This helped to introduce an entirely different audience to women's wrestling, opening up more opportunities for future wrestlers to burst onto the scene.
During this period, Young became the NWA Women's champion, as well as the first-ever NWA United States Women's Champion.
After about 1968, Mae Young disappeared from the wrestling business until 1999, when she began to do cameo appearances for the WWF.
Her first cameo came during the misogynistic gimmick of Jeff Jarrett, who put her in a figure four leg lock after attacking fellow wrestler, The Fabulous Moolah, with a guitar shot.
After that, she and Moolah became prominent comedy characters within the WWF, featuring in storylines that included, amongst others, Young giving birth to Mark Henry's 'child'.
Her most recent appearance was at Wrestlemania 25, where she undertook the duties of guest timekeeper for the Miss Wrestlemania tournament.
Despite this though, Mae Young will always be remembered most fondly for her early wrestling career, in which she helped to escalate the women's division to the heights it has reached today.
The Fabulous Moolah
Known worldwide as the most historic women's wrestler in professional wrestling, Mary Ellison, known as The Fabulous Moolah, almost single-handedly helped define the women's division as one of the most talented on Earth.
Moolah got her first big break as the valet for 'Nature Boy' Buddy Rogers in the early 1950s. During this time, she became known as one of the first modern managers of wrestling.
In 1955, Moolah began to work for Vince McMahon Sr.'s promotion, Capitol Wrestling Corp. It was at this time that she began to catch the attention of wrestling fans nationwide.
Her most famous achievement came on Sept. 18, 1956, when she won the World Women's championship. This was a title that she would retain for over 10 years.
Once she lost the championship, she regained possession a few weeks later, before holding onto it for another eight years, finally relinquishing it in 1976 to Sue Green.
During this long title reign, she also made history by becoming the first female to wrestle at Madison Square Garden on July 1, 1972.
The Fabulous Moolah would continue to work right into the 1980s, becoming a key figure in the growing 'Rock and Wrestling Connection', a movement which would help to shape wrestling today.
Moolah would go into semi-retirement throughout the duration of the 1990s, until she re-signed, along with Mae Young, to become a cameo figure in the new millennium.
It was during this time that she not only became the oldest wrestler on the WWF roster, but she also became the oldest woman to hold the WWF Women's title at 76 years old.
After this, she would continue to make sporadic appearances until her death on Nov. 2, 2007 at the age of 84.
In five decades, The Fabulous Moolah would work to become the greatest female wrestler in professional wrestling history, a title that can not be denied.
Serving as inspiration to many of today's Divas and Knockouts, her legacy would be cemented in the annals of wrestling history with her induction into the WWE Hall of Fame, becoming the first woman to do so.
Despite it now being 2009, these women, and thousands of others that spent their lives trying to claw their way into a male-dominated world, that is what shaped women's wrestling today.
It may have been a long time ago, but what they taught and what they stood for is still represented by the women who wrestle today.
Women's wrestling may not be as good as it was a decade ago, but it needs to be given the respect that it deserves.
The women today need to be given respect for what they are trying to build upon.
The women of yesteryear need their respect for what they have done to the face of the wrestling industry, as well as the face of the world.
And trust me when I say this, no one can really argue with that.















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