isn't wrestling -- it's a choregraphed show.  That's why GLOW tapped the ranks of unemployed actresses and dancers to fill its need for "wrestlers."  Other sources for productions like Golden Girls or Academy wrestling were local gyms, which were producing fit women, even many body builders who wrestled.  I would also contend that the women who wrestled at the Hollywood Tropicana were aspiring performers, HOWEVER they actually DID wrestle.   

Which brings me back to my original question and CFLover's comments regarding gazelles vs. bulls.  I would agree that most men prefer "gazelles" which is why most pro women wrestlers, the Tropicana girls, the Golden Girls, the GLOW women, etc. tended to be more Barbie-like.  However, I still believe that we're witnessing a small, but significant paradigm shift in favor of heavier women.  I saw this in the waning years of my teaching career.  Way back when, you would never see a heavier girl on the Cheer squad or in the dance class, and they never had a boyfriend.  Things are different now, which I think is a good thing.  Guys who prefer heavier girls are less shy about it, and I think this is reflected in the number of heavier women who we now find working (performing) on the Indie circuits, and the number of fans that follow them on Facebook or Youtube or wherever. 

My dream-come-true would be for some video producer to approach any number of these pro wrestlers and convince them to do a video with them really wrestling -- no script, no choreography, no shoes, just a straight-up Lady Hawke style match.  My assumption is that there is a considerable market available for this type of production.  Maybe I'm wrong, but if I had the ability, I'd definitely give it a try.

Just to clarify, I was including Latin America and Japan where pro wrestling is a very real sport in the sense, wrestlers died during or in complications of a match. I do think the McMahon et al turned the American version into heavy showmanship, but back in the 50s and earlier, shoot matches weren't uncommon.

I would love to see heavier set women fighting more as they can execute moves more leaner people can't.