History Wrestling / GLOW

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Several wrestlers such as Jungle Woman, Royal Hawaiian, and Little Egypt went barefoot. Mt. Fiji likewise went barefoot as part of her gimmick, while Godiva...well, she was supposed to be ''nude.''

* BareYourMidriff: Not as many as you'd expect, because the singlet was still the standard wrestling garment at the time. Little Egypt however did this - she was a belly dancer after all.

* FauxActionGirl: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling couldn't have been more appropriate, or maybe too appropriate, of a name. About [[SturgeonsLaw 90% of the girls]] were models and actresses looking to get into show business through wrestling, and the first season had girls with only about 8 weeks worth of training competing. The show bequeathed us with two adult film stars.

Back in the 1980s when [[ProfessionalWrestling pro wrestling]] was experiencing something of a boom, if not locally then at least on national TV, a niche opened for an outrageous television show produced by Johnny Cafarella and David [=McClane=]: An all-women's show featuring mad and outlandish characters, epic rap battles, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op6kE_CweXo#t=30s geopolitical debate]], and, of course, drop-dead gorgeous women with [[BestKnownForTheFanservice maybe some actual wrestling thrown in too]].

David [=McClane=] wanted a balance between "glamour and grit" but the director Matt Cimber wanted more comedy skits and outrageous {{Camp}}. As Cimber was bringing the money to the table, he won out. The majority of women who became the ''GLOW'' girls were struggling actresses attending another casting call. Apparently "one third" of them left the audition when they heard it would be about ladies pro wrestling. The ones that remained were trained by Mando Guerrero and shipped off to Las Vegas.

The show had many {{Spiritual Successor}}s. ''POWW'' was also founded by [=McClane=] and went back to his original idea of more wrestling and featured many legitimate women wrestlers - {{Wrestling/Madusa}}, Wrestling/LunaVachon, Wrestling/WendiRichter and Heidi Lee Morgan - in addition to the ''GLOW'' cast members. ''Wrestling/WOWWomenOfWrestling'' and ''{{Wrestling/Wrestlicious}}'' were more direct tribute shows featuring many an {{Expy}} of the original ''GLOW'' characters. A documentary about the show was produced in 2012 titled ''GLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling''.

* CouchGag: In the opening sequence, there was one with [=McClane=] in his phone booth office trying to pitch a deal to someone; at the closer, there was one with Aunt Kitty at his apartment trying to set him up with Hollywood, which he always rejected.

** Before the lounge lizards got involved, [=McClane=] hired Mando Guerrero ([[WrestlingFamily yes, that one]]) to get the women into shape. Lesson #1 was how to sell. When the girls sniggered at Mando flailing on the ropes, he put one of them in a sleeper hold, then let her drop and "flop around like a fish" in front of everyone.

* SelfDeprecation: David [=McClane=] was apparently very tight with money - so a gag was written in that his office was actually a public phone booth.

* VillainousCrush: Hollywood towards [=McClane=], it seemed, seeing as the closing CouchGag involved Aunt Kitty trying to play matchmaker between them.

* BikerBabe: Angel. She had the gloves and chain at least (and, of course, bike racing puns).

* GenkiGirl: The Cheerleaders of course, since they weren't quite what this site calls TheCheerleader.

* RapunzelHair: Godiva, Chainsaw, Hollywood and Vine all had waist-length hair.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: There had never ''been'' anything like this on American television before. Women wrestlers in general were viewed as a sideshow or a subversion and not to be taken seriously. (One could argue that GLOW ''still'' didn't take them seriously, but on-camera they were taken about as seriously as popular male wrestlers at the time.) In fact, male professional wrestlers and many of their fans ''hated'' GLOW because they felt it made professional wrestling look like a joke. There was a time women wrestlers would main event territorial system shows semi regularly, a time forty years before GLOW. WWWA and AGWA had been more serious and fairly successful women's promotions in the US, but they didn't have television and were no longer extant. [[Wrestling/AllJapanWomensProWrestling Zenjo]] was more serious, more successful and longer lasting, but that was Japan.

* AwesomenessByAnalysis: Zelda the Brain’s shtick was being a tiny nerd who could wrestle in GLOW because she was able to find her opponents’ weaknesses— “I always know where to land my blow!”

* MulticoloredHair: MTV wore multicolored spray in her hair for a punk look. Hollywood and Vine wore purple and pink streaks respectively. Beastie's mohawk was bleach-blonde with electric-blue sides.

* AlohaHawaii: The Royal Hawaiian dressed the part.

* JailBait: There was such a character who was injured before she could ever appear on TV. Footage of her appeared on the 1993 Reunion PPV.

* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: While the narrative [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar never quite came out and admitted]] that Hollywood's character was a streetwalker, it was very strongly implied--even after Hollywood became one of the most popular wrestlers on the show, beloved by both little girls and grown-ups alike.

* FarmersDaughter: Babe the Farmer's Daughter, along with her sister Sally: two buxom blonde faces who wrestled in cut-off shorts and red checkered crop tops.

* {{Adorkable}}: Zelda the Nerd, who wore thick glasses (in the ring, with [[BlindWithoutEm predictable results]]) and wasn't afraid to hit you over the head with her trigonometry book.

%% * SouthernBelle: A team of them, Tara and Scarlet.

* YouAreFat: The announcer constantly commented on the size of some of the wrestlers, even those who weren't overly heavy. The Bad Girls got singled out far more often than the Good girls: Godiva was nicknamed "the bulky Briton" who consumed "five meals a day!", while Ninotchka was a frequent target even after her HeelFaceTurn, with the announcer remarking on her ugliness, low cunning, and weight ("I never thought I'd [[Disney/{{Dumbo}} see a pink elephant fly!]]"). Consider that both Ninotchka and Godiva were fan favorites who were extremely well-liked because of their looks and personaes--Godiva a fun, flirtatious exhibitionist and Ninotchka a sultry arrogant IceQueen.

* HairDecorations: Tammy Jones has her hair ribbons and lace.

* SouthernBelle: A team of them, Tara and Scarlet.

David [=McClane=] wanted a balance between "glamour and grit" but the director Matt Cimber wanted more comedy skits and outrageous {{Camp}}. As Cimber was bringing the money to the table, he won out. The majority of women who became the ''GLOW'' girls were struggling actresses attending another casting call. Apparently "one third" of them left the audition when they heard it would be about ladies pro wrestling. The ones that remained were trained by Mondo Guerrero and shipped off to Las Vegas.

* BigBad: Almost all heels would defer to Aunt Kitty.
** In later seasons, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Big Bad Mama]] seemed to hold the entire heel faction in her sway.
* BigGood: Jackie Stallone was the main actor against Aunt Kitty's corrupting influence, but left the wrestling matches to other people.
** Mt. Fiji became this in later seasons, both in the ring and in Real Life to many of the wrestlers.

* {{Camp}}: So very much.

* GameShowAppearance: A group of 10 GLOW wrestlers made an appearance on ''Series/CardSharks'' (for questions that required a group of 10 people), and Mt. Fuji [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yE8ArbWPDw lifted Bob Eubanks over her head]].

* MagicalNativeAmerican: Little Feather.

* RichBitch: Averted. Tina and Ashley were sweet, playing faces the entire time.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: There had never ''been'' anything like this on American television before...or indeed, in sports history, where women wrestlers were long viewed as a sideshow or a subversion and were never taken seriously. (One could argue that GLOW ''still'' didn't take them seriously, but on-camera they were taken about as seriously as popular male wrestlers at the time.) In fact, male professional wrestlers and many of their fans ''hated'' GLOW because they felt it made professional wrestling look like a joke.

* SpiritualSuccessor: The show's three most notable successors were ''Powerful Women of Wrestling'' (POWW) which was more wrestling-based, ''Women of Wrestling'' (WOW) which was a trainwreck that went dormant after one year in 2001 but made a surprising return in 2012, partnering with Glory Kickboxing of all things in 2017, and ''Wrestling/{{Wrestlicious}}'' which was a little bit of both, airing for one year and being very silly but also putting on better matches at more consistent rates = than WWE's Divas or TNA's Knockouts were that year. Others include LPWA and CRUSH. POWW and WOW were also run by David [=McLane=].

* MulticoloredHair: The tag team Hollywood and Vine.

* TeamMom: Big Bad Mama was a villainous example. Mt. Fiji was her counterpart on the face side, though with more characteristics of

The show had many {{Spiritual Successor}}s. ''POWW'' was also founded by [=McClane=] and went back to his original idea of more wrestling and featured many legitimate women wrestlers - {{Wrestling/Madusa}}, Wrestling/LunaVachon, Wrestling/WendiRichter and Heidi Lee Morgan - in addition to the ''GLOW'' cast members. ''WOW'' and ''{{Wrestling/Wrestlicious}}'' were more direct tribute shows featuring many an {{Expy}} of the original ''GLOW'' characters. A documentary about the show was produced in 2012 titled ''GLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling''.

* {{Socialite}}: Tina and Ashley, though they were heroic examples.
* SomethingCompletelyDifferent; There had never ''been'' anything like this on American television before.

* YouAreFat: Matt Climber thought being called fat on national TV would strengthen the fibre of his athletes. While by no means petite, the announcer constantly put Godiva over as some sort of mutant, Wrestling/{{Chyna}}-like monster. ("the bulky Briton", "five meals a day!"). Meanwhile, he continued to hound Ninotchka about her ugliness and low cunning (which ran contrary to the crowd's reaction), getting every fat joke he could in about her. This continued even after she changed her gimmick to Parisian. ("never throught I'd [[Disney/{{Dumbo}} see a pink elephant fly!]]") Weirdly, there were rarely any negative weight-related comments about Big Bad Mama or Mt. Fiji, both of whom weighed well over three hundred pounds (136 kg); if anything, the remarks tended to be about how they were superb athletes in spite of their size, or about how their weight was part of their advantage.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Several wrestlers such as Jungle Woman, Royal Hawaiian, and Little Egypt went barefoot.

* FunWithAcronyms: [[Creator/{{MTV}} Melody Trouble Vixen]].

* ShoutOut: Ninotchka is a reference to [[Film/{{Ninotchka}} the old MGM film.]] Debuting as a not-so-undercover spy for the Soviets, she later abdicated her ''GLOW'' crown and jumped on a plane to Paris to renounce her Russian citizenship...earning the ire of the heels, who all but called her [[CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkey smelly frog]]. As mentioned above, her face turn may have been inspired by Nikolai Volkoff in the WWF, back when the Berlin Wall fell and Glasnost was happening.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: The show producers tried to keep the action fun, cartoonish, and family-friendly to appeal to young audiences...even though the cast of characters included axe murderers, streetwalkers, sexy farmgirls, and a woman who entered the ring naked on horseback.

The show had many {{Spiritual Successor}}s. ''POWW'' was also founded by [=McClane=] and went back to his original idea of more wrestling and featured many legitimate women wrestlers - {{Wrestling/Madusa}}, Wrestling/LunaVachon, Wendi Richter and Heidi Lee Morgan - in addition to the ''GLOW'' cast members. ''WOW'' and ''{{Wrestling/Wrestlicious}}'' were more direct tribute shows featuring many an {{Expy}} of the original ''GLOW'' characters. A documentary about the show was produced in 2012 titled ''GLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling''.