#90 – Fabulous Moolah v Joyce Grable, July 31, 1979
We get really old school this week as we review a classic match between the legendary Fabulous Moolah and the young Joyce Grable. Please support the podcast by visiting flairchop.com where you can buy our tremendous “mail-order wrestling gimmicks” t-shirt, posters, and the box set of our first 50 episodes. You can also get a free OSWP sticker by leaving a comment on the iTunes store.
This episode has been archived. It is available either by ordering the physical “OSWP Season 3 box set” with episodes 76-100 or it can be instantly downloaded in a digital version of the “OSWP Season 3 complete set” with episodes of 76-100. The physical box set will always be our favorite, as it comes with a full color booklet featuring art by our friend Dean Stahl and looks great on your bookshelf next to your coliseum home videos. The instant digital download version also comes with high resolution PDFs of the booklet that you can view on your computer. Both the physical box set and the digital download come with two bonus episodes featuring our reviews of the Clash of the Champions 9 and the Royal Rumble 1988. These episodes have never been available on flairchop.com. But if you only want to hear this one episode, we also offer the option of instantly downloading just the individual episode for a small price.
What a pleasant surprise! As soon as you guys mentioned Moolah selling the airplane spin after pinning Grable, I could replay this match in my head from start to finish. This era of WWF is the stuff I grew up on, and although a lot of the matches from this era are painfully slow-paced in comparison to today’s stuff, I could (and have) watch WWF TV tapings from ’77-’82 all damn day. I love everything about these shows: the charmingly nondescript Agricultural Hall, ring announcer Joe McHugh, Dick Whorle, Dick Kroll and Gilberto Roman as the refs, young Vince and Bruno or Pat Patterson (or even Dominic DeNucci!) on commentary, interviews in front of the ring right after the matches, even the music going into and coming out of commercials. Watching this stuff at midnight on Saturday, it felt like you were witnessing something illegal (it was, after all on right after horse racing), like this was the only time the government would allow this sort of thing to be broadcast and at any minute the screen could go to a test pattern and you would never see these people or hear their names again.
I will soon be turning forty years old and if nostalgia/obsession for professional wrestling of my pre-teen years is my mid-life crisis; I couldn’t be happier. Thanks, guys. Hope everyone is feeling better!
Joyce Grable had to have been one of Moolah’s girls, otherwise Moolah wouldn’t have sold for her at all. Moolah probably never lost, but if she liked you, you were going to look good in defeat. Very unlike the Spider Lady screwjob when Wendy Ricter started pounding on her and Moolah just kept running around the ring like Wendy wasn’t there.
Anytime “Dusty” talks money, it’s always worth money because the lisp comes out in full force.
The highlight of the show was definitely the “Joyce Grable” interview. I have no idea how she really sounded, but now I don’t want to know because Dre’s impression will be what I associate her with.
Seriously, Dre, you fabulously represented handsome women everywhere. Well done.
Dre’s “Grable” was surprisingly accurate. The only way I could tell it was an impression is that Joyce says “rassler” instead of “wrestler”.
http://youtu.be/_5VRRRPXFFk
Dre’s Grable impersonation reminded me so much of the recently departed Huell Howser. I never actually saw his show, but Adam Carolla plays clips from it all the time. He was this weird dude that had like a public access travel show. And he had this very odd voice. As I’m typing this it ocurred to me to just find a youtube clip, so enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImpGsMenmSs
It’s actually Penny Banner and it’s called “Lipstick AND Dynamite” respect the dead …
Great show as usual guys. One odd bit to add to the talk about the documentary. When it came out Mae Young and Moolah were doing the talk show circuit and ended up on a couple of the late night shows. It so happened that one night I got insanely bored and turned Leno on. Lo and behold I see the title cards say that Snoop Dogg is going to be sitting on the couch with Moolah and Mae Young. I take note of this and temporarily halted my Leno embargo, I had to see this.
They bring out Snoop first and he shills for his new album or whatever the hell it was, while Leno grins, asks the same standard set of questions and that part of the show concludes.
Leno then calls out Mae and Moolah and in a unique twist, Snoop is still sitting on the couch. As you may know, it’s not that often a first string guest will sit in on a second stringer’s interview. So they are talking about the movie and Mae Young goes into a story about how she was arrested and tried for beating the hell out of a man outside a hotel room with a pistol I believe. Snoop is almost in tears, rolling on the floor pissing himself with laughter as this octogenarian is talking about whipping a man’s ass. He honestly looked like he was having the time of his life.
In 1999 or 2000, I went to a WWF house show in South Carolina (where I resided). Moolah and Mae Young were backstage guests (Moolah lived nearby in Columbia). We were sitting under the scoreboard at the arena, right above where the wrestlers came out of the dressing room. We actually could look down and see them backstage, as they walked thru the curtain.
Well, Moolah and Mae were sitting in a couple of steel folding chairs off to the side of the curtain, and I could look right down and see the backs of their heads. They had come out to watch the Ivory vs. Jacquelyn match. This guy sitting next to us was completely drunk off of his ass. As Ms. Jackie made her way to the ring, this guy (he looked like a redneck Mickey Dolenz from the Monkees) yelled out, “I’d lick from the crack of her ass all night long!!!”. Moolah looked back, and the drunk yelled, “NOT YOU… JACKIE”. Moolah looked totally digusted. Mae turned around and smiled. I waved. Mae waved back. Best house show memory ever.
I will always have the utmost respect for Joyce Grable and the Grable family. Those early UFC tournaments were really something else. Great work, guys. Hoonincoonrana for life!