Madusa's Controversial WCW Career, Explored (2025)

Women's wrestling might be a big deal now, with WWE, AEW, and other promotions having a roster so built up that their divisions have multiple championship titles, and many with the women even main eventing shows. Three decades ago, women's wrestling was in a much different place. It barely existed, but arguably its top star was WCW's Madusa, who went by Alundra Blayze during her time in WWE. Madusa shocked the wrestling world when she showed up on an episode of WCW Monday Nitro in 1995 and dumped her WWE Women's Championship in a trashcan. It set her up to be a major name in a company that was overtaking WWE, but sadly, that would be Madusa's biggest moment. The rest of her time in WCW was a mess.

Madusa Had A Short Run With WCW In The Early 1990s

Madusa Was Part Of The Dangerous Alliance

• Madusa wrestled other future legends like Sherri Martel, Wendy Richter, and Luna Vachon.
• In WCW, Madusa was mainly Rick Rude's valet in the Dangerous Alliance.
• Madusa had a match with Paul E. Dangerously in WCW.

Madusa didn't get into wrestling to be a valet or just a pretty face. She wanted to wrestle, and that's what she did, starting her journey in the mid 80s with promotions like the American Wrestling Association, where she got to do battle with other women's stars of the era, like Sherri Martel and Wendy Richter. She also wrestled in Japan and went one-on-one with Luna Vachon.

In 1991, with her name on the rise, Madusa joined WCW. This was a big deal but just with one major problem: WCW had very little women's wrestling, so much so that there wasn't even a WCW Women's Championship. Instead, she was mostly in the background in Paul E. Dangerously's (Paul Heyman) Dangerous Alliance faction, which consisted of wrestlers such as Steve Austin, Rick Rude, Arn Anderson, and Bobby Eaton. She'd hang onto Rude's arm and help him cheat in matches, but seldom actually wrestled. Her most memorable match might have also been Heyman's last in WCW, where Madusa took on Paul E. Dangerously in an intergender match at Clash of the Champions XXI in 1992. With Heyman not being a wrestler, it wasn't much of a match. A year later, Madusa was out of WCW herself, having done little more than stand around.

Madusa Returned To WCW On Monday Nitro In 1995

WCW Established Their Own Women's Championship

• In WWE, Madusa became Alundra Blayze and won the Women's Championship.
• Madusa famously dumped her WWE Women's Championship in the trash on Nitro.
• Madusa lost her chance at the WCW Women's Championship to Akira Hokuto.

Madusa's career actually turned for the better when she went to work for Vince McMahon in WWE as Alundra Blayze. She was immediately put at the center of the small but growing women's division, with WWE even going so far as to bring back their Women's Championship. Blayze was booked to win a tournament for the title, and then had a decent run with it, facing Bull Nakano at SummerSlam 1994, before dropping the title to her in Japan months later. After later getting it back, Blayze had another match at SummerSlam 1995, where she lost the gold to Bertha Faye. Weeks later, she became a three-time Women's Champion, but there was little time to celebrate. Two months after that, she was fired by WCW over money issues and stripped of the title she still had.

This led to the moment of Madusa, with her old name back, showing up on Nitro at the commentary desk, where she dumped her WWE Women's Championship in the trash. Things were looking up when she was put up against two of her old foes, Sherri Martel and Bull Nakano, so much so that WCW created their own women's championship. It felt like WWE all over again for Madusa, except that she was booked to lose twice this time in matches with the new champion, Akira Hokuto. Then Madusa announced her retirement and disappeared. Eric Bischoff had a great opportunity to make a huge star right there in front of him, and he blew it. It would be two years before Madusa would be seen again.

Madusa Was Put In Some Bad WCW Storylines

Madusa's Feud With Oklahoma Was WCW At Its Worst

• The WCW Women's Championship was retired after a year.
• Madusa beat Evan Karagias to become the WCW Cruiserweight Champion.
• Madusa had a humiliating feud with Oklahoma.

The WCW Women's Championship was a disaster, with very little effort put into it by Bischoff and company. It barely lasted a year, before being retired in January 1998, with their only ever being two champions. Madusa eventually returned to WCW in 1999, at a time when the company was losing its way, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that Madusa was now back to being a valet. She first had some interesting intergender matches as part of a tournament for the WCW Championship, before being relegated to managing Evan Karagias, a Cruiserweight who really never got over. She did get a fun moment of beating Karagias to become the Cruiserweight Champion, but even that wasn't handled well.

Madusa's worst storyline came with WCW's worst character, Oklahoma. Oklhama was the on-screen gimmick of Ed Ferrara, who had been brought in with Vince Russo from WWE to run WCW. Oklahoma was an offensive character that poked fun of Jim Ross, including his Bell's Palsy. When Madusa tried to strengthen the women's division by training the Nitro Girls to be wrestlers, with the ultimate goal being to bring back the Women's Championship, Oklhama put a stop to it with some very appalling, misogynistic promos and segments. It led to an embarrassing match, one of the worst in WCW's history, an Evening Gown match on Thunder in January 2000. Both wrestlers wore dresses (yes, Ferrara was in a dress), with the winner being whoever could strip the dress off the other. Ugh. Madusa won, only to get attacked by Oklahoma after, and then for him to beat her at Souled Out that weekend. Part of their feud even had Madusa in her bra and panties having Oklahoma dump barbeque sauce on her chest. For a distinguished wrestler like Madusa, it was as low as you could get.

In an interview on Cafe de Rene with Renee Dupree, Madusa spoke about WCW's changing landscape when she was there. When she saw that the company wanted Evening Gown matches, Bra and Panties matches, and for her to model in a bikini, she knew she was leaving when her contract was up because she wanted to be a wrestler. She told the host:

Madusa was a great women's wrestler at the wrong time. She couldn't live up to her full potential because of the era, but she paved the way and showed that women could be more than provacative, sexualized characters. Without her, women's wrestling might not be where it is today.