Defending The Fabulous Moolah

After a viral backlash compelled Snickers to force WWE’s hand in removing the Fabulous Moolah’s name from WrestleMania 34, Nigel Sherrod began his crusade to defend the honor of his trainer and friend. He has since researched the allegations against the WWE Hall of Famer and spoken with many of her trainees and contemporaries.

His goal is to have Snickers apologize for besmirching Moolah’s name. You can watch the interviews and sign his petition here.

Below are excerpts from Sherrod’s interview on Corrigan’s Corner on Team LeftJab Radio.

What was your initial reaction to the viral backlash?

Nigel Sherrod: “A woman who had a legacy of over 60 years in pro wrestling, within three days, all that was ruined. When it first started, I reached out to Joyce Grable because I knew her personally. ‘Hey Joyce, would you be willing to do an interview and clarify?’ The Moolah I knew and knew of didn’t have those bones in her body.

We have traveled up and down the East Coast and also as far as Las Vegas for the Cauliflower Alley Club convention. What we’ve found is overwhelmingly, every woman I’ve interviewed, says they were never pimped out, no bigotry or racism. Snickers’ comment said in a nutshell that they believed in empowering and inclusive people and environments. All of the women we interviewed said Moolah was empowering and inclusive.

We feel like there was a big misunderstanding and misrepresentation of information.”

What is your relationship to Moolah? Why have you started this crusade?

Sherrod: “I became acquainted with Moolah and we developed a friendship where she gave me information on how to get into wrestling, people I needed to contact and even as far as Vince McMahon’s personal secretary’s phone number. I broke into the business in 2004. By that point, advice was probably the best thing she was able to give me at that point. She died three years later.

I always looked up to her as an inspiration, somebody that was very tough. My mother raised me so I got to be around a strong woman. I admired that about Moolah, being a woman in a man’s world in the 1950s and 60s. You know we talk about the women’s revolution and evolution today, but that was really when the revolution was happening. Moolah traveled up and down the roads making 15 dollars and eating ketchup and hot water so the girls today could have the opportunity and platform that they have.”

So you’re not just a fan – you’re someone who knew Moolah who is trying to restore her legacy.

Sherrod: “Absolutely. We’ve interviewed 19 women. I’ll just go ahead and say people like to throw around Wendi Richter’s name and Sherri Martel’s name when they throw around these charges. In the information and research I’ve gone through, I don’t have anything on file that would indicate they were pimped out, drugged or raped. That’s what we call misinformation. When you ask what exactly did they say, nobody has a response to that.

In the case of Luna Vachon, the source is an RF Video shoot interview. With all due respect, she says she went to Moolah’s when she was under the age of 18. But when you look at facts such as her birthday, she was born in 1962. She didn’t show up at Moolah’s until 1983, which has been documented and cross-referenced several times. She would have been 21 and by that time, she had two children.

Some of these women I interviewed weren’t best friends or on good terms with each other. But it doesn’t mean that Moolah was a monster.”

Had you not heard of these accusations until recently?

Sherrod: “Well, to be quite honest, naturally whenever you mention Moolah’s name, people do think Wendi Richter. The confusion is that it was Moolah’s fault but in reality, Wendi did go on record and say she asked for more money because she felt WWF wasn’t paying her the right amount of money at the time. But that was a business matter between Wendi Richter and Vince McMahon. It has nothing to do with the Fabulous Moolah.

In terms of anything else, I had heard that Moolah would take a percentage and I had read the Free Times article about Sweet Georgia Brown. There was also an article about Moolah’s daughter Mary back when she was 15, saying Moolah had forced her to wrestle ill. I had seen those articles and never followed up. When we checked with Sweet Georgia Brown’s son, he said nothing like that happened. When I checked with Moolah’s daughter, she said the whole thing was a misunderstanding.

I feel like whoever started this – I think it was TheWrestlingOutsider who started the petition – they didn’t do much homework, they spread a lot of lies and this has hurt.”

Now you and I came into contact on Twitter after I referred folks to Sisterhood of the Squared Circle, a book that touches on the accusations, especially those made by Mad Maxine.

Sherrod: “I read the articles from which her quotes were taken from. There was an article written by SLAM Sports where she says 70% of these things are true and 30% are creative whatever. I raised the question that if you’re going to take quotes from a source like that, where it’s not a 100% true and you’re telling me that up front, then I really don’t know what to believe.

Maxine got there at the same time Linda Gonzales got there, a former women’s wrestler and student of Moolah’s. She presented us with a letter that said training was $500 and the percentage was what it was. You can see it on Linda Gonzales’ interview on YouTube. Maxine alleges that it was $1,500 for training. There are a couple things that just really don’t add up. Unless Maxine will do an interview to clarify her statements, we really can’t use her as a credible source.”

What do you make of the accusations that if you were to be trained by Moolah, you had to live at her compound and pay room and board, with it being compared to as an “indentured servant?”

Sherrod: “It says nowhere in there that you have to live at the camp. However, I will take into account that every woman’s agreement was different there because of the 19 women we interviewed, there hasn’t been a consistent answer as far as that goes. What is consistent is that rent was very minimal. Sometimes there would be food, parties and get-togethers provided. Moolah would even provide the girls with opportunities for jobs.

It’s very hard to stand by the statement that the girls were starved out because they had several avenues to make money. It makes zero logical sense to me because if Moolah is not booking out her girls and she makes, let’s just say, half her income from booking these women, why in the world would she try to starve them out and not work these women?”

For information on the Glamour Girls-Jumping Bomb Angels controversy, check out the full interview here. 

About Author

John Corrigan

Editor-in-chief John Corrigan has covered pro wrestling for nearly a decade, reporting for Wrestledelphia, The Philadelphia Daily News, The Temple News and others.

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