My Attempt to get my Megumi Kudo card signed

I've been a fan of Megumi Kudo since I first discovered FMW back in the mid 1990's.  I had never seen women wrestlers compete in death match wrestling, and Megumi Kudo was the best of her generation.

Later the company Tokyo Pop released several FMW DVD's here in the States giving his better quality matches to watch.

I have been collecting signed trading cards in earnest since 2003.  Back in 2018 when Mikey, Jay, & I decided to go to WrestleCon in New York I was buying cards on Ebay when I saw this 2001 BBM card of Kudo with an image that most represents her career in FMW.  I think I paid $7 for it and then just hoped that she would be announced to appear.  Sadly she was not brought it. 

Again in 2024 we went to WrestleCon in Philadelphia and she was not brough it either.  In fact I don't think anyone has ever brought her in for a signing.  Recently I was watching the "new" Hayabusa for Zero1 and discovered the Megumi is the general manager for the promotion.

I decided to mail the card to Megumi Kudo in care of Pro Wrestling Zero1 to the address on their website.  I've mailed cards to Japan in the past and have had great success with The Great Muta and The Great Kabuki for example. 

I hand wrote out a letter and then used Google Translate to put it in Japanese and mailed that with the card and $20 for return postage, although it won't cost that much.

It cost $2.98 to mail it to Japan so if I don't get it back I'm out, $23 and the card.  I mailed it out on June 20th, if I get it back I will post it here.

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Until next time! 

Women's Wrestler Bambi

Selina Majors began her in ring career in 1986 under the name Bambi for the Powerful Women of Wrestling promotion.  PoWW was promoted by David McLane who also created G.L.O.W. and the Women of Wrestling promotion.

In 1987 Bambi would go to the AWA feuding with Madusa Miceli, she also competed in the Lingerie Battle Royal at AWA SuperClash III.  Also in 1987 she would become a wrestler and valet in the Continental Wrestling Federation seconding Tom Prichard to the ring and tagging with him against the Dirty White Boy and Dirty White Girl.

Bambi vs. Judy Martin

In 1990 she joined the LPWA: Ladies Professional Wrestling Association. She would see her highest profile match at that point in her career as she wrestled the LPWA Women's Champion Susan Sexton at the NWA Clash of the Champions XII on September 5, 1990 in Asheville, North Carolina.

Late 1991 she would return to World Championship Wrestling when they revitalized their women's division.  Primarily feuding with Madusa she also had matches with Judy Martin and Leilani Kai.

In February 1994 Bambi traveled to Japan competing for the Frontier Martial Arts promotion also known as FMW.  She competed in various matches in singles and tag team competition teaming at times with Leilani Kai.  She also wrested in the FMW & WWA Women's Title Tournaments.

Madusa vs. Bambi WCW Power Hour 1991

Later in 1994 she entered Smoky Mountain Wrestling feuding with Tammy Fyth, later Sunny in the WWE.  She would team with the Rock N' Roll Express: Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson in a series of six person tag team matches against Fytch and her charges Chris Candido & Brian Lee.

Through-out her career Bambi had a long running feud with Peggy Lee Leather that crossed promotions.  They had matches in Smoky Mountain Wrestling, NWA, WCW, and all across the independents.  They feud went to the next level in late 2000 early 2001 in the Women of Wrestling Promotion.

On the very first episode of WOW television Leather, now going by the moniker Thug defeated Bambi, now going by Selina Majors.  Fast forward to episode 12 in November 2000 Majors defeated Thug in a falls count anywhere match.  On episode 15 in December they fought to a no-contest in a Lumberjack Match.

Their feud in WOW came to a head at the promotions only Pay Per View event WOW Unleashed February 4, 2001.  In a Steel Cage match Thug defeated Majors.  This cage was essentially a Hell in a Cell cage without the roof.

After WOW closed it doors Bambi continued wrestling on the independents in the South.  There is a documentary called Southern Discomfort: Wrestling on the Indie Circuit that is pretty fantastic.  It came out in 2002 and is about an indie show in Alabama.  Bambi and Peggy Lee Leather had a match against each other that night and are featured in the picture.  Worth watching if you can find it.

After a few years off Bambi returned to wrestling in 2016.  She wrestled Amber Gallows failing to capture the NWA Women's Championship on February 20, 2016 in Barnesville, Georgia and returned to WOW as Selina Majors when the promotion reactivated in fall of 2016.

Bambi vs. Peggy Lee Leather 2005

You can find many of her matches as both Bambi and Selina Majors on YouTube, including her Steel Cage match with Thug and recent match with Amber Gallows.  You can also see her match with Sexton from the Clash of the Champions on the WWE Network.

I've always been a fan of Bambi and she is someone that I would love to meet some day at a convention or even better to watch her and Peggy Lee Leather have one more match in person.

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https://www.cagematch.net//?id=2&nr=4315&page=4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selina_Majors

After G.L.O.W.

The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling was an all women's wrestling promotion that ran in syndication from 1986 - 1990 producing 104 episodes of television.  The wrestlers were made up of mostly dancers, models, actresses, and other women hoping to break into Hollywood through this venture.

Trained by Mando Guerrero for six weeks before the filming began, a few continued in the world of wrestling stepping into rings outside of the GLOW universe.

Lisa Moretti wrestled in GLOW as Tina Ferrari and is better known as Ivory.  The most successful wrestler to come from GLOW Moretti would win the GLOW crown leaving the promotion after the second season.  Moretti would wrestle under names Nina and Tina Moretti for Powerful Women of Wrestling & Ladies Professional Wrestling Association and also competed in the UWF and the AWA.

Moretti debuted in 1999 in the WWE as Ivory first as a manager and then a competitor becoming a tree time women's champion leaving when her contract expired at the end of 2005.  She returned to the indy scene winning a few independent titles before officially retiring in 2006 with an impressive 20 year career.

Tiffany Mellon born Sandra Margot competed for GLOW 1988 - 1989 becoming a porn star in 1992 changing her name to Tiffany Million.  In 2010 she appeared in the documentary After Porn Ends.

Cynthia Peretti had been a professional wrestler for 18 years competing at Princess Jasmine before she joined GLOW as a trainer.  In season one she was Pepper in the tag team Salt & Pepper.  After leaving GLOW Peretti challenged Sherri Martel in both AWA & WWE for her Women's Championship.  She passed way May 8, 2009.

Emily Dole of Samoan decent wrestled as Mt. Fiji for the entire run of the promotion.  She was never defeated  and rarely left her feet.  After GLOW she had bit parts in movies and tv shows.

Debi Pelletier debuted in 1983 as The Killer Tomato in Los Angeles changing her name to Dallas when she joined GLOW for the first season. After GLOW  she joined the AWA as Killer Tomato challenging Sherri Martel for the women's championship.  She appeared in the 1985 movie Grunt! The Wrestling Movie.

Olympia Hartauer was an original cast member of GLOW under the name of Corporal Kelly, one of two people to play the character Corporal Kelly.  She left GLOW and continued her training under the Fabulous Moolah which lead her to having matches in the WWE and AWA under her given name.  She retired in the 1990's then returned in 2007 for the NWA-ECCW.

Trudy Adams joined GLOW in 1987 as Amy the Farmer's Daughter leaving the promotion later that year she joined POWW using the same gimmick under the name Brandi Mae.  As Mae she competed in several other all girls promotions and challenged Madua Miceli for the AWA Women's Championship before retiring in 1991.

Dee Booher competed in GLOW as Matilda the Hun in the shows first two seasons but is better known as Queen Kong.  Booher first began competing in Roller Derby as Queen Kong before training to become a wrestler.  After GLOW she delivered "Slam-A-Grams" thinking singing telegrams except with bodyslams, and had several bit parts in movies and televisions shows wrestling sporadically into the mid 90's.  Check her website for more www.queenkong.com 

Jody Haselbarth appears in season 2 - 4 as Tulsa After GLOW she became a stunt woman in Hollywood appearing for such pictures as The Chase, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and more.  She currently has a Go Fund Me page started by her nephew to aid with medical bills from pulmonary embolisms here.

Eileen O'Hara competed as Melody Trouble Vixen or MTV from season 3 until the end of the show.  Eileen is the co-founder of Sisters Fierce Productions she wrote, produced, and directed a documentary about GLOW "Behind GLOW's Doors Making Gorgeous Ladies."  You can find out more about her and her production company here.

Cheryl Rusa competed as Lightning from season 3 until the end of the shows run. After GLOW Cheryl wrestled in POWW and other women's leagues before becoming an actress and stunt woman. You can read more about her on her website here.

Becky Mullen wrestled in season 1 & 3 as Sally The Farmer's Daughter After GLOW she became an actress appearing in several TV shows and a few films.

An excellent documentary was released in 2011 called GLOW: The Story of The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling that chronicles the story of GLOW and even films a talent reunion.  If you haven't seen it please take the time to. You can find more information about it on the film's website here.

Netflix has ordered a 10 episode TV series based on the GLOW premise even using the name G.L.O.W. starring Alison Brie as Ruth an actress down on her luck turning to women's wrestling to get exposure.  Also staring Marc Maron as the promoter.  Created by Jenji Kohan who created "Weeds" and "Orange is the New Black".

American Angels, Baptism in Blood was a movie made in 1989 with Jan Sebastian as Lisa a girl who wants to follow in her grandfathers footsteps to become a professional wrestler for the all women's league American Angels.  This film featured many wrestlers from GLOW but also starred "Magnificent" Mimi Lesseos and actress and stunt woman who got her start in wrestling just not in GLOW.  Mimi started with the AWA and had matches in FMW in Japan and AAA in Mexico.  Her webpage is here.

During my research I came across a project that has been billed as both a Movie and Reality TV show called "Femme D'Action" and it features many of the former GLOW girls. IMDB has it listed as last updated May 14, 2013.  It appears wrestling related and you can find clips about it on you tube and Cheryl Rusa has an album of over 50 photos of it on her website.  I hope to find this so I can watch it.

This is by no means an official or complete list of what the ladies have done After GLOW was over.  With a roster of near 100 wrestlers during the promotions run I basically highlighted those that I could find information on.

This blog post began as a conversation with my friends during a podcast where we talked about the new GLOW show on Netflix.  Off the top of my head I couldn't only thing of Ivory having wrestled anywhere After GLOW so it was exciting to learn about the other ladies.

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Hayabusa

 Sadly on March 3rd Eiji Ezaki better known to the world as professional wrestler Hayabusa died from a subarachnoid hemorrhage at the age of 47.

I first saw Hayabusa when he teamed with Jinsei Shinzaki in a tag team match against Rob Van Dam and Sabu at ECW's Heatwave 1998 for the ECW World Tag Team Championships.  Thanks to PWI and other publications I had heard of Hayabusa before and was anxious to see him in action.

Initially my reaction was that he was the Japanese version of Sabu.  They even wore the same gear in the ring, except Sabu didn't have a mask.  I would learn that Hayabusa was not a carbon copy of Sabu and in fact may have been even more extreme than the homicidal, suicidal, genocidal, death defying maniac himself.

A still from ECW Heatwave 98

In October 2000 Tokyopop started releasing DVD compilations featuring the matches of Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling or FMW.  One release was nothing but Hayabusa matches showing violent and bloody feuds with "Gladiator" Mike Awesome, Mr. Gannosuke, Atushi Onita, and more.

Hayabusa competed in some of the most violent and bizarre matches I have ever seen.  Later in his career he competed as H wearing no mask and basically daisy duke style cut off jean shorts.  As H he wrestled Mr. Gannosuke, who at this point was dressed as Hayabusa wrestling under the name Darkside Hayabusa, in an anal bomb explosion match.  Essentially a roman candle was jammed up H's butt and lit it...yes this happened in a wrestling ring.

On October 22, 2001 at the FMW PPV Power Splash 2001 Eiji once again wrestling as the masked Hayabusa was wrestling against Mammoth Saski and went a springboard moonsault.  This was a move he had performed probably hundreds of times, a move that several other wrestlers have performed hundreds of times, and yet on this day his feet slipped on the ropes and he landed on his head breaking his neck paralyzing him.

Moments after the  botched springboard moonsault that ended his career.

FMW closed down shortly thereafter amidst controversy.

Hayabusa would regain some feeling in his legs and in mid 2015 would walk to and enter the ring with only the assistance of a cane.

You should take some time and go to YouTube and watch some of Hayabusa's art, is art of wrestling.  I've taken the liberty to give you some links of matches.

Hayabusa vs. Sabu 

Exploding Deathmatch: Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka vs. Mr. Pogo & Terry Funk

Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka vs. Mike Awesome & Terry Funk

FMW Sixth Anniversary Show - Complete show

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