Been watching: Lipstick & Dynamite (2005)

Up until fairly recently publishers were reluctant to do books about wrestling because they assumed wrestling fans couldn't read. I've often wondered if that's why there are so few wrestling documentaries.
 And as far as documentaries on women's wrestling go, there are precisely two: 1973's Wrestling Queen and this.
 Veterans Fabulous Moolah, Mae Young, Gladys Gillem, Ida Mae Martinez, Ella Waldek and Penny Banner talk about their early lives, their wrestling careers and what happened subsequently, liberally salted with archive photos and footage.
 One of the things that becomes clear quite early on is that wrestling was not an easy life but possibly better than available alternatives. What with travelling, crazed fans, abusive husbands and being expected to conform to prevailing notions of womanhood away from the ring, you have to marvel at anybody wanting to enter a wrestling career. 
 The other thing that becomes clear is that these ladies were, and probably still are, genuinely tough. Gladys "Killem" Gillem in particular is a fascinating character- pioneer wrestler, lion tamer and all-round hardcase and probably deserves more recognition.
  Infamous Promoter Billie Wolfe is discussed in a certain amount of detail and by all accounts was a prize ratbag. Ella Waldek had to spend her later career hearing shouts of "Murderer" because Wolfe's adopted daughter Janet Boyer-Wolfe was pushed too hard in training and subsequently died in the middle of a match.
 And the ladies are not exactly shy with their opinions on each other either. Moolah happily revisits old scores that need settling but also gets flak for her promoting practices and former ladies' champs Mildred Burke ("Not the champion she thought she was") and June Byers (Way too rough on her opponents) are remembered in less than glowing terms.
If I  have a criticism it would be this: while the various segments are interesting, there is only a vauge attempt to put them into any kind of framework. The better documentaries build towards some sort of event - a comeback gig, a retirement match, something to cap the whole thing - and the closest you get is a small-scale wrestlers reunion and Moolah having a short chat with Killem.
 Persoanlly I find Moolah's relationship with adopted daughter/housekeeper "Diamond Lil" a tad disturbing  although I leave you to draw your own conclusions.
 Lipstick and Dynamite is a flawed  but decent attempt  at paying tribute to ladies who deserve more acclaim for their achievements and while the subject maybe deserves a better film, until that film turns up, this will do nicely.