10 Meanest Backstage Wrestling Feuds

Lillian ‘Fabulous Moolah’ Ellison was legitimately one of the most formidable women’s wrestlers of all time. Coming up in an era where women in the business were exploited and dominated, she stayed on top through a combination of tenacity, ruthlessness and total selfishness - much like many of her male counterparts in the business.

Although the received wisdom was that Moolah had trained WWF women’s wrestling sensation Wendi Richter, Richter herself asserted that Moolah had only taken her money, and that it was Moolah’s other trainees that had actually trained her.

Friction between the two became worse and worse when Richter bluntly told Vince McMahon to stop paying a commission percentage to Moolah out of her salary, claiming that Moolah had had absolutely nothing to do with her getting her job with the WWF.

Richter was riding high in popularity after the Rock N’ Wrestling Connection became such a crossover hit, and it’s no exaggeration to say that, represented by pop star Cyndi Lauper, she was as much the star of the first WrestleMania as Hulk Hogan.

Despite the status of the WWF Women’s Championship match that night, Richter received only five grand for working WrestleMania; all four men in the headlining tag team bout, including non-wrestler Mr. T, made ten times that. Not only that, but Richter never received a penny of royalties for her name and likeness being used in so many merchandise tie-ins, including a CBS Saturday morning cartoon.

That didn’t sit right with the Women’s Champion, and Richter’s efforts to persuade McMahon to increase her remuneration became weekly events. When McMahon tried to convince Richter that he’d ‘made’ her, the star retorted to him that “Cyndi Lauper made me.” That’s not a sensible position to take with the boss when he’s as narcissistic as Vincent Kennedy McMahon.

Faced with a title match with masked wrestler The Spider at Madison Square Garden, Richter knew something was wrong when her opponent came through the curtain: it was obvious to anyone paying attention that this was Moolah under the hood, not the real Spider. However, she was a professional. Going into business for herself wasn’t an option, so Richter played along.

The Spider’s offence was stiffer than expected, but Richter wasn’t a shrinking violet. Suddenly she was caught in a small package - and although her shoulder came up at the one-count, the referee continued counting, awarding her opponent the win and the title in a screwjob to rival Montreal.

Confused and angry, the now former champion didn’t even bother to change her clothes, grabbing her things and walking out of the arena and out of the WWF. She wouldn’t return until her Hall Of Fame Induction, twenty-five years later… and she never spoke to Moolah again.