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G.L.O.W. Two-Timers
By: Hoju Koolander
Last year on the eve of the Netflix GLOW series premiere, I wrote an article talking about some of the wackiest moments in the 80's wrestling show's very entertaining history. Now that the highly anticipated GLOW season 2 has hit Netflix to much fanfare, it seemed appropriate to dig deep into the grit and glitter of the original show once again.
Keeping with the theme, this time around I decided to focus on the "two-timers" or G.L.O.W. "doubles". To make it more clear, there were several gimmicks on G.L.O.W. that were inhabited by more than one performer or even new characters who carried on a legacy. You'll see what I mean.
Major Tonya
By far the most enduring character on G.L.O.W. was Colonel Ninotchka. She was tough, rough and inflammatory, spitting out anti-American rhetoric at the crowd in a thick Russian accent with a cigar in her mouth. This is who Alison Brie's wrestling persona, Zoya The Destroya is based on. In season 3, Major Tonya appeared on the scene wearing an identical outfit and the militaristic pair wreaked havoc together as a tag team.
But just as the USSR crumbled, so did this ruthless, wrestling duo. In a shocking turn of events, Ninotchka defected from her communist homeland, trading her hammer and sickle for pink, frilly spandex! Soon she and Tonya were battling each other on a regular basis in and out of the ring. It was a raucous affair indeed.
The Farmer's Daughters
G.L.O.W. pulled many of it's characters from pop culture and so by mashing up Mary-Anne from Gilligan's Island with Ellie May Clampett of The Beverly Hillbillies (no stranger to grappling herself) we got Sally, The Farmer's Daughter. The feisty farm girl wrestled barefoot while playing the part of the uncultured country bumpkin learning about the big city.
In season 2, Sally went back home and we got Amy, The Farmer's Daughter who was a little sweeter, but just as wily in the ring. As you can see, the country gals preferred a style that involved a lot of leg based maneuevers.
When season 3 rolled around, Sally was back and this time she had brought along her sister, Babe as a tag team partner. Their matches against bad girls like Godiva or Hollywood always got a little wild, with monkey flips and hugely teased hair flying everywhere. Eventually the gal who played Babe went on to own the G.L.O.W. trademark and tried to get a few revivals going.
The California Doll/Sunny, The California Girl & Corporal Kelly
With Rambo being a major draw at the box office, G.L.O.W. had their own military enforcer, Corporal Kelly to keep the troops in line. In season 1 the character was represented as a camo-wearing blonde with a bad attitude that would knock around goody two shoes like The California Doll. Possibly taking a page from Sgt. Slaughter's book, The Corporal was a force to be reckoned with.
Though not nearly as hard-edged, The California Doll was a fun presence on the show. She was often made to play the dumb blond in the comedy sketch segments, but in the ring you could tell that the Doll was in it to win it. Adorned with smiley faces that matched her own toothy grin, the beachside brawler was known to ride her opponents like a surfboard before going for the pin.
What's interesting is that the Corporal Kelly moniker was later assigned to a brunette wrestler in Season 3 and she faced off against The California Doll's replacement, Sunny the California Girl. It was like G.L.O.W. from Bizarro world. Sunny had a gimmick of telling bad knock-knock jokes and was billed as being from Newport Beach, CA which is right next door to where I grew up.
Little Fiji
Then there was strange case of Little Fiji. You see, the late Mt. Fiji (RIP) was the strongest competitor on the side of Jackie Stallone's Good Girls and often the target of the Bad Girls managed by Aunt Kitty. But aside from attacking the smiling Hawaiian Hulk, the villains often went for a her weakness, a kid sister.
Despite what this image from G.L.O.W. magazine would have you believe, Little Fiji wasn't much of a wrestler, she mostly got taken hostage a lot so that Mt. Fiji would have something to fight for. She wasn't exactly a double, she was kind of a mini-me for the hero. Although when she did wrestle it was usually against a much larger opponent who would pummel her mercilessly.
On one occasion Little Fiji teamed with Little Egypt (though there was no Big Egypt or Farrah Pharoah for her to pal around with) to take on big baddy, Matilda the Hun in a 2 on 1 match. As you can imagine, Matilda made short work of the tiny titans. Still, everyone loves an underdog and occasionally Little Fiji did come out on top (with a little help from her big sister).
So there you have it, a little wrestling history from the wild world of G.L.O.W. to serve as a primer for your binge watching of GLOW season 2 on Netflix. Hope you had some fun along the way as you learned about the REAL Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.
OldSchool80s Posted on Jul 09, 2018 at 10:10 PM
Nice work as usual. Love the reminders of the original GLOW stuff. Watched it regularly back in the day. Season 2 of the Netflix series was pretty outstanding. Hoping for a Season 3.
Vaporman87 Posted on Jun 30, 2018 at 01:04 AM
A perfect segway into Season 2 of the Netflix show.
I suppose if you can get away with either re-purposing or "cloning" characters and make the audience happy, then there is no reason to NOT do it.
By now though, the whole "Mini" or "Little" fad, with smaller versions of a star, has kind of played itself out.
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