Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Mary Lillian Ellison (July 22, 1923 – November 2, 2007) was an American professional wrestler, promoter and trainer better known by her ring name The Fabulous Moolah.

When her mother died of cancer, eight-year-old Ellison went to live with her paternal grandmother and worked on her cousin's cotton farm to make money.

[13][14][15] Ellison began her wrestling career with Mildred Burke's husband Billy Wolfe, the dominant women's promoter of the time.

Wolfe was notorious for advising his wrestlers to enter into sexual relationships with either himself or competing promoters to ensure additional bookings, a practice with which Ellison refused to go along.

[4][18] Olivas was Mexican, but had very dark skin, which caused controversy when Ellison, a white woman, would kiss him on the cheek during their ring entrance routine.

[24] Moolah successfully defended the belt against the top female wrestlers in the world, such as Judy Grable and Donna Christanello, while also purporting to befriend some of the biggest celebrities of the day.

[33] After much buildup and hype, the Fabulous Moolah lost the championship to Richter on July 23, 1984, in the main event of The Brawl to End It All, which was broadcast live on MTV.

[35] Richter promptly quit the WWF afterward,[35] while Moolah continued to be champion for another two years—excluding a six-day reign by Velvet McIntyre during a tour of Australia in 1986—before losing the belt to Sherri Martel on July 24, 1987.

[5] On September 3, 1988, Moolah wrestled AWA World Women's Champion Madusa Miceli to a double DQ on an independent card in Medina, Ohio.

[38] On June 21, 1996, she teamed with Mae Young at LIWA Golden Girls Extravaganza event in Las Vegas where they wrestled Liz Chase and Lori Lynn to a no contest.

[43] Moolah and Young made another appearance at New Years Revolution in 2006, during a Bra and Panties Gauntlet match attacking Victoria and stripping her of her top.

[46][47] Her last WWE appearance before her death was at SummerSlam in August 2007, in a backstage segment with Vince McMahon and Raw General Manager William Regal.

[44] Ellison and her second husband Johnny Long began training women to become female wrestlers, including Ella Waldek, Daisy Mae, and Katherine Simpson.

[48] As a result, Ellison began selling cosmetics door-to-door and Lee opened a service station to make enough money to pay their bills.

[20] In the late 1950s when the once-dominant promoter of women's wrestling, Billy Wolfe, was out of business, Ellison and Lee began to book their female wrestlers for more and more shows.

[49] Ellison demanded a lot from the girls of GWE, including that they had to keep their hair and make-up done, act like a lady, and not date men who were in the professional wrestling business.

[49] Ellison founded the Ladies' International Wrestling Association, a non-profit organization to help retired professional wrestlers, in the late 1980s.

"[53] Wrestling historian Tim Hornbaker said that Moolah "chose not to" break the "dishonest, greedy" practices established by her mentor Billy Wolfe.

[54] Pat Laprade and Dan Murphy, in their book Sisterhood of the Squared Circle, wrote that Moolah's "tactics could be just as ruthless and cutthroat as" Don Corleone, from The Godfather.

The training lasted six months and took place up to five hours per day inside a wrestling ring in a barn that lacked heating and air conditioning or fans.

"[54] One of the most notorious accusations is from the family of Sweet Georgia Brown (Susie Mae McCoy), who was trained by Moolah and her husband, Buddy Lee.

[65] Bruce Prichard said she was protecting herself from the promoters and the only negative thing he heard of her was "took a percentage of their pay, which was laid out in their contract clearly before they even started training, day one.

Maxine was about to receive a big push by Vince McMahon but left the WWF shortly afterwards, as Ellison was unwilling to provide her with additional bookings.

Women wrestlers including Vivian and Luna Vachon,[68] Ann Casey,[69] and Darling Dagmar[70] moved into other regions where Ellison had less control and negotiated their own payouts with promoters.

Unable to reach Patterson by telephone, Kai and Martin agreed to win the titles from the Angels since Ellison had already misinformed the Japanese promoters.

"[77] The Post and Courier columnist Mike Mooneyham described her as "one of the greatest female performers to ever step into a professional wrestling ring and the most powerful woman outside the squared circle.

The episode repeated many of the allegations against her but also featured comments from the son of Sweet Georgia Brown and wrestlers Selina Majors and Beverly Shade, who defended her.

[88] An illness in the mid-1970s meant Ellison had to pull out of the Bill Cosby movie Mother, Jugs & Speed, which had a role written specifically for her.

[29] During her return to the ring in 1999, Ellison began experiencing occasional dizziness, and as a result, her doctor requested that she begin to wear a heart monitor.

[96] According to her daughter Mary, the possible cause of death was a heart attack or blood clot related to a recent shoulder replacement surgery.