She was the first real superstar of professional wrestling. Long before Charlotte Flair or Becky Lynch were even a thought, Mildred Burke was out there legitimately beating the hell out of people. Honestly, if you pick up the Queen of the Ring book by Jeff Leen, you aren't just reading a sports biography. You're reading a noir thriller about a woman who refused to stay in the kitchen during an era when "women’s wrestling" was mostly considered a carnival sideshow or a total joke.
Mildred didn't care.
She had these massive, muscular arms and a broad back that defied every 1930s beauty standard imaginable. She would walk into a ring, look at a crowd of skeptical men, and then proceed to suplex her opponent into the floor. It was violent. It was real. And as Jeff Leen—an investigative editor for The Washington Post—uncovers in his meticulously researched work, it was also a tragedy.
What Most People Get Wrong About Mildred Burke
Most folks assume that women's wrestling started with the "Divas" era or maybe the 80s GLOW era. That’s wrong. Totally wrong.
The Queen of the Ring book details how Burke became a national sensation during the Great Depression. We're talking about a woman who held a world title for nearly twenty years. Think about that longevity. In a business that grinds bones into powder, she stayed at the top because she was actually better than the guys. She wrestled men. She beat men. She became a gatekeeper of the sport, and for a while, she was one of the highest-paid female athletes in the entire world.
But here’s the kicker: she was married to Billy Wolfe.
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Wolfe was her trainer, her manager, and her greatest nightmare. He ran a stable of female wrestlers like a fleet of property. The book dives deep into the gross, exploitative underbelly of the business. While Mildred was out there drawing massive gates and headlining arenas, Billy was allegedly sleeping with half the roster and pocketing the lion's share of the cash. It's a classic story of talent versus management, but with a nasty, misogynistic 1950s twist.
The 1954 Match That Changed Everything
If you're looking for the climax of the Queen of the Ring book, it's the 1954 showdown in Chattanooga. This wasn't just a match; it was a civil war.
Mildred Burke vs. June Byers.
The NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) wanted Mildred out. She was too independent, too old in their eyes, and too difficult to control. They wanted June Byers to be the new face. The match was supposed to be a standard "work"—a scripted affair where Mildred would pass the torch. Instead, it turned into a "shoot." That’s wrestling slang for a real fight.
They went at it for over an hour. It was ugly. It was awkward. The referee ended up calling it for Byers under incredibly shady circumstances. Mildred never truly got her "rightful" ending. She was basically blackballed from the major territories after that, forced to start her own promotion, the World Women's Wrestling Association (WWWA), which eventually found a weird second life in Japan. That’s actually how All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling started—by using Mildred’s title as their blueprint.
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Why This History Matters Right Now
You can't understand modern WWE or AEW without knowing this.
When you see a "Main Event" featuring women today, you’re seeing the ghost of Mildred Burke. Jeff Leen spent years digging through old telegrams, court documents, and dusty archives to prove that Burke wasn't just a performer; she was a pioneer who got screwed by the system. The Queen of the Ring book is honestly pretty heartbreaking because it shows how the male-dominated wrestling commissions basically conspired to erase her from history. They succeeded for a long time, too.
Mildred died in 1989, largely forgotten by the American mainstream.
Investigating the Sources
Leen didn't just make this stuff up or rely on "locker room talk." He used:
- Federal court records from the antitrust lawsuits against the NWA.
- Mildred Burke's own unpublished autobiography (which is the "holy grail" of wrestling history).
- Personal correspondence between Billy Wolfe and various promoters.
- Period-accurate newspaper clippings from cities like St. Louis and Chicago where Burke was a god.
The detail is dense. Sometimes it's a bit much if you aren't a wrestling nerd, but for anyone interested in feminist history or the evolution of American entertainment, it’s essential. It exposes the "worked" nature of the sport while highlighting the very "unworked" physical toll it took on these women.
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The Legacy Left Behind
What’s wild is how much of Burke’s influence is still felt in Japan. While American wrestling turned women into "valets" and "eye candy" in the 70s and 80s, Japan kept the "strong style" that Mildred championed. She taught them that women could be warriors, not just ornaments.
If you read the Queen of the Ring book, you start to see the patterns. The way promoters treat talent. The way "the office" always wins. The way history is written by the victors (in this case, the men who stayed in power).
But Mildred’s story survived.
She was eventually inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame (Legacy wing) and the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame. It took way too long, but the recognition finally came. The book acts as the ultimate defense of her career, stripping away the carny glitter to reveal a woman who was tougher than just about anyone she ever shared a ring with.
Actionable Insights for Readers and Historians
If you're interested in diving deeper into the history of women in combat sports or the specific era covered in the Queen of the Ring book, here is how to proceed:
- Check out the WWWA lineage: Research the World Women's Wrestling Association. You’ll find that the "red belt" in Japan (the top prize in Stardom and AJW) is the direct spiritual successor to Mildred Burke’s championship.
- Compare the "Shoot" match: Watch whatever grainy footage exists of 1950s wrestling on YouTube and compare it to the descriptions in Leen’s book. You’ll notice the shift in body language when a match goes from scripted to "real."
- Read the contemporaries: Look up Gladys "Kill 'Em" Gillem or Nell Stewart. The book mentions them, but their individual stories are equally wild and highlight just how big the women's wrestling scene was before the NWA tried to kill it off.
- Visit the Cauliflower Alley Club: If you're a true fanatic, look into this organization. They are the keepers of these old-school stories and often feature deep-dive panels on the Burke/Wolfe era.
The reality of pro wrestling is often stranger and more brutal than the scripted drama we see on TV. Mildred Burke lived that reality every single day of her life.