Wrestlers from the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling to appear Sept. 16 at Oscar's Palm Springs

Tracee Meltzer describes herself as “a hairdresser from Auburn, Washington” with an outgoing personality. But in the world of professional wrestling, Meltzer is known as Roxy Astor, a red-headed socialite from New York City with an unlimited credit card and lots of money.

She was one of many personas in the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, an all-female wrestling promotion that aired from 1986 to 1990 on several networks across the U.S. The promotion was started by entrepreneur David McLane and produced, directed and written by Matt Cimber. Netflix released an original series in 2017 loosely based on GLOW that ran for three seasons before it was canceled.

On Sept. 16, GLOW stars Meltzer, Gremlina (Sandy Manley), Sunny the California Girl (Patricia Summerland), Dallas (Debi Pelletier) and Royal Hawaiian (April Homm) will appear at Oscar’s Palm Springs for a night of “stories, reflection, and general craziness.”

World Wrestling Entertainment grew in popularity and dominated the sports entertainment world during the '80s featuring performers such as Hulk Hogan, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Andre the Giant and more. And while WWE did have a few women on its roster such as WWE Women's Champion Wendi Richter, GLOW took a different approach by airing as a TV show and had 26 episodes per season.

GLOW featured professional wrestling matches taped in Las Vegas at the Riviera Hotel, but it also included sitcom segments with audience laugh tracks. Some of these included Mountain Fiji (Emily Dole) dreaming of dancing and telling jokes with Tiffany Mellon (Sandra Lee Schwab), Tiffany's GLOW Gossip and more.

Dave Meltzer, the publisher and editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, said GLOW did well in ratings at certain points, but it was difficult to achieve financial success in TV syndication.

"GLOW was more of a 'Hee-Haw' kind of show and wasn't what I'd call a serious wrestling show. They featured women who were trying to wrestle, but it wasn't what we have now and nothing even comparable," he said.

'If you got hurt, you were out'

The women of GLOW went through professional wrestling training with wrestlers Mando Guerrero and later Cynthia Peretti, but most of the women had no contracts and received no residuals from the show. Meltzer said her paychecks were $350 and the women were expected to work through injuries sustained in the ring.

“If you got hurt, you were out,” Meltzer said. “We had Jailbait (Trish Casella) who was only 18 at the time. She blew out her knee and was gone. There was no great insurance, it was ‘don’t get hurt,’” Meltzer said.

Looking back on many of the matches, segments and personas, Meltzer describes GLOW as “politically incorrect.” One memorable wrestler was The Widow (Nancy Daly), a persona written as a woman who killed her husband. A minister of a church didn’t like The Princess of Darkness (portrayed by Janet Bowden and Ursula Hayden) and wanted her taken out of the show.

“I can’t believe the stuff we got away with. We had Colonel Ninotchka (Lori Palmer), a Russian who stepped on the American flag. I wrestled a girl named Dementia and she ran around in the ring with an axe. We also would rap before we went out and did our matches.”

Meltzer did her rap from memory: “When you meet with Roxy you better beware because I’m really strong and debonair. This jet set girl never backs down because all she wants is the GLOW crown.”

“That was kind of different back then,” Meltzer said. “We’re like ‘A League of Their Own’ with a group of wrestling girls just like that baseball team. You’ll never get it again. Once GLOW was gone like ‘The Golden Girls’ were gone, that was it.”

Women are now prominent in wrestling

During the '90s, the WWE tried to feature women's wrestling again with WWE Women's Champion, Alundra Blayze (Debrah Miceli) who appeared on TV off and on, but there was still a lack of women on the roster. Miceli often wrestled Japanese wrestler Bull Nakano (Keiko Aoki) and faced Leilani Kai (Patty Seymour) in 1994 at Wrestlemania 10.

WWE continued to push for women in wrestling in the late ’90s and early 2000s featuring matches with Luna Vachon (Gertrude Vachon), Sable (Rena Lesnar), Chyna (Joan Laurer), Debra (Debra Marshall) and more. Women in the organization are now as prominent as the men. In 2017, WWE signed former MMA star and UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey.

"Bringing in Ronda Rousey almost forced them to push (women) because it cost them so much money to get her that you had to push her and other women like Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks and Bianca Bel Air," Dave Meltzer said. "It's the strongest and most vocal it's ever been in the United States and anywhere outside of Japan."

WWE CEO Vince McMahon retired from the company after 40 years amid reports he paid upwards of $12 million to four women in a 16-year span to quiet allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity. McMahon had stepped down from his role as chairman and CEO on June 17 after the Wall Street Journal reported the company was investigating a secret $3 million settlement to pay to an employee with whom he allegedly had an affair.

"I've heard about everything and that's been going on for years, but why are the (WWE) ratings down? That's my biggest thing. Do they need a little extra?" Meltzer said. "Looking at WWE, I always feel like everything is a work. I don't trust anything. I feel people get so involved and believe it, but I don't believe anything."

Meltzer said she's been pushing for this show in Palm Springs, adding "Is Oscar's going to be prepared for this?"

"These girls are funny and crazy," Meltzer said. "We're all excited and it's something we were supposed to do two months ago but it didn't work out. We're there on a Friday and we have (drag performer) Pollo Del Mar instigating an interview. I have a feeling she's got something up her sleeve. You never know what you're going to get when you get us together. We're crazy, but in a good way."

Previous reporting by USA TODAY reporter Toyloy Brown III was used for this report. 

Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment for the Desert Sun. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com or on Twitter at @bblueskye.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Original GLOW wrestlers to appear Sept. 16 at Oscar's Palm Springs