• Look Back In History
• Pmessages
• Quiz
• Stump The Staff
• Top Fifty
• Close

Bios

Fabulous Moolah

Height: 5' 5"

Weight: 138 lbs.

From: Columbia, SC

Birthday: Jul 22nd

Pro Debut: May 26, 1949

Aliases: Lillian Ellison, May Ellison, Slave Girl Moolah, The Great Moolah, Spider Lady

Feds Worked For: MSW, TSW, AWA, NWA, WWE, WWF, WWWF, Al Haft Sports (IL/OH), All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling (Japan), Big Time Wrestling (Canada), Central States Wrestling (IA/KS/MO), Championship Wrestling from Florida (FL), Continental Wrestling Association (TN), East Coast Wrestling Association (CT/DE), Fred Kohler Enterprises (IL), Georgia Championship Wrestling (GA), Gulf Athletic Club (TX), Gulf Coast Championship Wrestling (AL), International Wrestling (Canada), International Wrestling Enterprise (Japan), JPWA, Ladies International Wrestling Association (NV), Maple Leaf Wrestling (Canada), Maryland Championship Wrestling (MD), Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (NC/SC), Mid-Pacific Promotions (HI), Mike London Sports (AZ/NM), National Wrestling Federation (NJ/NY/OH/PA), NWA Big Time Wrestling (TX), NWA Hollywood (CA), NWA Mid-America (AL), NWA Vancouver (Canada), Pacific Coast Athletic Club (CA), Rocky Mountain Sports Enterprises (CO/WY), Southeast Championship Wrestling (TN), Southwest Sports (TX), St. Louis Wrestling Club (MO), Terminal Athletic Club (OH), World Wrestling Council (Puerto Rico), Wrestling Promotions, Inc. (AZ/NM)

Finisher: School Girl

Signature Moves: Backbreaker, Small Package, Flying Dropkick, Flying Headscissors, Flying Mare, The Moolah Whip (Grabbing a girl by the hair and whipping her through the air)

Career Highlights: -IWWA Women’s Champion
-JWPA Women's Champion
-NWA (California) World Women's Tag Team Champion (2x; both w/ Toni Rose)
-NWA World Women's Champion (4x)
-USA Women's Wrestling Champion
-World Women's Junior Heavyweight Champion (Pfefer version)
-WWF World Women's Champion (4x)

Affiliates: Elephant Boy, Buddy Rogers, Mae Young, Terri Runnels, Bobby Davis, Toni Rose, Donna Christianello, Leilani Kai, Rita Cortez, Dottie Downs

Notable Feuds: Maria Perez, Cyndi Lauper, Ivory, Judy Grable, Donna Christianello, Vicky Williams, Patsy O'Neill, Betty Boucher, Wendi Richter, Winona Little Heart, Joyce Grable, Rita Cortez, Fran Gravette, Penny Mitchell, Susan Green, Candy Malloy, Judy Martin, Velvet McIntyre, Darling Dagmar, Susan Star, Princess Victoria, Vivian St. John, Peggy Lee Leather, Ann Regan, Helen Hild, Kitty Adams

Other Facts: -Real name was Mary Lillian Ellison
-Former wife of pro wrestler Johnny Long. They divorced because he wanted her to just be a housewife. Also, according to Moolah, Long was a womanizer.
-Former wife of pro wrestler Buddy Lee
-Mother of pro wrestler Pat Sherry
-Allegedly dated Hank Williams, Sr. for four months in 1952. He proposed to her. She refused and broke up, due to Williams' alcoholism and heroin abuse. Williams died two months after their break-up.
-Sometimes billed from Hawaii
-Grew up with 12 brothers.
-Her father had some Cherokee ancestry
-Her mother died when Moolah was 8 years old. At the age of ten, Ellison was still deeply distraught over her mother’s death, so to cheer her up, her father took her to the local Tuesday night wrestling matches. According to Ellison, she liked the matches, but it was not until she saw long-time Women's Champion Mildred Burke wrestle, that they began to mean much more to her.
-Married at age 14, had a daughter and was divorced by age 15. She left her daughter with a friend and set off to pursue a wrestling career.
-Trained for pro wrestling by Mae Young, Mildred Burke, & Johnny Long
-Had her first match on against June Byers.
-Was paired with Elephant Boy early in her career. Elephant Boy was Mexican, but had very dark skin, which caused controversy when Ellison, a white woman, would kiss him on the cheek during their ring entrance routine. At one show in Oklahoma City, a man, who thought that Elephant Boy was a black man, attempted to stab Ellison with a knife for kissing him.
-After Ellison left Jack Pfeffer's promotion in the 1950s, she found it difficult to book her trainees in shows due to Pfeffer's influence over other promoters in the NWA. Ellison claims that Pfeffer would threaten to reveal the pre-planned nature of wrestling if any other promoters did not do as he liked. As a result, Ellison began selling cosmetics door-to-door and Lee opened a service station to make enough money to pay their bills.
-Formed her own promotion company for the women she trained called Girl Wrestling Enterprises. Ellison demanded a lot from the girls of GWE, including that they had to keep their hair and make-up done, act like a lady, and not date men who were in the professional wrestling business. She was known for taking approximately 30 percent of female wrestlers' payoffs.
-Was given her name "The Fabulous Moolah" by Vince McMahon, Sr.
-Befriended Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis
-Became the first woman wrestler allowed to perform in Madison Square Garden on July 1, 1972. In fact, Moolah helped overturn the ban on women's wrestling in the entire state of New York, which the New York Athletic Commission lifted in June 1972. During her quest to overturn the ban, she flipped football player Roosevelt Grier onto his back on "The Mike Douglas Show".
-Was supposed to appear in the movie "Mother, Jugs and Speed" in a role written specifically for her, but had to pull out due to an illness at the time.
-Opened a bar called Moolah's Hideaway in the 1980s. It was run by her daughter Mary. Andre the Giant was a frequent patron.
-Credited as one of the pioneers of the WWF expansion and to the Rock-N-Wrestling era.
-Most online sources do not consider her Women's Title to be the official NWA World Women's Championship. It is known that she owned the actual belt in the 1970s and '80s, thus the reason for her long title reigns. A lot of women wrestlers were very upset with her when she signed an exclusive contract with Vince McMahon, taking the title with her.
-Involved in what many people consider the first WWF Screwjob. Wendi Richter was in a salary dispute and was WWF World Women's Champion at the time. Officials were concerned that she was going to walk away with the belt, so Moolah disguised herself as Spider Lady and was sent in to a match with her because she was the only person who they felt could legitimately pin Richter. Richter was told that she would win the match and retain the title, but Moolah ended up cradling and kept pinning Richter, then unmasked herself. That match ended up being Richter's last in WWF.
-Appeared in one of Cyndi Lauper's music videos, "Goonies 'R' Good Enough"
-In the early '90s, she founded the Ladies' International Wrestling Association, a non-profit organization to help retired professional wrestlers.
-Helped to train Ann Casey, Joyce Grable, Leilani Kai, Paula Kaye, Peggy Patterson, Rita Cortez, Sweet Georgia Brown, Toni Rose, Tracy Richards, Vicky Williams and Vivian St. John, among others.
-Defeated Victoria on September 15, 2003, making her the first octogenarian to compete in the WWE. She had been promised this match for her 80th birthday by Vince McMahon, Jr.
-One of 11 documented wrestlers to have competed in 7 different decades (1940s - 2000s)
-Was one of many wrestlers who was interviewed for the documentary "Lipstick and Dynamite" about women's wrestling in the 1950s. She appeared on Conan O'Brien to promote the movie.
-Appeared in the movie "Nikki: The Jupiter and Mary Chain" in 2001
-Wrote her autobiography "The Fabulous Moolah: First Goddess of the Squared Circle" in 2002
-Received Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Editor's Award and Stanley Weston Award in 1991
-Received the Cauliflower Alley Club's Ladies Wrestling Award in 1997
-Passed away on November 2, 2007 at the age of 84 due to a heart attack. According to her daughter, this may have been caused by a blood clot from recent shoulder surgery.
-Inducted into the WWE (then WWF) Hall of Fame in 1995. She was the first woman to be inducted.
-Inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum in 2003
-Posthumously inducted into the NWA Hall of Fame in 2012
-Moolah, was the subject of an episode of VICE's "Dark Side of the Ring" in 2019. The episode was entitled "The Fabulous Moolah" and was narrated by Dutch Mantell.