Mae Young

At 90 years old, Mae Young has this physical status:

Johnnie Mae Young (March 12, 1923 – January 14, 2014) was an American professional wrestler.

She competed in numerous tournaments in the National Wrestling Alliance, both in the United States and Canada, winning multiple titles.

Young is considered one of the pioneers of women's wrestling, as she helped to increase the popularity of the sport in the 1940s and WWII.

She and Mildred Burke were among the first female competitors to fly to postwar Japan in 1954. Young had a high-profile "second career" in the World Wrestling Federation, beginning in 1999 (WWF, later Entertainment/WWE).

Young appeared in WWE televised performances with his best friend The Fabulous Moolah.

Young is also known for her adamant ability on bumps.

She was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum in 2004 as part of the "Lady Wrestler" class.

Young was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on March 29, 2008. WWE held the Mae Young Classic tournament in 2017 in her honor.

Early life

On March 12, 1923, Johnnie Mae Young was born in Sand Springs, Oklahoma. She was the youngest of eight children (one died at birth). Lilly Mae Young was a single mother (her husband was sent to work but never returned) during the Great Depression. Inie, the youngest sister of a young child, was severely affected by whooping cough at a young age. At the age of 15, Young was an amateur wrestler on her high school's boys' wrestling team. Fred, Eugen, Lawarence, and Everett taught her how to wrestle and assisted her in joining the team. Young was also a member of Tulsa's national championship squad and played softball.

Personal life

When Moolah referred to her by Young, she said "Lilian" as a sign of love for her longtime friend The Fabulous Moolah. Young quit wrestling in 1991 and moved to California to become a Christian evangelist and care for her mother, who was sick. She later regretted her evangelist lifestyle. Katie Glass, a former Moolah and midget wrestler, began working at a house in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1991, and was in charge of a Moolah and midget wrestler, a contract that lasted until Moolah's death in November 2007.

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Professional wrestling career

Young, who was still in high school, competed with then-champion Mildred Burke when she flew to Tulsa to face Gladys Gillem. Gillem was defeated in a shoot due to the promoters' advice that she would not wrestle the champion. Billy Wolfe, the fight's promoter, wanted Young to be a professional wrestler. She returned home two years later to compete professionally. Young later traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina, where she learned and worked with The Fabulous Moolah, but "I don't like girl wrestlers, and women should be in the kitchen," she told her. "You should be a wrestler."

Young started her career in a year with contradictory statistics. Young said it was August 20, 1939, her first match, while WWE said she had "started her professional career" this year. However, Young said it was also on March 22, 1940, the first match she saw, 1940. According to Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer, historians have been unable to locate any evidence that she started in 1939 and that her first match was likely in 1941. Young is said to have competed in seven decades, beating Lou Thesz's record. ...You could't say [her] 2010 match anything resembling a pro wrestling match, nor should you give as much leeway as possible. Although she appeared to have started in 1939, at 16, historians have been unable to find any evidence of her wrestling before 1941, when she turned 18 and went on tour with Billy Wolfe's troupe."

Young and Mildred Burke, 1941, opened up female wrestling in Canada. They served for Stu Hart in Canada. On December 7, 1941, she was fighting in Memphis, Tennessee, on the day that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, triggering the United States' World War II. Young helped women make the most of the fact that the men were fighting abroad by expanding their participation in the sport.

She competed under the names "The Queen" and "The Great Mae Young," but she mainly used her real name for the majority of her matches. Mildred Burke's World Women's Wrestling Association (WWWA) championed her in the 1950s. Young and Burke were among the first females to tour Japan after the war in 1954. She became the first Florida Women's Champion in 1951 (NWA). In September 1956, she competed in the national tournament to determine the next NWA World Women's Champion after June Byers was barred from the competition, but Young's companion The Fabulous Moolah took the title five years later. She became the NWA's first United States Women's Champion in 1968. In 1969 and 1972, she competed for WWWF in two matches. It's also unknown when Mae left the wrestling business and resigned. Mae worked in San Leandro, California, in the late 70s.

Ric "The Equalizer" Drasin and The Fabulous Moolah were among her students as an instructor.

Young would come out of retirement and begin fighting for the first time in over 20 years in 1993. She worked with the Ladies International Wrestling Association in Las Vegas, which was based in Fabulous Moolah. She teamed with Fabulous Moolah at a Las Vegas Golden Girls Extravaganza event on June 21, 1996, where they defeated Liz Chase and Lori Lynn to a no contest. She continued working with LIWA and even joined Moolah until 1998. In 1999, she left the service and joined the WWF.

She made a cameo appearance in the crowd of the WrestleMania X event on March 20, 1994, before her official recognition by WWE fans.

Young made her official debut in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) on September 9, 1999, where she was introduced with The Fabulous Moolah and later became beaten by Jeff Jarrett in the figure-four leglock. Both Mae and Moolah appeared on WWF televised shows regularly after this appearance. Mae made her WWF in-ring debut on September 27 on WWF Women's Champion Ivory; alongside Moolah, she competed in a handicapped evening gown match against WWF Women's Champion Ivory, who stripped Mae from her gown before Moolah took the gold. Mae, who defeated Ivory for the championship in October 17, was her last wrestling title before her death in 2007. She and Moolah were competing in an eight-woman tag team competition against Ivory, Jacqueline, Terri Runnels, and Luna Vachon on November 14, with their team winning the event and defiant.

Mae Young won the Miss Royal Rumble 2000 swimsuit competition on January 23, 2000, and then flashed her breasts. However, she was wearing a prosthesis and did not actually reveal herself. Mae started dating him in 1999 and 2000, and included a kayfabe pregnancy and attacks by Bubba Ray Dudley who performed powerbombs on Young through tables twice in consecutive episodes of Raw, with the first being in the ring and the second being off the entryway stage as the most well-known powerbomb in WWE history. Mae, who was 77 years old at the time, expressed admiration for the spectacle but expressed excitement for the feat. Her child was eventually delivered but discovered to be nothing more than a bloody rubber hand. Mae accompanied The Kat at WrestleMania 2000 to her match against Terri Runnels; she lost the match due to Mae's distraction by kissing Val Venis, the guest referee, before attacking Terri and her boss, Moolah.

Young and Moolah performed on the Christmas Eve edition of Raw, which was their last appearance before returning to the summer of 2002.

Mae Young and Moolah appeared on Raw, July 29, 2002, to promote her latest book, "The Fabulous Moolah: The First Goddess of the Squared Circle," before being threatened by 3-Minute Warning against general manager Eric Bischoff's orders. She accompanied Moolah in their last wrestling singles match, winning Victoria over and then being attacked by Randy Orton and an enraged Victoria on the September 15, 2003 episode of Raw. On June 15, Mae appeared during a segment with Stone Cold Steve Austin and Eric Bischoff, where she stripped herself in the ring and performed a bronco buster on Bischoff before being stunned by Austin.

Mae Young was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum in 2004 as part of the year's Lady wrestler category class. Young joined Moolah and defeated Dawn Marie and Torrie Wilson on the SmackDown episode on September 23, 2010!

Moolah and Mae Young appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on March 23, 2005, to promote their 2005 film in which they appeared in an interview about their 1950s heyday as well as several other female wrestlers of their time. Young resurfaced with Moolah after a braces gauntlet match in which she stripped herself before being confronted by Victoria as she left the fight, causing both women to recover and tear off Victoria's blouse. Young appeared on WrestleMania 22 on April 2 with Moolah during a backstage interview with Snitsky.

Mae Young appeared on backstage with several other WWE superstars and hall of famers at WrestleMania 23, 2007--2007. Mae Young made a special appearance on SmackDown's August 24 episode winning a Divas bikini tournament for the first time. Mae's last appearance with Moolah before her death occurred in August 2007, both of Vince McMahon and Raw's general manager, William Regal, appeared on backstage with her friend's friend, William Regal, two months before her friend's death.

Young was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on March 29, 2008 as part of the 2008 class. Pat Patterson, a fellow wrestler and colleague, was inducted into the ceremony. She appeared at WrestleMania XXIV the next night as part of the 2008 Hall of Fame class. On the 800th episode of Raw, Mae Young featured in a 16-Diva tag match in which she was pinned by Beth Phoenix.

Mae Young performed as the special guest time keeper for the 25-Diva battle royal, which was won by Santina Marella at WrestleMania XXV on April 5, 2009.

Mae Young won a Falls Count Anywhere handicap match against LayCool on November 15, 2010, becoming the first person to wrestle in nine decades and her final stipulated wrestling match.

Mae appeared backstage at WrestleMania XXVII on April 3, 2011 as part of The Rock and Eve Torres in a segment. Vickie Guerrero and Dolph Ziggler mockingly announced Mae as a "birthday gift" to The Rock, who replied by kissing Young.

Mae Young appeared on SmackDown: Blast from the Past (April 10, 2012), kissing The Great Khali. (July 23, 2012), and Raw 1000 (July 23, 2012), during which she was led by a man dressed in a massive hand costume pretending to be her son. Mae appeared in one of Kane and Daniel Bryan's "Anger Management" skits on September 24 in a Kane and Daniel Bryan "Anger Management" skit. Mae Young was warming up for her match with then-Divas Champion Eve Torres and developing stomach cramps as it was later discovered that she was pregnant again and gave birth to "Baby New Year," a Hornswoggle actress.

Mae Young's 90th birthday celebration was stymied by CM Punk in her last on-screen appearance on the Old School Raw episode on March 4, 2013. Vince McMahon, the WWE Chairman, and WWE CEO Triple H presented her with a personally monogrammed Divas Championship belt on backstage.

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