Pro Ladies Tag Team Match - 1963
By Hank Edwards
Penny Banner and Ann Casey Face Judy Grable and Rita Cortez in a Fictional Ladies Tag Team Match.


In the summer of 1963, Penny Banner and Ann Casey met to do 
battle against the team of Rita Cortez and Judy Grable in the city of 
Raleigh, North Carolina. This was the golden age of lady wrestling 
and the wrestlers were all in their prime.

A chorus of boos greeted Rita Cortez as she ducked through the 
ring ropes with Judy Grable right behind her. With hands on hips 
the two women stood in their corner waiting for their opponents to 
enter the ring. Judy was a fair skinned buxom women with curly 
blonde hair and full red lips. She wore a white wrestling suit with 
white tassels around the waist. Known as the "Barefoot Contessa", 
Grable did not wear boots. Rita was a sultry black hared woman 
with smooth olive skin. Both girls looked defiantly at their 
opponent's corner while whispering last minute tactics to each 
other.

Penny and Ann entered the ring to the loud cheers of the crowd. 
They wore matching leopard suits and gold ring jackets with 
"Penny" and "Ann" embroidered on the backs. Penny Banner's long 
blonde hair fell gracefully across her tanned shoulders. Ann was tall 
and curvy, all the way down to her black wrestling boots. She had 
dark hair with big brown doe-eyes. She possessed the dark 
complexion and hot temper of her Cherokee-Irish background. Ann 
was the bigger of the two women, but Penny Banner had the edge 
in ring experience. As the four women stood in their corners it was 
clear that this was going to be a long hard fight.

The ring announcer stepped between the ropes and grabbed the 
microphone, proclaiming, "This is a special two out of three falls 
ladies match featuring to my left, weighing in at 155 lbs., the 
"Barefoot Contessa", Judy Grable. And her partner, the former 
Mexican ladies champion, at 145 lbs., Miss Rita Cortez." With this, 
the team of Grable and Cortez opened up their ring jackets and 
waived to the fans. The announcer continued, "Their opponents in 
the corner to my right are, first, weighing in at 142 lbs. the 
renowned Penny Banner. And her partner, at 148 lbs., the "Panther 
Girl", Ann Casey." The crowd broke out in applause as Penny and 
Ann slowly unbuttoned their ring jackets to reveal their beautiful 
tanned young bodies. With the introductions over, the referee 
beckoned the four women to the center of the ring.

As the referee proceeded to explain the rules, Grable waived her 
fist at Ann Casey. Penny and Rita stood across from each other 
and glared. Finally, the Mexican beauty said to Penny, "Listen you! 
I know that you think you are some kind of tough cookie, but you 
shouldn't have stepped into this ring with us. I'm going to cripple 
those legs of yours and pull that blonde hair out of your head until 
you're bald."

Penny angrily pulled off her ring jacket and with her arms open in 
an invitation to fight, shouted to Rita, "Come on, let's go honey."

Before they could make contact, the ref separated the wrestlers 
and sent them to their corners to await the opening bell. When it 
finally rang, Ann held back a raging Penny Banner, and entered the 
ring to face Judy Grable, who came in to open the match against 
the pretty brunette.

Ann's brown eyes stared intently at Judy as the girls circled each 
other in the center of the ring. Offering her hands to the blond, 
Casey beckoned Judy to lock up in a test of strength. Casey 
entwined her fingers with Judy's and began to push down hard on 
the smaller blond. Ann's pretty face took on a strained look as she 
clenched her teeth and proceeded to bend back Judy's slender 
wrists. Ann forced Grable down to her knees. Looking up in agony, 
Judy shook her head from the pain and looked up at Ann for mercy. 
Ann just continued to bend back the blonde girl's wrists until Judy's 
knuckles were brought to the mat. Holding the pert blonde down to 
the mat by her wrists, Casey quickly jumped up and came down on 
Grable's hands with her black wrestling boots. Judy let out a high 
pitched yelp of pain as she knelt on the mat shaking her hands to 
ease the pain. Ann stood up and waived to the crowd as she 
walked around her fallen foe.

Judy Grable had not yet made it to her feet when Casey sunk her 
fingers into Judy's curly blonde hair and tucked her opponent's 
head in between her shapely knees. With Grable bent over and 
kneeling on the canvas, Ann locked Judy's face between her knees 
and dropped to the mat using her knees to smash Grable's face 
into the mat. The doe-eyed Casey smiled as she watched the hurt 
Grable roll around the mat cupping her head with her hands trying 
to hold back the pain.

Ann grabbed Judy by hair and turned her blonde foe over so that 
she was face up. She locked Grable's head between her legs and 
knelt down on her opponent's curly blonde hair. Ann grabbed her 
opponent's chin with both hands and pulled up as hard as she 
could. Now, the only sound that could be heard was the muffled 
cries of Judy Grable. Since Grable's shoulders were touching the 
mat, the referee began a three count. This caused Judy to bridge 
back in order to lift her shoulders off of the mat. When she had 
bridged to full height, Ann held out an open fist and brought it down 
on the outstretched belly of the blonde causing her to collapse back 
to the mat. As the referee moved in to check Judy's shoulders, Ann 
applied a quick choke on Grable's throat, which made the blonde 
stomp the mat wildly with her bare feet. So far Ann Casey had been 
in complete control of the match and Judy Grable was taking a real 
beating from the Cherokee-Irish girl.

The fiery Mexican, Rita Cortez, ran into the ring yelling "she's 
choking her, make her stop!" In response, the referee got up to 
make Rita leave the ring. Penny also jumped in and the leopard 
clad beauty ran over to Cortez with a clenched fist held high. During 
the distraction, Ann reached down behind her back and grabbed a 
handful of Grable's hair. She used her other hand to choke the 
woman's throat. Ann held her chest out and smiled to the fans as 
she sat on Grable. To further silence and humiliate her blonde 
adversary, Casey brought all of her weight down on Grable's face. 
Seeing this, the ref called out, "Okay, that's a choke, break the hold 
and let her up."

Casey stood up, grabbed Grable by her right arm, took a handful of 
hair and dragged the pretty blonde face-first into the corner 
turnbuckles. Penny stuck her hand out for a tag and cried, "let me 
have a chance to work on her." Ann walked over and slapped the 
hand of her partner who was eagerly awaiting the opportunity to get 
into the ring and continue the beating of Judy Grable.

Judy's big blue eyes looked up in fear as the leggy, leopard clad 
Penny moved in to pull Grable off the mat by the hair. Having stood 
her weakened opponent up, Penny reached back and with a twist 
of her shapely hips and delivered a cruel forearm smash to Judy's 
head. Grable's body sunk to the mat where she covered her head 
with her arms in order to protect herself against further punishment 
from Penny.

Banner leapt into the air and came down with both knees on 
Grable's midsection. The leopard clad blonde knelt down beside 
Judy's outstretched body and dug her fingers into Grable's stomach 
with both hands. Penny looked earnestly at the referee and asked 
him to see if Grable wanted to submit to her claw hold. All the while 
she continued to pull on Judy's stomach muscles, working away on 
the blonde's belly by digging in with her fingers in a deliberate, 
circular manner, as if she were a housewife kneading dough.

Penny looked down at her foe with a look of disdain. Judy's pretty 
face was twisted up in agony as she took the punishment that 
Penny was dishing out. Her only hope was to reach the ropes, so 
the exhausted blonde began to stretch with all of her might to try to 
get to the other side of the ring. In her weakened condition, Grable 
did not see that she was working her way over to her opponents' 
corner. When she finally reached the ropes, Penny let go of the 
claw hold, but only to let the beautiful Ann Casey come down off 
the top rope with both knees aimed for Grable's stomach.

Ann and Penny slowly stood up and looked down at Grable's 
lifeless form. Penny put her arm around Ann and whispered in the 
brunette's ear, "She's out! Go ahead and finish her off."

Ann picked up the beaten blonde and turned her upside down for a 
pile driver. Placing Judy's head between her thighs, Ann squeezed 
the upended girl's waist and dropped her down to the mat 
smashing Grable's head into the ring. Judy's body was motionless 
as Ann pounced on her for the pin.

With Ann looking up and smiling at the crowd, the referee counted 
"one, two, three." The leopard clad Casey, kicked Judy in the side 
and walked over to the center of the ring where she had her arms 
raised with Penny in the center of the ring.

Between the falls, Rita worked with Judy to make sure her partner 
could go on with the fight. Meanwhile, Ann and Penny celebrated 
their first fall win by circling the ring arm-in-arm and waiving to the 
audience. As the bell was about to ring to start the second fall, the 
referee walked over to Judy and asked if she wanted to continue. 
"Don't worry about us," barked Rita, as she waived the ref from 
their corner.

At the bell, Rita leaped into the ring and charged after Casey. Ann 
turned angrily at the ref shouting, "What's she doing in here?" Then, 
pointing at Judy, Casey proclaimed, "she's the one who has to 
start. Tell her to get into the ring." The referee backed Rita into the 
corner admonishing her, "that's right, whoever was in the ring at the 
end of the fall must begin the next fall."

It was a while before the Mexican wrestler could be coaxed to take 
her position on the ring apron. Finally, the ref motioned to Ann and 
Judy to come out and start wrestling. Casey bolted across the ring 
and caught the sluggish Grable with a forearm smash to the chest. 
Judy collapsed and rolled up into a ball holding her hurting breasts. 
Ann casually walked back to her corner and tagged off to her 
partner. Penny smiled as she took a handful of Judy's hair and 
yanked the beaten girl up for some more punishment. But before 
Judy got to her knees she managed to unload a hard fist to 
Banner's midsection. Penny's face immediately became a portrait 
of shock and pain as Judy reached back to deliver another stomach 
punch to the young blonde. This blow cut Penny down to her 
knees.

Now it was Grable who was smiling as the big blonde grabbed a 
handful of hair and smashed Penny's head face-first into the mat. 
Penny tried crawling over to her corner where Ann was reaching 
out to make a tag, but Judy took hold of Banner's legs and dragged 
her across the ring on her belly and chest. Finally, Judy let go and 
Penny slowly made it to her hands and knees. With a scornful look 
on her face, Grable raised her bare foot and stepped on Penny's 
back, driving her back down to the mat.

The next time Penny got up, Judy took her by the wrist and threw 
Banner into the corner where Rita Cortez was waiting with an 
outstretched knee. As Penny's body hit the turnbuckles, Rita's knee 
dug deep into the blonde's lower back. Rita was on her in an instant 
gleefully tying Penny's arms up in the top rope while Judy spread 
Banner's legs and tied them up in the ropes. Ann ran into the ring to 
help her partner. However, Rita met her halfway with a powerful 
dropkick to the chest. The force of Rita's dropkick was enough to 
send Ann's body reeling back into the corner. Before she knew 
what hit her, Rita had tied Ann's body up in the ropes. With both of 
their foes tied up in the ropes, Judy and Rita met in the center of 
the ring and slapped hands as they ran the length of the ring toward 
their suspended opponents. Penny and Ann were totally helpless to 
stop the punishment that Judy and Rita had in mind, and being tied 
up on opposite corners were forced to watch their partner's misery.

Grable's knee hit Casey's belly with a loud thud. Ann grimaced in 
pain and let out a hurtful grunt as her body shook in the corner from 
the force of Judy's kick. Directly across from her, she could see 
Penny screaming in pain as Rita dug her knee into the blonde's 
lower abdomen. Both girls then turned around and ran to the 
opposite corners, slapping hands on the way. As Rita reached Ann 
Casey's helpless form, she took direct aim at the lowest part of 
Ann's hanging body, hoping to drive her kneecap right into Casey's 
unprotected groin. Ann cried out with a deep wounded moan as 
Rita slammed her knee into Casey's lower body. Meanwhile, Penny 
bounced up and down trying to free herself from the ropes to no 
avail. Grable just stood in the corner working Penny over with fists, 
knees and elbows.

Before the ref could free the bound women, Rita and Judy pulled 
their opponents out of the corners and launched their bodies toward 
a collision in the center of the ring. Ann and Penny smashed into 
each other at full force and fell to the mat. Rita and Judy took their 
opponents' legs by the boots and spread their legs with a "row the 
boat" maneuver. Ann cried out and pulled her own hair in agony as 
her legs were stretched to the limit by the brutal duo. Penny reacted 
to the torture by biting her lip and letting tears stream down her 
cheek. Grable and Rita pulled harder on their opponents' legs and 
smiled at their helplessness.

After releasing the leg spreader, Rita and Grable set their foes up 
to be trapped in a Mexican Double Surfboard hold. Rita made sure 
that Penny was groggy by bringing her elbow down on the crown of 
Penny's blonde head. Likewise, Judy clasped Ann's ears with her 
fingers and pulled hard until clapping her head with a hard slap, 
making Ann's ears ring with pain. With both women unable to 
defend themselves, Rita and Judy sat them down back-to-back in 
the center of the ring. Facing Penny, Rita took hold of Ann's arms 
and pulled them through Penny's arms. Grable was facing Ann and 
pulled away at Penny arms. Both women let out shrieks of pain but 
refused to submit when asked by the ref. Finally, Rita gave the 
signal and her and Judy drove their feet into the chests of their 
opponents. Now Ann began to whimper and Penny said, "Okay, 
okay, we give! We give! Please stop it! Ref, make them stop!"

Rita and Judy let go of their foes and two leopard-clad wrestlers fell 
flat on the mat with their legs and arms spread wide. Now it was 
time for Rita and Judy to prance around the ring, stepping on the 
stomachs of their fallen foes. Their arms were raised in victory and 
soon all four women were standing in their corners waiting to start 
the third and final fall.

The bell rang and Rita Cortez entered the ring to face Penny 
Banner. Penny was still groggy and was slow coming out to meet 
her rival. Her body was bruised and her hair completely disheveled 
from being pulled. Rita took hold of Banner's arm and drove it up 
her back in a painful hammerlock. 

Continuing her punishment of Banner's arm, Rita bent her over and 
walked her blonde foe around the ring with the hammerlock still in 
place. Rita pulled harder and threw Penny's body into the air, 
slamming her down to the mat on her tummy. Penny winced as Rita 
applied more pressure to the weakened arm. Releasing the hold 
temporarily, Rita straightened Penny's arm out on the mat and 
delivered a painful knee drop to the woman's arm. The Mexican 
beauty followed through by sitting on Banner's shoulder, pulling the 
blonde's arm through her legs and going to work on Penny's 
fingers. Penny howled has Rita used her body as a shield to 
prevent the ref from seeing her biting the fingers and choking the 
throat of her rival. The team of Penny Banner and Ann Casey was 
in terrible trouble and unless they could do something here, they 
were going to lose the match.

Penny tried to reach up Rita's back to grab a handful of black hair. 
Each time she did, Rita just twisted harder on Penny wrist, forcing 
the blonde to let go and pound on the mat in pain. What Rita didn't 
see was that Penny was inching her way to the ropes. When she 
was finally able to stretch out and make it to the ropes, the ref 
tapped Rita on the back and made her break the hold.

Penny stayed down on the mat shriveled up in agony. With a big 
broad smile on her face, Rita raised her arms to the spectators and 
moved in for the kill. Bouncing into the ropes, Rita came off with 
both knees in the air looking to knee drop her fallen foe. At the last 
possible second, Penny rolled out of the way leaving Rita to land 
hard on her knees. Now it was the olive skinned wrestler who was 
curled in a ball rubbing her bruised legs. But not for long as Penny 
dragged her up by the hair, caught her in a headlock and took aim 
for the corner and Ann Casey's outstretched knee. Rita's head 
collided with force against Casey's knee.

In a calm, but forceful voice, Ann said, "Let me in. I'm gonna kill 
her!" As Ann made her way between the ropes, Penny straightened 
Rita up with a full nelson. Ann wound up and delivered a stunning 
punch to Rita's breadbasket. As the ref made Penny leave the ring, 
Rita fell to her knees and held her arms praying for mercy from 
Ann. "Please, don't! Please, don't! Don't hurt me! Don't hurt me! 
Please!" cried the now supplicant Rita Cortez.

Ann replied with a boot to the breasts that caused the hurt wrestler 
to drop to the bottom turnbuckle. "Let's ring her like a bell!" shouted 
Penny. With that, Ann held Rita by the arms as Penny took hold of 
Rita's legs outside the ring. All at once, Penny pulled on Rita's legs 
until her crotch smacked with force into the metal corner pole. Ann 
then responded by pulling Rita back for another shot. With Rita now 
screaming and practically in tears, Penny rammed Rita's crotch 
once more into the ring pole. To add to her suffering, Banner took 
one of Rita's shapely legs and slammed it into the pole. Rita fell off 
the ring apron and onto the hard cement floor.

Penny slammed Rita back onto the ring apron and rolled her 
through the ropes where the leggy Ann Casey stood ready to stomp 
on Rita with her boots. After a few kicks, Casey placed Rita's head 
between her feet and stepped on her hair. She then knelt down and 
raked Rita's face across her bootlaces. When the ref came over to 
complain, Ann let go of her opponent's head and resumed standing 
on Rita's long black hair. Ann's face took on a look of indignation as 
the ref ordered her to step away from Rita's crumpled body.

That was all Rita needed and she ran across the ring to tag Grable. 
But Ann was quick to chase her down and grabbed hold of Rita's 
arm. Grable was stretched out as far as possible but missed Rita's 
hand by a couple of inches. Ann punished Rita with a body slam. 
Again Rita tried to roll over to Grable, but Ann pulled her away just 
in time. This time Ann punished Rita by twisting her legs together 
and dropping a knee on Rita's inner thigh. With a cruel smile on her 
face, Ann threatened, "Don't try to tag out again, or I'll cripple you 
for life!" Just as she was finishing her treat, Rita gathered up all of 
her strength and let fly a hard fist to Ann's lower abdomen. Casey 
was forced to let go and Rita managed to tag the hand of Judy 
Grable.

Fully recovered from her earlier beating, Gable came in and started 
throwing punches like a house on fire. She figured that with Ann's 
hourglass figure, the weakest spot on her foe's body would be her 
tiny waist. So, tying her up on the top strands of the ropes, Gable 
used her fists and knees to beat Casey's belly like a drum. Ann's 
eyes widened with pain from the force of Judy's punching attack. 
Deep grunts could be heard throughout the arena as Gable 
continued to pummel the Panther Girl. When she was through, 
Judy took Casey by the boots and pulled her off the ropes so that 
her body came crashing down to the canvas.

With Casey lying on the mat it was easy for Judy to get behind Ann 
and wrap her powerful legs around Ann's vulnerable midsection. To 
soften her opponent up, Judy went to work on Ann's back with a 
series of forearm smashes. Ann's head bounced with each blow. 
When Judy felt that Ann was sufficiently weakened, she reached 
under the brunette's arms and pulled her foe up for a "bottom 
bounce". At the apex of the maneuver, Ann's legs were spread 
wide in a perfect `V'. Judy then proceeded to slam Ann's round 
behind to the mat. Casey cried out in agony as Judy resumed 
squeezing Ann's midsection with the body scissors. Judy sunk her 
fingers into Ann's dark hair and shook Ann's head around before 
clapping her opponent's ears. Another hard punch to the back and 
Judy was ready to lift Ann up for another bounce. This time, Judy 
maintained her hair pulling as once more Ann's vulnerable behind 
was pounded into the canvas. With Grable's strong legs wrapped 
around her middle, Ann was helpless to escape the torture of her 
blonde foe.

At this point, Grable decided to grit her teeth and concentrate on 
squeezing the fight out of Ann with her powerful legs. Casey let out 
an agonized grunt as Grable encircled her legs tighter around Ann's 
thin waist. Ann tried turning her body to face her tormentor. This 
brought even more pain as Grable now held Ann's body face down 
on the mat between her legs. Yet Ann was able to absorb the 
punishment and finally made it around to where the two foes were 
face to face, with Ann's midsection still locked in the scissors. With 
her fist clenched, Ann tried to punch Grable in the belly. Before she 
could land the blow, Grable added pressure to her legs and Ann 
was forced to unclench the fist and use it to pull her own hair in a 
show of frustration and pain. But Grable could not hold on forever, 
and when she relaxed the hold, Ann rose to her feet and used 
Judy's legs to catapult her across the ring and into the corner 
where Penny Banner was waiting to help her partner.

With a handful of hair, Penny picked up Judy's slumping body and 
held her in the corner. Ann proceeded to pound away on Judy's 
stomach as Penny held Grable in place with hair pulling and 
chokes. The ref tried to break up the corner beating, but was 
continually distracted as Rita kept coming into the ring to help her 
partner. Remembering how she had just suffered at the hands of 
Grable, Ann picked up the big blonde by the crotch and dumped 
her upside-down in the corner, where Penny tied Judy's barefoot 
legs in the top turnbuckle. 

Ann drove some quick boots to Grable's belly. Meanwhile, Penny 
jumped down to the arena floor and pulled Judy's hair to keep the 
upside-down woman's head tight against the bottom turnbuckle. A 
tear slowly trickled down Judy's forehead into her hair. Delighting in 
the pain of her opponent, Ann raised a shapely leg and dug her 
kneecap into the groin of her suspended foe. Holding onto the 
corner ropes, Ann twisted her knee harder and harder into the 
upended Grable's groin. Judy's screams could be heard throughout 
the arena.

Rita had finally had enough. Hauling the ref aside, Cortez ran 
across the ring to help Judy. Ann sensed she was coming, 
however, and stepped out of the way, letting Rita's body smash into 
Grable. In an instant Penny leaped into the ring and joined Ann in 
dragging the bodies of their fallen foes into the center of the ring. 
Penny and Ann worked Rita and Judy into a spread-eagle position 
and ran to the opposite corners. Once they had climbed to the top 
rope, the women raised their arms to the fans and jumped off with 
their knees aiming for their opponent's stomachs. When they 
landed, Rita and Judy had no chance and the ref counted them 
both out, "One, two, three!"

Rita and Judy were still rolling around on the mat as Penny and 
Ann hugged each other in the center of the ring. The ring 
announcer walked back in and, holding up the arms of Banner and 
Casey, shouted, "The winners, of the third fall and the match, with a 
double flying knee drop and double body press, the team of Penny 
Banner and Ann Casey!"

(c)Copyright 1998 Hank Edwards