Former Wrestler Beverly Shade Doesn’t Believe Accusations Against Fabulous Moolah

Former women’s wrestler Beverly Shade was recently interviewed by Nigel Sherrod about the accusations against The Fabulous Moolah. Here are the highlights…

On Accusations that Moolah drugged female wrestlers: I don’t no more agree with that then donkeys can fly, because Moolah didn’t even like for you to smoke a cigarette around her. So I just can’t picture her doing it… I just don’t believe that.”

On Moolah cheating women wrestlers out of money: “She got a percentage of what they (promoters) paid. I don’t know what the percentage was. I know what she paid me. But if you stop and think about, it’s no different than being an actor, and they’ve got an agent. At the end of the day, I’m the one that took the bookings. She’s the one that offered and I’m the one that went. So if I got screwed, then poor, pitiful me, shame on me. They were talking about Moolah not paying them right, they should’ve worked in the 50s or 60s, they should’ve worked for Nick Gulas… Christine Jarrett was working in the office. And she handed me my envelope, and I opened it up, and I looked, and I called Johnson, Tennessee and I said, ‘Oh, [expletive]! We drove all the way to Johnson City and back for $15 and we paid $6 in trans!’ So if someone wants to complain about money, go work for Nick Gulas.”

On If she ever heard that Moolah would pimp women out: “No, never did. When you’d get bookings you’d say, ‘Well, I got pimped out on that one.’ If you didn’t think what you thought you was going to make, but never, like you’re talking about. Like pimping the girls out to guys and stuff like that… I knew Moolah well enough to know that she just wasn’t that type of person. Now they may have used the word pimping as far as what they got, moneywise and somebody took it, some screwball, that’s brains are sitting in the bottom of their feet somewhere, took it as pimping them out to men or something. If you knew Moolah, you’d know that’s just not true.”

On Snickers removing Moolah’s name from the Women’s Battle Royal at WrestleMania 34: “I don’t know who started this. I can’t believe that anybody is that jealous, or that stupid. I don’t know what they thought they were accomplishing. To take somebody that can’t speak for their self, and them through the mud like they’re doing her. She’s not here to defend herself, which is not right. I just don’t understand what they think they’re accomplishing.”

On Accusations that Moolah was a racist and a bigot “I don’t think she was a bit racist… I have never heard Moolah say anything prejudice against anybody.”

On Moolah’s legacy in pro wrestling: “I think that she was women’s wrestling. She’s the one that really got all the girls going… Leilani Kai and Judy Martin. All the different tag teams that she had. Velvet and all them. Look at the exposure those girls got, because of her. They got a lot more exposure than us independent girls did, and I think she did a great job for women’s wrestling.”