The Professional Girl Wrestling Association (PGWA) is an America

women's professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a dramatic enactment of wrestling as a spectator sport. As is the norm for this sport, women's professional wrestling is organized by wrestling federations called promotions. Some promotions are exclusively for women ...

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

. The aim of the PGWA is to preserve and promote "Old School"

Women's professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a dramatic enactment of wrestling as a spectator sport. As is the norm for this sport, women's professional wrestling is organized by wrestling federations called promotions. Some promotions are exclusively for women ...

. Based in North Carolina, the organization frequently sponsors matches and whole cards in the Mid-Atlantic and Mid-South states, as well as in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

through partnerships with other regional promotions. From its founding in 1992 until her death in mid-2008, the Commissioner of the PGWA was

Penny Banner Mary Ann Kostecki (August 11, 1934 – May 12, 2008), better known by her ring name Penny Banner, was an American professional wrestler. Best known for her time spent in the American Wrestling Association (AWA), she was also the Commissioner of ...

Purpose

The company sets up wrestling matches for independent female wrestlers—wrestlers that are not signed to a major company—video tapes the matches and sells them to help promote their careers. Because the women do not sign exclusive contracts, they are free to wrestle in other promotions or major wrestling companies. Unlike many female-only wrestling organizations, PGWA does not overly emphasize the sexuality of the female wrestlers, nor does it promote them as " eye-candy", but rather stresses their skills and ability. PGWA matches tend to run 15 to 30 minutes, as opposed to the usual 5 to 10 minutes often allotted female wrestlers by promoters. This allows wrestlers to display a full range of their abilities, rather than having to focus on a few key moves in the short span of time their match allows.

History

The Professional Girl Wrestling Association (PGWA) was founded in 1992 in North Carolina by sportswriter Tom Randolph. Randolph brought a video camera to one of Susan Green's training sessions and later videotaped a match between her and Judy Martin. Green later became the promotion's first champion. In 2002, the promotion began holding events in the

and Europe. The 2004 show "Summer Heat", filmed in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

, had the largest card in the promotion's history to that time with 16 women wrestling at the event. In October 2004, PGWA co-promoted the first

ChickFight ChickFight was a women's professional wrestling promotion based in San Francisco, California. History ChickFight originally began as an eight-woman tournament with the first one taking place on October 29, 2004, in Hayward, California as part of ...

tournament, which later became an annual event, with

All Pro Wrestling All Pro Wrestling is an American professional wrestling promotion and training school, based in Hayward, California. The company was founded by Roland Alexander and managed by him until his death on November 5, 2013. It is located 45 miles so ...

. In November 2008, after the death of Penny Banner, Susan Green became the new commissioner of the PGWA.

LadySports

Concurrent with the launch of the PGWA in 1992, the promotion began selling a women's wrestling newsletter called ''Connections''. Shortly, this was transformed into a quarterly magazine titled ''LadySports'' (3 issues of a sister magazine, ''LadyBoxer'', were also published in the late 1990s). The PGWA staff also frequently supplied photographs and feature articles to such newsstand publications as ''Wrestling Eye'', ''

PWI ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publis ...

'', ''WOW!'' and ''Fighting Females''. Since the mid-90s, a LadySports Online website has also been maintained. With the cessation of the quarterly magazine, publishing efforts were shifted to the website, which not only offers downloads of PGWA matches and features on PGWA talent, but also provides coverage for non-PGWA women, from wrestlers to valets and referees.

PGWA Championship

Rookies of the Year

*1994-Molly McShane *1995-Regina Hale *1996- Joanie Laurer/Lee (AKA Chyna) *1997-Brandi "Babydoll" Collins *1998-Strawberry Fields *1999-Sweet Destiny (AKA Little Jeanne) *2000- Amber Holly *2001-Mia Martinez *2002-

Christie Ricci Christie Ricci (born November 11, 1982) is the ring name of an American professional wrestler, also known as Glory. After being trained by Leilani Kai, Ricci made her debut in June 2002, and began competing on the independent circuit. She won bo ...

*2003-Venus RotY retired *2019-Nikki Victory (RotY award revived) *2020-Elizabeth *2021-Kasey Fox *2022-Riley Matthews

References

External links

LadySports Official Website
{{Professional wrestling in the United States Independent professional wrestling promotions based in North Carolina Women's professional wrestling promotions Women's sports in North Carolina