Magnificent Mimi

[Joe Neglia]

She was one of the more prominent members of late 80s womens wrestling, but I've never watched much of her. It appears she segued into a stuntperson career after her AWA and LPWA runs, and may have been the backer of the film American Angels that she was part of. How in the world did she convince Verne Gagne to let her pose nude in Playboy with the AWA Womens belt when she wasn't even the champ?

[jason1980s]

I googled her a few months back out of curiosity because I haven't read anything about her in 25+ years but I seem to recall some of the magazines, maybe one in particular, being crazy about her. As a kid I really wondered who she was because, even though the non-WWF magazines did features on non-WWF guys, I really only knew of wrestlers in WWF and WCW.

[Ultimo Gallos]

Never saw her wrestle. But she was in the Apter mags fairly often.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

Jun 20, 2019 18:12:47 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

She was one of the more prominent members of late 80s womens wrestling, but I've never watched much of her. It appears she segued into a stuntperson career after her AWA and LPWA runs, and may have been the backer of the film American Angels that she was part of. How in the world did she convince Verne Gagne to let her pose nude in Playboy with the AWA Womens belt when she wasn't even the champ?

For all the traditionalism the AWA claimed they had, they also had one of the first lingerie battle royals, I don’t believe old man Verne needed much convincing.

[Citizen Snips]

In addition to American Angels, she was also in a number of late 90's straight-to-video action cheesefests that she would seem to have backed herself.

She had a great attitude for a heel and was pretty hot but she sort of seemed to fall in between the mid 80s and mid 90s WWF women's runs. The Playboy shoot and some work for some early wrestling fetish video companies probably would have cost her back then anyways.

[Joe Neglia]

Jun 21, 2019 20:33:32 GMT -5 Citizen Snips said:

The Playboy shoot and some work for some early wrestling fetish video companies probably would have cost her back then anyways.

Hard to say on that point. Linda Dallas, Misty Blue and some others from their group were doing full-fledged porn movies co-starring Ron Jeremy at the time and still worked.

[Ultimo Gallos]

Jun 21, 2019 20:49:24 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

Jun 21, 2019 20:33:32 GMT -5 Citizen Snips said:

The Playboy shoot and some work for some early wrestling fetish video companies probably would have cost her back then anyways.

Hard to say on that point. Linda Dallas, Misty Blue and some others from their group were doing full-fledged porn movies co-starring Ron Jeremy at the time and still worked.

The difference is Playboy is way way more mainstream and known about than the porns Misty Blue made. Seems like the Misty Blue pornos flew under the radar until the late 90s. Not sure who first found out about it. But with in a few weeks every tape trader was talking about how they had a copy.

[Deleted]

This is the belt she posed with. Was it ever actually used as the AWA Women's belt? I can't find anything of anyone who actually held the championship ever posing with it in photos or carrying it to the ring in video. It seemed like it was Mimi's own generic belt just used for 8x10s and posters. They definitely acknowledged her as having been in the magazine on TV, but I don't think that belt was ever the AWA Women's belt. The Playboy spread was in December of 1989. Devine doesn't use it during her early 1990 TV appearances as champion either. 



These were the ones I associate mostly with the AWA Women's Championship.

[Joe Neglia]

Jun 23, 2019 8:36:46 GMT -5 @mack619 said:

This is the belt she posed with. Was it ever actually used as the AWA Women's belt? I can't find anything of anyone who actually held the championship ever posing with it in photos or carrying it to the ring in video. It seemed like it was Mimi's own generic belt just used for 8x10s and posters. They definitely acknowledged her as having been in the magazine on TV, but I don't think that belt was ever the AWA Women's belt. The Playboy spread was in December of 1989. Devine doesn't use it during her early 1990 TV appearances as champion either. 

Good eye - I've never noticed the belt in the Playboy pic wasn't the one that was usually used.

So between her (possibly) having a vanity belt made and financing her own starring roles, seems like she was trying to manufacture a career on her own dime. Weird. That kind of thing didn't become as prominent until the internet era and the super marks.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Jun 23, 2019 12:05:51 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

Good eye - I've never noticed the belt in the Playboy pic wasn't the one that was usually used.

So between her (possibly) having a vanity belt made and financing her own starring roles, seems like she was trying to manufacture a career on her own dime. Weird. That kind of thing didn't become as prominent until the internet era and the super marks.

To be honest, I've seen them photos and I didn't notice that there was a belt at all...

[Mozenrath]

This is one of the ugliest title belts used in professional wrestling history, full stop. Holy shit.

[WoodStoner1]

Jun 24, 2019 2:02:17 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

This is one of the ugliest title belts used in professional wrestling history, full stop. Holy shit.

It's CWA lunch tray belt bad.

The red, white, and blue one was a repurposed light heavyweight title.

[Joe Neglia]

I wonder how many of these belts were made at the state penitentiary.

[auph10imitated]

Mimi was a decent worker during her spell in the LPWA, she played a pretty good heel as well. Nothing special but good in terms of late 80's/early 90's female wrestlers.