Women
of wrestling: Stamina, strength and the ability to lift a
human over your head
Women
of wrestling: Stamina, strength and the ability to
lift a human over your head -
September 21, 2022
By
Melinda Houston
When
David McLane was 13, he was taken to a professional
wrestling match by a friend and fell in love with
the theatre he witnessed: “the lights, the colours,
the characters, the names, the battles.”
The
name McLane might not be familiar to you but his deeds
probably are. He’s the chap on whom Bash Howard
is based in the Netflix series GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies
of Wrestling. The portrayal is not strictly accurate,
the real McLane is keen to stress. For instance, in
real life, there was never a machine walking around
in his bedroom dispensing drugs.
Jeanie
Buss and David McLane.CREDIT:WOW TELEVISION ENTERPRISES
The
true bit is that McLane realised, while he was still
in college, that female wrestling was (a) totally
awesome and (b) a tremendous opportunity — for
him and the women involved. He indeed helped launch
the real-life GLOW. It went pretty well for a while.
“But
the partners that I had in GLOW — we didn’t
all have the same vision,” McLane says.
He
sold his share in 1992, and had another crack in 2000
but 9/11 happened. During that second run, he was
lucky enough to have in the audience a woman called
Jeanie Buss. Daughter of sports exec and philanthropist
Jerry Buss, she grew up in the business, managing
a range of sports teams until in 2013 she took over
as controlling owner of the LA Lakers. In 2020, the
Lakers won the NBA championship – the first to
do so under a female manager. Buss knew how to do
sports.
She
also came of age in the early days of the United States’
Title IX, a piece of federal legislation that prohibited
discrimination on the basis of sex in any publicly
funded educational setting. In high school, she was
the beneficiary of it. And as a successful woman in
sports management, she felt a duty to raise up female
athletes.
“Being
a woman in sport, I knew that people would look to
me and say: how are you investing in women and sports?”
Buss says. She was also keenly aware that while Title
IX meant talented female athletes were finally eligible
for the kinds of sports scholarships that gave them
access to tertiary education, once they graduated
college, things fell off a cliff.
“Unless
you’re going into the WNBA or becoming a tennis
player — or maybe a professional golfer —
there’s nowhere to go after college,” Buss
says. “There are no pathways, no places to showcase
your talents, your athleticism, and no way to earn
a living.”
So
she was on the lookout for a way to create that kind
of showcase. McLane’s women’s wrestling
seemed like it might be it. “Wrestling is one
of those sports that’s been around for decades
and proven to be a model that will sustain itself,”
she says. “Wrestling fans are some of the best
fans on the earth.”
And
when Buss and McLane finally landed a global distribution
deal with CBS Paramount, they knew they had the package
to make women’s wrestling a going concern.
For
Buss, it’s an overtly feminist project. And she
and McLane are both proud of the fact that their Women
of Wrestling – WOW – is diverse and inclusive.
Dropping the “Gorgeous” is not just a gesture
— this is definitely not all hot chicks in skimpy
costumes. All body shapes and sizes, all ethnicities
and a surprising range of ages are part of the mix.
Buss wanted to make sure the WOW athletes provided
healthy role models to women and girls – and
to boys.
“One
of my role models, somebody who’s had a lot of
influence on me, is Billie Jean King,” Buss says.
“And she had an interesting quote after the Lakers
won the NBA championship in 2020, and I’m standing
there with our team. She said: This is an important
moment because now people can see that women can lead
men. And that’s part of what we’re trying
to show with WOW.”
Genesis,
one of a large Australian contingent competing in
WOW, says: “Everyone knows wrestling’s always
been dominated by men. That’s why WOW is so cool.
Before, [women’s wrestling] was just a sideshow
for male entertainment.”
Born
and raised in Nhulunbuy on the Gove Peninsula in the
Northern Territory, Genesis (it’s the only name
she goes by – publicly, at least) played amateur
Aussie rules and taught herself martial arts before
first going to boarding school, and then moving to
Los Angeles to study film and pursue a career in entertainment.
She saw an ad for the tryouts for WOW and figured
with her martial arts background and her interest
in performance, she was a good fit.
She
says it’s exceptionally rigorous, physically.
Not much about the holds, lifts and slams is inauthentic.
“Cardio
is really important. You need the stamina,” she
says. “You definitely have to be strong. You
have to be able to lift another human being over your
head. And you do get hurt.”
Likewise
the “characters” and the women’s stories
are fundamentally true. “When we’re in the
ring, we’re amplified versions of who we really
are,” Genesis says. “It is entertainment.
We’re there to put on a show. But the stories
are genuine. It’s real people. It’s real
stories. It’s heightened in the ring, for sure,
but the emotions are all real.”
She
describes the show as “high octane ... it’s
big. We do big things. We do dangerous things. And
we do it because we love it, we want to win, and we
love the entertainment side of it.”
Jeanie
Buss says wrestling is for sports fans who love storytelling.
“Tune in to see which characters resonate with
you,” she says. “You’ll engage with
the characters in a way you wouldn’t with any
other sport.”
David
McLane says while most of the moves you see in the
ring are the same as you’d see in Olympic wrestling,
the classic Greco-Roman discipline, “the difference
is the theatrical presentation of professional wrestling.
It’s more show business”.
It’s
more Australian, he adds, shamelessly if egregiously
playing to the crowd. “When you think of Australia,
you think of the ocean, you think of the beautiful
pristine beaches, and you think of people who love
life and have fun and smile. And that’s what
you think when you think WOW women of wrestling.”
Well.
Kind of. “Greco wrestling,” he adds, “just
isn’t as fun.” That, at least, is no exaggeration.
