The art of professional wrestling can prove difficult between two opponents who do not speak each other’s native tongue.
Speaking on The Snake Pit, the former Alundra Blayze, perhaps best known as Madusa, explained how this was the case during her WWE run in the mid-1990s. In an era with so few women wrestlers, such as WWE Women’s Champion Alundra Blayze, Madusa was pitted against one of the best in the world.
Bull Nakano; now a WWE Hall Of Famer in the class of 2024, is a formidable and successful Japanese wrestler, known for her distinctive appearance and impressive in-ring skills. Many of Nakano’s matches throughout her career in Japan were very highly rated by both fans and critics and the two had noticeable chemistry in an era when women’s wrestling had not been embraced in the West like it is today. Madusa, a WWE Hall of Famer herself, spoke highly of her once biggest foe.
“The beauty of a wonderful person is that they’re not just thinking about themself and they care about the match. It’s about getting the other person over. Protecting the person of course. There’s gonna be accidents and mistakes.”
However, the language barrier proved tricky.
“She didn’t know English very well. Zero, like, y’know… little bit of words. “Yes!” “No!” “OH-KAY!” (Laughs) Y’know? “GO!” …And so, if you saw any of our matches, there’s no talking!”
Following the brief feud in the WWE, the two would later continue their rivalry for the competition, WCW. Despite not fully understanding each other, their matches were mostly improvised.
“We just wanted to make sure that we had a couple of moves leading up to the finish and we were good.”
WWE Hall Of Famer Madusa Spoke Exclusively To Inside The Ropes On How Little She Made
Madusa was a trailblazer for attracting attention to women’s wrestling in the U.S. But she spoke to Inside The Ropes candidly about how little she received in pay from both the WWE and WCW.
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