Skip to main content

Worst in the World: Wendi Richter vs The Fabulous Moolah-The Brawl to End it All

It's only fitting that at some point this series would venture back to the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection, the period in time that basically shot the WWF into mainstream popularity. It led to "The Brawl to End it All", the first televised live wrestling match in history and the first televised women's match in history, pitting the WWF Women's Champion Fabulous Moolah with Captain Lou Albano in her corner against Wendi Richter with Cyndi Lauper in her corner. My god, it was bad. This is another one of those matches like Hogan vs Andre from WrestleMania III where if you strip the match of it's historical importance, it's revealed to be a terrible match.
So the match takes FOREVER to start, with Albano standing in the ring and taunting and Moolah charging at Lauper who was outside the ring. Seriously, the time between Moolah's entrance and the start of the match is over five minutes. The match starts with the two trading poor arm drags before Moolah takes control, doing two hair pull snapmares before tossing Richter from the ring by her hair. Moolah pulls Richter back in the ring by her hair and starts choking her. Moolah knees Richter, who sells way to late.
Richter takes control with an armbar, but Moolah moves out of the way when Richter tries to drop a knee on the arm. Moolah then...does something. I honestly have no idea. Richter was on the ground and Moolah jumped towards her, but she jumped like a foot farther then where Richter was. I think she was going for a splash, but she jumped like how John Cena does a shoulder tackle. Richter then dives to make the cover, even though Moolah's entire leg is very blatantly on the rope
Even worse, Richter keeps pinning Moolah, despite the referee telling her that the pin isn't legal, until Moolah pulls her hair. I'm staring to think Moolah can only do hair related moves.
Moolah does more hair pulling, using her hair to pull her head into the ropes, ending with a snapmare onto the ropes. Gorilla Monsoon calls this a "clothesline." Moolah does more hair pulling (that's like the 6th hair pull-move this match by her), pulling her into the second rope, letting her go...and then doing the same spot again. That's strange.
Moolah is able to dodge a shoulder tackle in the corner and starts standing on Richter. Richter fights back with a headbutt to the stomach, Moolah stands through the ropes and she gets when Richter tries to pull her back in. After a solid minute of Moolah just hanging upside down, she's finally freed, allowing Richter to lock in a really loose looking full nelson. Moolah escapes by pulling the hair for another snapmare (7), only for Richter to lock the hold back in literally seconds later. Why even do the escape spot if they were just going right back to the hold. Makes no sense.
Richter keeps the hold locked in on Moolah, and allows Lauper to hit Moolah with a purse. HOW IS THAT NOT A DQ! AND THAT'S THEY BABYFACE! Richter hits a dropkick for a two count, and follows up with a body slam/suplex (I honestly couldn't tell what it was), which Moolah kicks out of at one. Boo. Richter then hits a backbreaker, which Moolah doesn't even stay down for one for. That's some Hogan-esque bullsh*t right there. Actually, that's worse than Hogan, at least Hogan would stay down for two. Moolah is awful. Oh, and Moolah escaped those last two pins by pulling Richter's hair (8 & 9).
Richter locks in a surfboard stretch, which Moolah escapes by raking the eyes. Moolah hits a monkey flip for a two count, and then a backdrop where Richter did all the work for another two, this time with Moolah pulling Richter up by her hair (10). Moolah locks in a full nelson (one better than Richter's) and takes her over to Albano to get punched. Albano completely whiffs on the punch, and Moolah rolls Richter up for a three count. However, Richter got her shoulder up while Moolah's were still down.

The Verdict

This was the first women's match ever put on television. This is the first impression most people are going to have of women's wrestling. And this is what the WWF put out there. What a mess. Moolah is awful and horribly overrated, she can't do anything outside of hair pulls, and Richter is not much better. Not to mention the babyface got away with a rather cheap victory, winning simply because the heel didn't get their shoulder up on a roll up attempt. Overall, a terrible match. I'd argue it's worse than any women's match WWE has put on in the last 10 years, which people (including me) tend to be highly critical of, outside of Kaitlyn vs Maxine.

Rankings (Best to Worst)

  1.  Too Much vs Al Snow & Head-King of the Ring 1998
  2. Vampiro vs Sting-Great American Bash 2000
  3. T&A vs Head Cheese-WrestleMania 2000
  4. Konnan vs One Man Gang-SuperBrawl VI
  5. Ultimate Warrior vs Hercules-WrestleMania IV
  6. Rick Rude vs Hawk-Clash of the Champions XXV
  7. Shelton Benjamin vs Viscera-New Year's Revolution 2006
  8. The Chamber of Horrors-Halloween Havoc 1991
  9. The Natural Disasters vs Money Inc.-WrestleMania VIII
  10. ODB, Taylor Wilde, and Roxxi vs The Kongtourage-Genesis 2009
  11. Ivory vs Tori-SummerSlam 1999
  12. Nikita Koloff vs Bobby Eaton-Bunkhouse Stampede
  13. Total Divas vs Other Divas-Survivor Series 2013
  14. The Oddities vs Kaientai-SummerSlam 1998
  15. Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice-WrestleMania VIII
  16. Dusty Rhodes vs Big Boss Man-Saturday Night's Main Event (10/31/1989)
  17. Hollywood Hogan vs The Giant-Hog Wild
  18. Hollywood Hogan vs The Giant-Souled Out 1997
  19. Dustin Rhodes & King Kong vs Awesome Kong & The Equalizer-Battlebowl
  20. Jake Roberts vs Andre the Giant-WrestleMania V
  21. Sting & Hawk vs Meng & Kurasawa-Clash of the Champions XXXI
  22. Hulk Hogan vs Randy Savage-Uncensored 1998
  23. Al Snow vs Big Boss Man-Unforgiven 1999
  24. Mickie James vs Ashley-Royal Rumble 2006
  25. Christy Hemme vs Big Fat Oily Guy-Against All Odds 2007
  26. Team WCW vs nWo Wolfpac vs nWo Hollywood-Fall Brawl 1998
  27. Vampiro vs Oklahoma-Starrcade 1999
  28. Hulk Hogan vs Andre the Giant-WrestleMania III
  29. Junkyard Dog vs Moondog Spot-Wrestling Classic
  30. Hiroshi Wajima vs Tom Magee-All Japan Pro Wrestling 1988
  31. Jim Steele vs The Equalizer-SuperBrawl IV
  32. Edge vs Triple H vs Vladimir Kozlov-Survivor Series 2008
  33. Kevin Sullivan vs Dave Sullivan-SuperBrawl V
  34. Steve McMichael vs Brian Adams-Road Wild 1998
  35. Scott Hall vs Roddy Piper-SuperBrawl IX
  36. Scott Steiner vs Sid Vicious vs Jeff Jarrett vs Road Warrior Animal-Sin
  37. Hollywood Hogan vs Roddy Piper-SuperBrawl 1997
  38. Batista vs The Great Khali-SummerSlam 2007
  39.  Sable vs Tori-WrestleMania XV
  40. Sid Vicious vs The Nightstalker-Clash of the Champions XIII
  41. The 8-Divas Tag Match-Survivor Series 1999
  42. Rick Rude vs Masahiro Chono-Halloween Havoc 1992
  43. Mike Awesome vs Vampiro-Halloween Havoc 2000
  44. Mabel vs The Undertaker-King of the Ring 1995
  45. Wendi Richter vs The Fabulous Moolah-The Brawl to End it All
  46. Greg Valentine vs George Steele-Heroes of Wrestling
  47. Abdullah the Butcher vs One Man Gang-Heroes of Wrestling
  48. Hollywood Hogan vs The Warrior-Halloween Havoc 1998
  49. The Royal Family vs Clowns R' Us-Survivor Series 1994
  50. Sting vs Jeff Hardy-Victory Road 2011
  51. Ultimate Warrior vs Andre the Giant-Saturday Night's Main Event (11/25/1989)
  52. The Doomsday Cage Match-Uncensored 1996 
  53. Kaitlyn vs Maxine-NXT (10/19/10)
  54. Sabu vs The Sandman-November to Remember 1997
  55. James Storm vs Chris Harris-Lockdown 2007
  56. John Laurinaitis vs John Cena-Over the Limit 2012
  57. Los Villanos vs Los Psycho Circus-Triplemania XXIII
  58. Jenna Morasca vs Sharmell-Victory Road 2009
And up next is...
Oh boy, it's pre-Diesel Kevin Nash. This should be fun.
Thanks for reading. Be sure to share if you enjoyed. Also, check out my Patreon

Comments

  1. You're a sharp cookie and I agree with you. I'm amazed why people consider the likes of Ellison and Richter great. What'd they do that was great?. Name an original move either one did that nobody else did or a great match either one did. Neither put over anybody while the likes of Velvet Mcintyre, Leilani Kai, Sherri Martel, Vicki Williams. Princess Victoria. etc., busted their butts putting these two over. If there were a list of 10 worst ever women's wrestlers I'd think it'd go like this: 1. Fabulous Moolah, 2. Trish Stratus,3. Charlotte Flair, 4. Wendi Richter, 5. Lita, 6. Alundra Blayze, 7. Mildred Burke, 8. Bambi, 9. Michelle McCool, 10. Sasha Banks(tie here) Bayley. I put Mildred here also because she too never did an original move nor did she ever put anyone over, just the first female muscle head. The 10 best would be: 1. June Byers(tie here) Penny Banner, 2. Velvet Mcintyre(tie here too) Sherri Martel, 3. Judy Grable, 4. Vicki Williams, 5. Vivian Vachon,6. Lola Gonzalez, 7. Luna Vachon, 8. Jacqueline, 9. Molly Holly, 10. Bull Nakano/Lorraine Johnson/Akira Hokuto/Jean Kirkland/Mimi Lesseos/Irma Gonzalez/Betty Niccoli.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

More from The Wrestling Section

Worst in the World: The Last Rites Match-TNA Destination X 2007

(Special thanks to an anonymous user for suggesting this match. If you'd like to see a match covered on the Worst in the World, leave a comment down below.) An often discussed aspect of professional wrestling is the backstage politicking of Hulk Hogan. Throughout his career as a major attraction in wrestling, Hogan's philosophy has always been to protect Hulk Hogan...OK, sometimes he'd help Ed Leslie, but most of the time it was to protect Hulk Hogan. Because of that philosophy and Hogan's influence as a top guy, there have been multiple instances where a company's booking and other wrestlers have suffered as a result. Would having Mr. Perfect win the 1990 Royal Rumble made sense and could have elevated a rising star and potentially created a new main event player? Yes, but that would require Hogan to not win, and that doesn't work for Hogan, so he wins the Rumble even though he doesn't need elevating. Would booking Randy Orton to beat Hogan at SummerSlam 20

Worst in the World: The Gimmick Battle Royal-WrestleMania X-Seven

(Special thanks to Frost for suggesting this match. If you'd like to see a match covered on the Worst in the World, leave a comment down below.) WrestleMania X-Seven. Heavily considered the not just the best WrestleMania, but the greatest wrestling show of all time, WrestleMania X-Seven took place during the hottest period in the WWF's history, and features just about every one of the hottest acts in wrestling at the time. An undercard featuring the likes of Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, William Regal, Kane, and the Big Show. One of the biggest female stars in the history of wrestling in Chyna. A killer TLC match between the Dudley Boyz, the Hardy Boyz, and Edge & Christian. A wild brawl between The Undertaker and Triple H. A massive main event between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. Hell, even the father vs son Street Fight between Vince & Shane McMahon. It's a star-studded affair. However, there's one match that sticks out like

Worst in the World: D-Generation X vs Brothers of Destruction-Crown Jewel

This match didn't need to happen. After Triple H and the Undertaker had one of the most brutally bad matches of 2018 at Super Show-Down not even a month earlier, nobody wanted to see them try to wrestle again. Also, nobody wanted to see Shawn Michaels come out of retirement after his fantastic sendoff in 2010, especially for a match like this. But here we are, Triple H & Shawn Michaels facing The Undertaker & Kane in 2018. The combined ages of these four at the time is 206. That's a number you'd expect to see from a match at Heroes of Wrestling. And anyone can come up with their own reason as to why this match is happening, but that would just be ignoring the actual reason. For those of you who don't know, Crown Jewel was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. That might not seem like important information, but you can't really discuss this match without mentioning it. Despite the numerous reasons that running shows in Saudi Arabia is morally wrong (their abuse

Worst in the World: Nia Jax's Worst Matches

Click the link here to vote in the poll and help decide the next edition of the Worst in the World. Nia Jax's first run with the WWE can really only be described as hard to watch. Sure, she had a few stand-out matches, most notably (and surprisingly) her match with Ronda Rousey at Money in the Bank, and an underrated gem with Bayley at NXT TakeOver: London, but those were always outshined by her most infamous matches and moments. She's since returned to WWE and, for the most part, seems to have improved a bit, but the reputation she got from her initial run is gonna be hard to shake off. This week, I'll be looking at some of Jax's worst matches. These include just flat-out bad matches, and matches that have become infamous examples of her reckless in-ring work. Match #1: vs Charlotte Flair-April 10th, 2017 Raw The first match we'll be looking at is from the April 10, 2017 episode of Monday Night Raw, when Nia took on Charlotte Flair. The two had been on the losing e

Worst in the World: Carmella vs Asuka: How to Destroy an Aura

Throughout the entire history of the WWE, we've never seen, and probably will never see again, a woman booked as strong as Asuka was to start her run. Coming into WWE in 2015 with over a decade of experience wrestling in her native Japan as Kana, Asuka was immediately treated like a huge deal. Hell, even from the first time we saw her on a WWE broadcast, she was seated in the crowd of NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn next to two Hall of Famers in Ric Flair & Sgt. Slaughter. Officially debuting in October 2015, Asuka would go her entire NXT career, nearly two full years, without being pinned or submitted. She was booked so strong, in fact, that instead of dropping the NXT Women's Championship in what would be her last match in NXT at the time to Ember Moon (even after sustaining an injury), an act that is almost always the case for champions leaving NXT for the main roster, Asuka retained and later vacated the title, keeping her streak intact. For a company that is more than willing t