🎙️ Ringside in Rose City #33 – Princess Victoria: Fighting the System

One ring.
One city.
A thousand stories.
And this week… one of the toughest stories ever told at ringside.

When Lisa Hughes punches the connect button, FrankCulbertson and Portland Wrestling historian Mike Rogers welcome a true pioneer into the Rose City ring:

Princess Victoria.

Before the bright lights…
Before Madison Square Garden…
Before the championships…

There was a fight just to get in the ring.

🚫 When Women Weren’t Allowed

From 1954 to 1975, women’s wrestling was banned in Oregon.

Not because they couldn’t wrestle— but because they weren’t allowed to.

Princess Victoria was part of the generation that steppedthrough that door when it finally opened… and proved they belonged.

🥊 From Fan to Fighter

Her story starts in the stands—watching Portland Wrestlingas a kid… and turns into one of the most unlikely journeys in the business:

• Training under Sandy Barr in the toughest possibleenvironment
• Learning the craft the old-school way—six days a week, no shortcuts
• Becoming “little sister” in a locker room filled with names like Roddy Piper, Buddy Rose, and Dutch Savage
• Earning respect the only way that mattered—in the ring

🌎 The Road… and the Reality

Victoria shares what life in the territory system was reallylike:

• Endless miles—sometimes 800+ miles overnight just tomake the next town
• Japan tours, fast-paced styles, and learning on the fly
• The difference between working for promoters like Don Owen and Bill Watts… and the realities of working under others
• And the truth about what wrestlers—especially women—were really paid

This is wrestling without the gloss.

⚖️ The Moolah Reality

Princess Victoria doesn’t hold back when discussing FabulousMoolah—but her perspective is layered.

She separates the two sides:

• Moolah the wrestler – a trailblazer who endured thehardest era and helped open doors for women in the business
• Lillian Ellison the booker – a completely different story, involving control, pay disputes, and a system that many wrestlers felt exploited them

Victoria speaks candidly about both—
respecting the legacy…
while refusing to ignore the reality.

It’s one of the most honest and complex takes on Moolahyou’ll hear—
and a reminder that wrestling history is rarely as simple as it seems.

🏆 The Highest Stage

From Portland…
to Madison Square Garden…

Princess Victoria reached the top of the business as one-half of the WWWF Women’s Tag Team Champions.

And yet…

She found out she was winning the titles just five minutes before the match.

That’s the business.

💥 The Moment Everything Changed

On September 1, 1984…
a wrinkle in the mat.

A move goes wrong.

And just like that—

A career ends.

Victoria shares the raw reality of that night… and how quickly everything can be taken away in professional wrestling.

❤️ More Than Wrestling

This episode goes deeper than the ring.

Victoria opens up about:

• Her childhood and the challenges she overcame
• The support—and protection—of the Portland locker room
• Why fans mattered more than anything
• And how her story continues today through her new book:
Fighting the Wrong Side of the Sun

This isn’t just a wrestling story.

It’s about survival.
Respect.
And earning your place when the system says you don’t belong.

Step into the arena.

This is Ringside in Rose City —

Wrestling

 wrestling the way

it should be.