If you turned on Netflix's GLOW television series expecting a true to life tale of the ladies who once performed in the first major all-female wrestling promotion, then you would be mistaken. Though a big hit with fans and critics alike, GLOW takes several liberties with the real-life story of the defunct pro wrestling company in order to make it suitable for television series. In this list, we will explore some facts that the show has ignored thus or will perhaps explore in the upcoming season 3 which is set to premiere this summer. In any case, let's get started with 10 Things They Don't Tell You About The GLOW Netflix show.
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No Female Leaders In The Promotion
The Netflix version of GLOW presents itself as a story of female empowerment with many of the ladies playing characters that give them a sense of adventure and creativity. Also, Sam Sylvia hands over some of his power over to Alison Brie's Ruth in order to help with the production of the program. In actuality, however, the reins of control were firmly in the hands of men.
In real life, sadly, there were no women involved in the production of the program aside from
There Was No "Ruth"
Painted as more or less the main character in this ensemble cast, Alison Brie's Ruth Wilder is the driving female voice in the show. While there are absolutely some episodes which focus on other characters, it's still fair to say that Ruth gets the most attention throughout the series. In reality, there was no real-world equivalent to "Zoya The Destroyah".
While it is true that there was a villainous Russian character on the program called Colonel Ninotchka, she was nowhere near involved in the production of the program as Ruth is in the Netflix series.
Rocky's Mother Was Involved
You could not escape the Stallone family in the 1980s. Yes that's right I said the Stallone family as it wasn't only Sylvester Stallone that you had to worry about when you turned on a television screen, but his mother as well!
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In the actual GLOW wrestling promotion, Sly's momma Jackie Stallone was involved as she played the on-screen owner of the company, as well as the manager of the tag team known as the Good Girls. We're just wondering what would have happened if she got her son to play a role in this blast of 80s weirdness.
The GLOW Magazine
You would be kidding yourself if you didn't think that the real-life GLOW wouldn't make use of all the actresses, models and dancers who they had in their stable of women by creating a magazine did you? Well, they did and judging by the covers, it's exactly what you would expect with "GLOW Gossip" and "GLOW Letters" being advertised on some of the covers.
In the show, there is no point where it is brought up that a magazine of the girls was or will be made. The closest thing we get to this is when the ladies sign photos of themselves for fans but that's a big difference from the magazine real fans had here.
Rapping, Rapping Everywhere
There's a scene in the Netflix series where Britannica sings a song she wrote that could be the theme song for the GLOW show. What fans of the Netflix series might not have known though was that this was actually a sly reference (intentional or not) by the writers to harken back to an aspect of the real-life GLOW promotion.
The real ladies of GLOW actually ALL had their own rap songs that were a part of their entrances. Sure it might have been the same beat being used for all the performers, but each one had their own unique lyrics to accompany their personas. And yes, they are just as 80s as you can imagine.
Guerrero Family History
Wrestling fans might have noticed that in the Netflix series actual pro wrestler Chavo Guerrero has a small role in the show as wrestler Chico Guapo. His role on the show is to get beaten up by a few ladies but his real-life task was to train all the actresses on the show for their in-ring performances.
The inclusion of Chavo Guerrero is a subtle as this isn't the first Guerrero family member to be involved with GLOW. In the original promotion, Chavo's uncle Mando did the job of training all the models and non-wrestlers to get them in acceptable wrestling shape.
Their Home Was Originally Las Vegas
At the end of Season 2, the ladies on the Netflix version of GLOW all head out to Las Vegas to continue the show as the promotion has a deal with a strip club owner to shoot their episodes out of the Riviera in Las Vegas. Although this was in the final episode (at least until it returns for season 3), Las Vegas was always GLOW's home.
For the first two seasons of the real-life GLOW promotion, shows were shot at exactly that: the Riviera in Las Vegas. Later on, they would transfer to a warehouse three miles away from the Riviera to shoot the program. Probably for the best, the show did the reverse order of a smaller venue in earlier seasons to a bigger one in later shows.
The Director's Portrayal Is Off
Despite being a show all about women, the men featured on the show have earned a lot of praise in their own right. In particular, Marc Maron's role as a grumpy, down on his luck B-movie director named Sam Sylvia is a fan favorite. However, according to one of the former wrestlers, this portrayal is drastically different.
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Former GLOW girl Patricia Summerland commented to the Huffington Post that Maron's role is definitely not accurate to the real-life director of GLOW named Matt Cimber. According to her, he was a great director as opposed to the highly irritable Sylvia. Pro Wrestling and inaccuracies to the real world go together wonderfully though, so we can give this a pass.
Wrestling Doesn't Come Easy
Throughout the show, we can see a few scenes where the ladies engage in you know, actual pro wrestling. In the training scenes, it appears that while they may struggle at first, a lot of the ladies actually adapt quickly to the techniques they have to perform. A former GLOW wrestler and WWE Hall Of Famer had to disagree with this.
Lisa Moretti, a.k.a Ivory to WWE fans, stated in an interview that in reality, the way the ladies learned was more akin to Debbie and Ruth putting a match together. “We did break down guys’ wrestling matches by watching them on VHS to try to make up what a wrestling match looked like,” she said. “But none of us knew what the hell we were doing." That certainly does make more sense come to think of it.
GLOW Had A Rival Promotion
Any wrestling fan worth their salt knows of the infamous Monday Night Wars that took place between juggernaut WWE and WCW promotions in the late 1990s. However, women's wrestling had a little feud of their own that the show has neglected or at the very least hasn't shown yet.
The real-life GLOW's original creator David B.McLane, along with many of the original performers, left GLOW behind back in 1987 to form a new promotion called POWW (Powerful Women of Wrestling) after he grew frustrated with the more campy nature of GLOW. This new wrestling company was more about, um, wrestling than its predecessor. Perhaps the season 3 finale will end with the cast being split?