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Our title refers to the Queen of wrestling, Mitzi Mueller. Mitzi had certainly come a long way since she was the nervous teenager Pat Connelly who adopted the name and stepped into the wrestling ring in 1963 to get knocked out by Naughty Nancy Barton.
The venue on this occasion wasn’t a club, leisure centre or town hall holding anything from a few hundred to a couple of thousand customers. This time the venue was London’s Royal Albert Hall, Britain’s most prestigious wrestling arena. This was to be the first time wrestling had been staged at the Albert Hall since 1985.
As she stepped into the ring on this April evening Mitzi must have paused and looked back with satisfaction on a career that far excelled any other British female wrestler. She had emerged in the early 1960s “kinky Anglo-German Blonde” and became the woman who smashed the prejudices against female wrestling. Mitzi travelled the world, working as hard as many of her male counterparts and overcoming the barriers to gain their respect. Eddie Rose said, “Mitzi went on to be the best known of the girls and was immensely popular with audiences. She had a good figure, moved gracefully and had excellent timing and mastery of holds and moves.”
Most wrestlers retire from the ring by fading away with no one noticing until the question arises, whatever happened to? It was very different when Mitzi decided it was time to call it a day. She was given a wonderful send off, helped by the fact her husband was promoter Brian Dixon. He put on a momentous show at the Royal Albert Hall, the first time female wrestlers had appeared at the illustrious venue. The match was something of a test case for a piece of new legislation, the Sex Discrimination Act.
Westminster Council, under whose jurisdiction this match would take place, were using the new law to overturn a blanket ban of female wrestling imposed by the London County Council and later endorsed by the Greater London Council. A council spokesman said, “That the ban contravened the Sex discrimination act and was therefore wrong.”
Brian took out his wallet and booked a bill that must have cost a fortune. It included Kendo Nagasaki, Fuji Yamada, Dave Taylor, Johnny Saint, Tony St Clair, Dave Finlay, Kung Fu Eddie Hamill, Neil Sands, Chic Cullen, Terry Rudge, and Keith Haward.
Topping the bill, of course, was a ladies tag match with Queen Mitzi and Rusty Blair facing “The Bovver Birds” team of Klondyke Kate and Nicky Monroe. Although Mitzi had been out of wrestling for some months due to injury the result of the match was never going to be in doubt. Mitzi and Nicky were triumphant over the villainous duo they opposed. The crowd cheered, the bouquet of flowers was presented and ten bells were rang to ceremoniously mark the momentous occasion.
The posters claimed “The occasion no true wrestling fan will want to miss.” For once the promoter got it right.
Page added 23/08/2026
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