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

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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.
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Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 12, 2019 at 4:50 PM

    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.

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