Limited Series | Drama | 3 x 60 mins
Status: Available
Pitch
Logline
In the glitzy, gritty world of 70s/80s British wrestling, two female wrestlers, a glamorous rebel and a formidable outcast, transform from staged rivals into covert allies, launching a defiant revolution inside and outside of the male-dominated ring to smash the many social barriers that have long kept women out.
Series Synopsis
Part One: THE PIONEER
We follow Mitzi Mueller’s arduous journey to break into the sport that made her father famous. Defying his criminal world and overprotective ban, she fights for respect in a world that sees her as either a gangster’s daughter or a pin-up blonde. We witness her humiliating start as a ring girl and mud-wrestler, her strategic alliance with the activist and fellow wrestler, Sue Britton, and the catastrophic failure of their first illicit London show, which lands her father in jail. Beaten down and devoid of hope, Mitzi quits for a TV career, but the ring calls her back when a charity match calls. The episode ends with Mitzi finding a fresh hope, her first manager, and a new, formidable rival: the fearsome Klondyke Kate.
PART TWO: THE OUTCAST
This chapter shifts focus to Klondyke Kate, an outcast from the factories of Stoke who finds a terrifying sense of power when a blind date, which goes humiliatingly wrong, introduces her to the world of wrestling. Sleeping in gyms and fighting masked as a man, she earns the grudging respect of the male roster through sheer, unrelenting force. Forced by promoters into a “hateful” rivalry, Kate and Mitzi are pitted against each other as bitter enemies. Behind the scenes, these staged adversaries become genuine allies, vowing to combine their star power to smash the barriers holding them back. When Kate’s turbulent personal life and her battle with postpartum depression force her into retirement, it is Mitzi, now the champion, who relentlessly coaxes her back for one last, career-defining grudge match.
PART THREE: THE REVOLUTION
The climax. Years have passed. British wrestling is in decline, threatened by flashy imports from the United States and Japan. Despite promises to fight together to get female wrestling accepted, Kate has disappeared. Mitzi continues to fight for the cause in and out of the ring, but is eventually forced to retire due to injury. That is, until a lucrative international event with Japanese promoters includes a condition: their female stars must be included. The ban on female wrestling is temporarily lifted. The masked female star of the Japanese circuit insists her opponent must be the legendary Mitzi Mueller, who is coaxed out of retirement for this historic match. The Japanese entrant is revealed to be Kate, who has reinvented herself as a masked superstar in Japan. In a packed London hall, under the TV lights that once excluded them, these two allies and rivals have their final, epic match, a genuine contest that captivates the nation and finally, truly, lets the girls in.