Meet the real life Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling who inspired the Netflix series

THE real life Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling behind the Netflix series GLOW have stories stranger than fiction. They’ve lifted the lid here.

THE real life Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, who provided the inspiration for the hit Netflix series GLOW, have lifted the lid on life starring in the ’80s cult show.

Serious injuries, a screaming director, fines, fat shaming, bitching, jealousy and staying in character 24/7 were all just part of their day.

And one of them nearly didn’t make it back into America after she was busted at the Mexican border for her fake British accent.

The stories from the original stars of the program, which ran for four seasons from 1985, are stranger than fiction.

Jeanne Basone, now 57, played Hollywood in the series — she still wrestles twice a month today.

She says the audition scene in the Netflix show was very similar to her experience: “I was in a hotel, not a gym and it was in a conference room.

“There were all these women and David McLane was there explaining about an all-female wrestling show which was going to take place in Las Vegas.

“I thought, ‘Wow, what an earth am I getting myself into — how does this work?’”

Jeanne Basone as ‘Hollywood’.

Jeanne came up with the ideas for her outfits.

“Half of the girls walked out with their resumes and their head shots, and I thought, ‘Well I’m gonna sit here, I’m in with a better chance now.’”

The women trained with a real life wrestler who put them through their paces: “I trained for two months and I was black and blue.

“We were sore because we didn’t know how to fall, we had to learn.”

She came up with her own raunchy image for her character: “I didn’t think the pink outfit I wore in the pilot was sexy enough.

“I wanted to make her more rock and roll, and started the sexy corsets and the fishnets.

“Then there were the zebra outfits and the cheetah and leopard — they were all my ideas.

“I thought, ‘lets make these girls sexy and cute.’”

Hollywood’s costumes certainly were sexy.

Jeanne would watch WWF matches in between practising moves.

She says her mother would never come and see her at a live recording because she was terrified she might be seriously injured.

Jeanne says their was some rivalry between the women in real life: “One of the women was from my same school she played Sally the Farmer’s Daughter.

“When they put us together it was fire.

“We didn’t really get along — we hated each other in the ring. I think we were jealous of each other.

“When you put 12 women together there is bickering and jealousy.”

The flyer for the original audition.

They also faced fines and curfews — which Jeanne regularly broke: “I did get a bit of a reputation of being the one always trying to get people to sneak out, but I never seemed to get fined.

“If we were caught doing drugs or drinking you got a fine.

“It was about $100US — that was a lot of money back then and we weren’t earning a load.”

Jeanne, who is now mainly based in Nashville and splits her time between there and LA, now runs her own wrestling company.

One of Jeanne’s close friends on the series was Dawn Maestas, who played Godiva.

The pair “stirred up a lot of trouble together” which included the Orange County native nearly getting barred from re-entering America thanks to her fake English accent.

Dawn in her GLOW days as Godiva.

Dawn, 56, said: “We had to stay in character all the time. The director didn’t want anyone seeing, for example Roxy and Godiva having coffee together if they weren’t friendly in the ring.

“We were at a hotel in San Diego and some of us snuck over to Tijuana in Mexico for a day out.

“We were trying to come back into the country and there were fans following us.

“I was speaking in a British accent and all I had was an American passport and they didn’t want to hear that.

“They weren’t happy at all.

“They were like “what’s with the accent?” I had to try and explain it to them without the fans hearing.”

Dawn now.

Dawn based her character on Lady Godiva from Coventry in the UK — saying she was a distant relative.

She would ride into the ring on her horse General, wearing a nude body stocking and fishnets.

Dawn, who is now a karate black belt, sommelier, and is involved in a skincare company said: “I was a haughty, arrogant, bad girl and I played her to the hilt.

“My background was being a gymnast — I don’t think I had ever seen a wrestling match.

“It was fun but my body literally had to get used to slamming onto the ground.”

However it was her show stopping entrance which saw her nearly suffer a serious injury: “We were on the road in Lake Tahoe and we rented the horse for my entrance.

“When the lights came up and everyone started screaming the horse threw me into the fourth row -I was flying across the room with the greatest of ease and he tossed me like a kitten.

I landed across chairs and tables.

“People were in shock — I had a match to do so I had to stay in character.

“At the end of that match between my adrenaline rush, to being clobbered by Daisy my opponent, and being above sea level I had to have oxygen.”

Godiva making one of her grand entrances on a horse.

The women lived in hotel rooms together while the show was being taped.

And Dawn says the women were expected to maintain their weight and look good — even getting fat shamed: “It was 24/ 7 and it was gruelling — we would get shouted at — I got called fat a lot.

“David would look at my salad and say, ‘Are you putting dressing on it?’ and, ‘You’re looking a little chunky.’

“The beauty regime was crazy and having three layers of spandex and the top one was a thong, was painful I am not going to lie!”

Dawn added: “David was very strict and demanding if you did something in the ring and it looked fake he would yell.

“If he came and looked at your match and thought you were doing a cheesy move, he would tell you say that’s not going to work.”

Another wrestler on the show was Lauri S, Thompson.

Now an entertainment lawyer based in Las Vegas, she balanced her time on Glow as Susie Spirit with performing at the French themed cabaret Folies Bergère twice a night for six nights a week.

Lauri in the 80s.

Lauri, 57, experienced one of the worst injuries seen on the show — dislocating her arm during a live taping: “I was facing Lady Headhunter and was supposed to dive over her, grab her legs and pin her.

“But I jumped over and wrong side of her leg and she fell over on me and missed.

“That is how my arm was dislocated and it sounded like celery snapping.

“I was picking my arm up off the floor and I was expecting Jackie, who was the manager of the good girls, to open the ropes up for me to get out the ring.

‘Instead she was shouting: ‘Get back in there Susie you’re not a quitter!’

‘I said to her: ‘Jackie my arm is dislocated, I have to get out!’”

She says she still has her cheerleading costume and wore it most recently for Halloween.

Lauri now.