Women of Wrestling

Those were my exact words when I heard about WOW.Back in the 1980s, David McLane became an overnight sensation with GLOW and later on, POWW. He decided to throw his hat back into the wrestling ring with Women of Wrestling. Unfortunately, he uses the same 1980s production values for WOW. First off, many of the wrestlers that were part of his troupe were actresses and models. They were required to take a crash course in wrestling 101. They only two actual wrestlers in his show were Peggy Lee Leather and Bambi (who went under different names in this one). Next, he ran his show like television seasons. They would do a lot of shows from September to may, and repeat them all during the summer. In the wrestling world, this doesn't work. In order to keep your fans interested, you have to run year round. No one goes for this seasonal promotion stuff. Also, he recycled a lot of characters from his GLOW and POWW days. He just put different names and used different ladies for the role (ex. In GLOW, he had this cheerleader gimmick with ladies named Susie Spirit and Vickie Victory. He recycled it for WOW and the cheerleaders names were Patti Pep and Randi Rah-Rah). The writing was not that well either. Sometimes I would change it because Mad TV and Saturday Night Live were on at the same time as WOW. The whole season would conclude in a pay per view at the L.A. Forum. McLane pulled out all the stops by even hiring Bobby Heenan for the show. From what I heard, Heenan was paid a ton of money for the show. It wasn't enough to get a good buy rate, and WOW was in trouble for the next season. He found a buyer in rocker Gene Simmons but WOW hasn't been heard from since. The website is still up (wowe.org) and i'm sure McLane wants to try again. The moral of WOW is if you want to compete in today's wrestling world, then you have to play big time. You can't cut corners and still think you are going to do very well. There is one positive note to come out of this. Three of the WOW ladies (Roxy Powers, Jungle Grrl, and The Disciplinarian respectively) were in last summer's blockbuster, Spider-Man.

David McLane, the man responsible for the mid-eighties "GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling" returns with another all-women's wrestling show. His show did have potential, but unfortunately, did not last and was only survived by one pay-per-view event ("WOW Unleashed"). McLane's lack of planning was the reason why WOW could not continue after the first season. If he hired professional writers then he would have had a chance. Instead we're treated to an hour of sloppy writing and lazy performances.

On the plus side, he chose a variety of beautiful and athletic women. Some were all business in the ring and delivered the goods (Terri Gold and Roxy Powers come to mind), but most of the time was wasted on the wrestlers who spend too much time talking trash and not showing much ring action. Most of their fight scenes were well choreographed, but some of their finishing moves are similar to the WWE superstars' moves.

If David McLane wanted to stay employed, he could've done what former WCW owner Eric Bischoff did and sell his show to WWE owner Vince McMahon, but no. He was probably afraid that his WOW superstars would get eaten alive by the WWE divas. Only Terri Gold (Heather Millard) and Roxy Powers (Natalie Yeo) would have the ability to come out on top (IMHO). In the future, Mr. McLane, please think twice or plan more carefully before making another all-women's wrestling show. My evaluation: C+.

David Mclane, the man behind GLOW Wrestling in the 80's, returned to the sport in the year 2000 with WOW, "Women Of Wrestling".

WOW is a good, entertaining show. The quality of the wrestling is better than the women of the WWF manage, and the production values are quite high. It is aimed at more of a broad family audience than most current wrestling shows.

The roster of wrestlers varies widely in quality, but there is one standout star. Jacklyn Hyde, played by the talented Vanya Marinkovic, is a wonderful creation, funny, wild and memorable. Marinkovic is clearly a star in the making!

In conclusion, WOW is well worth a look, for those tired of the more extreme WWF product.