Queen Of The Ring

I was not able to watch Queen of the Ring locally in theatres as the closest place it was screening was near 2 hours aways, and I just couldn't make it work to go.  Much like The Iron Claw I really wanted to check this one out on the big screen.

A couple weeks back it hit streaming so earlier this week I took the time to watch the movie.  I have to say over all, I really enjoyed it.  The image of the poster above whenever I saw it I kept thinking it was Cobie Smulders, even though I knew it wasn't.  The actress that plays Mildred Burke is Emily Bett Rickards and as I'm watching the movie I recognize her but can't place it, felt like a fool when I looked it up and saw that she played Felicity Smoak in the Arrowverse on the CW.

The film is based  inspired by the 2010 book "The Queen of the Ring: Sex, Muscles, Diamonds, and the Making of an American Legend" by Jeff Leen which I own but haven't read in year.

Overall I really enjoyed the movie, the wrestling was acceptable, the story was great, and the cinematography was tremendous.  Much like The Iron Claw, you can enjoy this movie even if you are not a wrestling fan.

While I am not subject matter expert in the the timeline of women's wrestling from the 1940's & 1950's I picked up a few historical inaccuracies in the film, but that's typical for the Hollywood creative license.

For instance:

In the movie we meet Jeanette Boyer who takes the stage name of Gladys Killem Gillem in the movie. Her character dies after a rough match with June Byers.

Jeanette Boyer was lady wrestler, who was the foster daughter of Billy Wolfe, she took the ring name of Janet Wolfe and tragically passed away at the age of 18. She wrestled Ella Waldeck on a matinee show and then competed later that evening in a tag team match, shortly into the match she lost consciousness and died from a brain hemorrhage a few hours later at the hospital. A hard body slam by Ella Waldek in her first match of the day has been attributed to her death, however a blood clot had most like formed a week earlier.  

Gladys "Killem" Gillem wrestled from 1942 - 1962

Killem Gillem

Several current and past wrestlers and wrestling personalities are in the movie, some in larger roles than others. 

Toni Storm as Clara Mortensen

Kailey Latimer aka Kamille as June Byers

James E. Cornette as NWA Commissioner

Trinity Fatu aka Naomi as Ethel Johnson

Britt Baker as Debbie Nichols

Mickie James as Fabulous Moolah 

Kamille has the largest role in the movie of all the wrestlers that appeared.  Mickie and Britt are in blink and you missed it cameo's essentially.  There is a documentary that came out a couple years ago about Ethel Johnson called Lady Wrestler and that is worth your time.  Also the 2004 documentary Lipstick and Dynamite: The First Ladies of Wrestling is an excellent look at early women's wrestling.

I would also recommend the autobiography of Penny Banner Banner Days as another excellent look at women's wrestling in the 1950's & 1960's.  

 

I'm going to re-read Mildred's book and read June Byers book before I watch this film again.

Thank you for reading, please leave a comment, check out my other posts, and if you want like my blogs Facebook page.  You can also head over to Amazon and pick up a copy of my book the 2024 Limitless Wrestling Almanac, or any of my other books.

Until next time!

Random Wrestling: Women's Edition

June Byers vs. Cora Combs

Other than the 50’s I’m not sure when this match was.   It’s actually a pretty solid match that was enjoyable to watch, the crowd was into it, which is more than you can see for the current WWE non NXT product.

 Mildred Burke vs. Mae Weston

So that last match made me look for a Mildred Burke match the pioneer woman’s wrestler.  Again this match is from the 1950’s and this has a newsreel feel to it with the background music and commentary.  Burke was pretty damn vicious and dirty in the ring. 

Vivian Vachon vs. Kay Noble

From the early 70’s Vivian is the sister of Maurice and Paul Vachon and the namesake of my cat.  She was also the featured subject in the documentary Wrestling Queen that I own and it is a very good documentary on her and wrestling at that time.  Both Vachon and her opponent Kay Noble stopped wrestling full time in the early 80’s because they had children and only appeared sporadically after that.  

My cat Vivian Vachon

The Crush Girls: Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagoya vs. Leilani Kai & Penny Mitchell

March 16, 1986 Madison Square Garden

The Crush Girls were hugely popular in Japan as both Asuka and Chigusa reached megastar status in Japan.  When they came to the States they brought a ladies style that was unseen over here and it blew the fans away.  Most people know who Leilani Kai is.  Penny Mitchell I had never heard of until recently but have watched several of her matches and am a big fan of her work. 

 Jumping Bomb Angels: Itsuki Yamazaki & Noriyo Tateno vs. Devil Masami & Jaguar Yokota

August 10, 2008 from LLPW in Japan

Parts 1 & 2

The Jumping Bomb Angels were popular and successful tag team in the mid 80’s to early 90’s both in Japan and the states, they famously defeated the Glamour Girls for the WWF Women’s Tag Team Championships at the first Royal Rumble in 1988.  Yamazaki had retired in 1991, moved to New York and opened a restaurant with her husband.  This match in 2008 is her return to wrestling.  Noriyo had stated active in wrestling until her retirement in 2010. 

Masami debuted in 1978 and had a very successful career in Japan until her retirement at the end of 2008.  In 1997 Masami became the second and last WCW Women’s Champion winning the vacant title in a tournament final a couple months before the title was abandoned by WCW.

Jaguar Yokota debuted in 1977 a month before her 16^th birthday and considered one of the greatest women wrestlers of all time, she is still actively wrestling in Japan. 

Me with Itsuki Yamazaki at Legends of the Ring June 2, 2012 in Monroe, NJ

 

Sara Del Rey vs. Mia Yim

April 23, 2011, Baltimore, Maryland

RCW presents “The Supremacy”

Sara Del Rey is probably the greatest American Women’s Wrestler of all time. Since September 2012 she has been working as a trainer in the WWE for NXT, even recently being promoted to assistant head trainer.  Good for her that she found a way to live to not travel and make a living wrestling, crappy for us that she isn’t wrestling any longer.  She is only 35 so potentially she could still return to wrestling showing the world how good she is.

Mia Yim was early in her career at this point but it was clear from this match just how good she was going to become, and is.

I had the pleasure of seeing Del Rey wrestle twice in person, both for Chikara.  First time on December 3, 2011 in Everett, MA for JoshiMania where she defeated Tsubasa Kuragaki in a hard hitting match.  Then on July 28, 2012 in Portland for in a losing effort to Grand Champion: Eddie Kingston in an awesome match. 

Myself with Sara Del Rey Chikara in Portland, yup that's the Young Bucks in the background

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment and like my blog's Facebook page here.


Later Readers!

Bonus!

Here are the photo galleries to JoshiMania and Chiakara

JoshiMania Part 1

JoshiMania Part 2

Chikara: The Great Escape