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Grappling With Tragedy: Jean ‘Black Venus’ Kirkland

Posted: Jun 8th 2024 By: Brian Damage - RingTheDamnBell.Wordpress.com

Grappling with Tragedy is a series of articles that deal with unfortunate, tragic incidents that have occurred throughout the history of professional wrestling. It is unlike the ‘Wrestling with Sin’ series that deals more with the seedier side of wrestling like arrests, murders and suicides. Grappling looks more at particular tragic incidents that have in some instances altered pro wrestling in some way.

Jean Kirkland was born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1947. She was a powerlifter and professional bodybuilder who was discovered at a local gym by some wrestlers who worked for the WWF. With her impressive physique, they were able to convince her to give professional wrestling a try. She agreed and was sent down to South Carolina, where she was trained under the guidance of the Fabulous Moolah starting in 1984. At the time Kirkland began her training, she was already considered on the older side being in her late 30’s.

Kirkland made her pro debut a year later in 1985 and wrestled primarily for the WWF as the only African American female on the women’s roster. It is believed that Moolah made many promises to Jean Kirkland including how much she was to be paid and promises that she would be made the first ever black female world heavyweight champion. Kirkland even wrestled Moolah on several WWF shows, but never attained the championship. In 1987, feeling frustrated with broken promises, Kirkland broke away from Moolah and wrestled independently for the rest of her career.

Under the name of ‘Black Venus’, Kirkland wrestled for several independent promotions across the country including tours of Japan, where she competed for All Japan Women and wrestled for Ladies Professional Wrestling Association (LPWA). Kirkland would briefly return to the WWF in 1993 and participate in a tournament to crown a new women’s champion. She lost her first round match to Heidi Lee Morgan who eventually made it to the finals only to lose to eventual winner Alundra Blayze.

In 1995, Black Venus was in negotiations with WCW to become the manager of Harlem Heat. Sadly, on September 30, 1995….Kirkland suffered a massive heat attack and died at the age of 47 years old.