While WWE Divas today are on Twitter and in interviews wanting their employer to #GiveDivasAChance, it is quite possible that without one woman, Alundra Blayze, the Divas wouldn’t even have a chance to be out there wrestling at all. Also known to World Championship Wrestling fans as Madusa, Blayze would singlehandedly bring women’s wrestling back to the World Wrestling Federation and then promptly take it away again when she left the WWF three years later. Though she is remembered more today as a controversial figure who helped add fuel to the fire of a much larger war, it should not overshadow what she did before and after that moment. To truly see Blayze’s impact on the world of professional wrestling, one has to understand the foundation she laid down for all the Divas and women’s wrestlers that would come after her
Born Debra Lewandowski, Blayze was trained by Eddie Sharkey, who also trained other WWE Hall of Famers such as Bob Backlund, The Road Warriors (Hawk and Animal) and Jesse Ventura. Blayze began wrestling on the independent scene in 1984 for $5 a match, but was quickly able to get into the American Wrestling Association run by legendary wrestler and promoter Verne Gagne.
During her time in the AWA, Blayze went by the name Madusa Miceli and in only a year into her time with the promotion won the AWA World Women’s Championship by defeating Candi Devine in a tournament final. Blayze also spent her time there managing the likes of Mr. Magnificent Kevin Kelly (later known in the WWF as Nailz) and AWA World Champion at the time Curt Hennig. Hennig and Blayze would eventually join the Diamond Exchange, which was managed by Diamond Dallas Paige, and though this wouldn’t be the last time Blayze would be part of an important faction in her career, it wasn’t a regular occurrence back then for both the World Champion and Women’s Champion to be part of the same stable. Blayze eventually lost her Women’s championship to Wendi Richter, but had a chance at regaining the title at the first and only ever PPV held by the AWA, called SuperClash III in a six person inter-gender match that had both the AWA Tag Team belts and the Women’s belt on the line. Blayze was actually the one pinned in the match, but she and Richter were the only women’s wrestlers that competed in a high profile match on the card that night. Even though she never became champion for the AWA again, she did receive a huge honor before leaving the promotion. In 1988, Blayze became the first and only women’s wrestler to receive the Pro Wrestling Illustrated Rookie of the Year award.
Blayze eventually moved on a year later to do what was initially supposed to be only a six week tour for All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling, but she wound up signing a three year contract there. This made Blayze the first foreign wrestler to sign with the promotion. While there, Blayze got to hone her craft learning not only the Japanese style, but also Muay Thai and various boxing styles. Blayze was also able to wrestle with some of the best women’s wrestlers in the world such as: Japanese legends Aja Kong, Akira Hokuto, and Manami Toyota. This time period was also notable because this is where Blayze began a rivalry with Bull Nakano, which the two would later renew in the WWF.
After her time in Japan, Blayze would have her first stint in World Championship Wrestling, where she shortened her name to Madusa, which is also short for Made in the USA. The majority of Blayze’s first run in WCW was as Rick Rude’s valet as part of the Dangerous Alliance, managed by Paul E. Dangerously (A.K.A. Paul Heyman) and also featuring “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton, Arn Anderson, Larry Zybszko (also an inductee in the 2015 WWE HOF class,) and a young “Stunning” Steve Austin (who later became Stone Cold Steve Austin in the WWF.) The Dangerous Alliance ran rough shot over WCW and while Madusa mainly helped Rude win matches, several of the other members won championships. Eventually, Madusa and Rude had a falling out, which also led to Dangerously firing Madusa from the group, but she got her revenge on Dangerously by fighting him to a time limit draw at the November 18, 1992 Clash of the Champions and sending him packing from WCW for good.
Alundra Blayze signed with the World Wrestling Federation in late 1993 and was basically brought in to revive women’s wrestling in the WWF. Vince McMahon decided to deactivate the WWF Women’s Championship and essentially the entire women’s division after Rockin Robin left the company in February of 1990. Almost three years later, Alundra Blayze defeats Heidi Lee Morgan in a tournament final to become WWF Women’s Champion for the first time. With Blayze as champion, McMahon begins to bring in more talent to compete with Blayze. One of the women signed to the company was Blayze’s old rival from Japan Bull Nakano. Blayze and Nakano would go on to have a terrific series of matches that includes a victory for Blayze over Nakano at Summerslam 1994. Blayze would go on to hold the title for nearly a year before losing to Nakano at an event in Tokyo, Japan. Blayze eventually won the belt back from Nakano in a great match on the April 3, 1995 episode of RAW. After the match, Blayze was attacked by a debuting Bertha Faye and sidelined for five months. Blayze returned for a match against Bertha Faye at the 1995 Summerslam and lost the belt. Two months later Blayze would regain the WWF Women’s Championship for a third time on the October 23 episode of RAW. After that, Blayze kept the title until she was laid off by the WWF on December 13, 1993 for cost cutting reasons.
Five days later, came a moment that symbolized the “Monday Night War” brewing between the WWF and WCW. Alundra Blayze appeared in WCW once again using her Madusa name, but this time she carried the WWF Women’s Championship belt in her hand. Blayze stood next to the WCW announce desk and dropped the Women’s Title in a trash can. Anyone wondering why it has taken so long for the WWE to induct Blayze into the Hall of Fame only needs to watch this to see why. To say this infuriated Vince McMahon was an understatement. McMahon promptly deactivated the Women’s Championship after seeing what Blayze did to the belt. When the belt reappeared in the WWF almost three years later, it had a completely different design and lettering on it. To be fair, Blayze said she only did it because Eric Bischoff basically forced her to do it and she utterly regrets what happened.
Blayze stayed with WCW until the end of her career in 2001 when she retired after the WWF purchased WCW. In her second run in WCW, she began things by feuding with an old rival, Bull Nakano, which culminated in a match at Hog Wild 1996 where Blayze got to destroy Nakano’s motorcycle for defeating her. Later that year in anticipation for the 1996 Starrcade (WCW’s version of Wrestlemania,) WCW held a tournament to crown the first ever WCW Women’s Champion, which ended at Starrcade 1996 with Blayze losing to another one of her previous rivals from her days in Japan, Akira Hokuto. Unfortunately, Blayze was never successful in winning the WCW Women’s Championship as she lost in a rematch at the June 1997 Great American Bash in a terrific Title vs. Career match. Blayze wound up taking much more time off than expected, as she did not return to WCW until August 1999. During the tail end of this hiatus, Blayze started her career in Monster Trucks, which is something that also became rather popular during this same time period.
Back in WCW, Blayze returned as part of Macho Man Randy Savage’s (another fellow inductee in this year’s WWE HOF class) Team Madness faction, alongside Gorgeous George and Miss Madness (who would later appear in WWE as Molly Holly.) Later Blayze became the only woman to enter a tournament for the WCW World Championship, but she was eventually eliminated. However, she was allowed to re-enter the tournament in match with Evan Karagis, but Karagis defeated her. Blayze wound up managing Karagis all the way until a little before Starrcade 1999, where Karagis, the WCW Cruiserweight Champion at the time, was caught with another girl and so this led to a Cruiserweight Championship match between the two at Starrcade 1999, which Blayze won, thus making her the first and only woman to ever hold the WCW Crusierweight Championship. Though the way her reign ended was one of the stupidest things in WCW history, it is still an important accomplishment for Blayze. This would be the only title she would ever hold in WCW. Blayze spent her last year in WCW as a trainer at the Power Plant, where she trained Molly Holly, Stacy Keibler, and Torrie Wilson among others. In fact, Blayze would have her final match against one of her trainees, a mixed tag team Scaffold match, where she teamed up with Billy Kidman against Shane Douglas and Torrie Wilson. Blayze was injured in the match and never appeared on WCW television again.
Whether you remember her more as Madusa in the AWA and WCW or you only recognize her from the short time period she was in the WWE as Alundra Blayze. Her place in women’s wrestling is supremely important. Alundra Blayze showed the world that women could wrestle just as well as the men. Her bridging German Suplex is still used today by women’s wrestlers and her handstand headscissor became a staple of another WWE Hall of Famer, Trish Stratus’s moveset. Not to mention, she had some terrific matches with Bull Nakano and others that still hold up today. Alundra was an inspiration for women both in and out of the ring. She brought back a women’s division, she won championships in every promotion she was in, and she created the kind of controversy that for better or worse helped give WCW its reputation that anything could happen on Monday Nitro. Blayze still does Monster Truck events to this day, and actually won championships in 2004 and 2005 for freestyle and racing respectively. She can be considered one of the few who left the professional wrestling business without having to look back financially. Many probably never thought that Alundra Blayze would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, but it seems as though Triple H has mended another fence and now Blayze can take her rightful spot as the trailblazer of women’s wrestling in North America.
