Mitzi Mueller is a name modern fans may not know, but she was a massive star in the early days of women’s wrestling.
While Paige (or Saraya) is arguably the biggest female English star wrestling in the US today, Mitzi Mueller was a big star during the golden age of British wrestling.
Mueller began wrestling in 1963, at the age of just 14. Her father was wrestler Pat Connolly, who trained her despite the lack of opportunities for women in the business. The sport was banned for women in 1938, and extended for 41-years until 1979.
Despite the ban, Mitzi Mueller continued to compete all across the country. Women’s wrestling a big draw for the fans, but only when they were allowed to see it.
Many promoters refused to book the women’s matches, and many venues also turned their back on the lady wrestlers. Orig Williams wrote that he had to lie about who was wrestling in the card in case the venues cancelled his booking before the show could go ahead.
“Blonde Fury” wrestled five nights a week across the country, when her matches weren’t cancelled. Mueller, whose gimmick was that she was a German wrestler, trained, travelled and wrestled like the men. She mixed beauty and brawn, a mixture that endeared her to the paying crowd.
Mueller wrestled as a “Blue-eye”, or “Babyface”. She herself said that “I was a good girl in the ring. I think, because I could
According to a BBC report in 1976, she was just one of a dozen female wrestlers touring the UK full-time. This shows how few lady wrestlers they were, but also popular she was despite the lack of competition.
However, despite her enduring popularity, Mitzi Mueller was never a big star on TV. That is because ITV refused to show any women’s matches on World of Sport during its 23-year run on Saturday afternoon. It wasn’t until the 1980s until women were featured on TV, on Orig Williams’ Reslo programme on S4C.