A former student says Fabulous Moolah was a monster.
Yesterday, WWE announced the Fabulous Moolah Memorial Battle Royal which will feature women from Raw, Smackdown, and NXT and will be on the Wrestlemania 34 card. The announcement was met with immediate backlash because fans were aware of some serious allegations against Moolah regarding alleged abuse of her trainees including sex trafficking and facilitating rape.
Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet reached out to Jeannine Mjoseth a former trainee of Moolah who said she was fortunate enough to leave and start her wrestling career elsewhere.
The Fabulous Moolah was a real-life heel. A lot of women paid to train at her school and then went out on the road. They risked life and limb in their matches and she repaid them with the worst kinds of abuses. She skimmed their money, she ignored women who were badly hurt, she pimped women out to creepy men and on and on. She was not a mother figure. She was more like Kali, the Indian Goddess of Destruction. I met her in my early 20s and I had never met such a monstrous person.I was smart enough to get the hell away from her and start my own independent career in Tampa as part of the Championship Wrestling from Florida. Luna Vachon, Peggy Fowler and I all left together, which I hope put a serious dent in her confidence, if not wallet.
I understand why Moolah was so grotesque. Her family was dirt poor and she determined that she was never going to be hungry again. But it doesn’t excuse her dog-eat-dog behavior. I’d much rather see WWE establish a named match for outstanding wrestlers (and decent human beings) like Susan ‘Tex’ Green, Beverly Shade, Leilani Kai, Wendi Richter, Princess Victoria or Joyce Grable. They all put their hearts and souls into wrestling for decades and helped others along the way.
But wrestling isn’t PC. It’s about generating heat. And you can’t draw more heat than naming a match for The Fabulous Moolah. May she be the last of her kind.
Fightful Wrestling will continue to update the fallout from the naming of this battle royal. Fighful will have live coverage and a recapping podcast for Wrestlemania 34.
