When Vancouver actor Emily Bett Rickards got the script for the feature film Queen of the Ring, she didn’t know anything about wrestler Mildred Burke. Read More
Vancouver’s Emily Bett Rickards was pumped-up to play the groundbreaking and rule-changing female pro wrestler Mildred Burke.
Vancouver’s Emily Bett Rickards was pumped-up to play the groundbreaking and rule-changing female pro wrestler Mildred Burke.
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When Vancouver actor Emily Bett Rickards got the script for the feature film Queen of the Ring, she didn’t know anything about wrestler Mildred Burke.
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The subject of the film, Burke’s wrestling career spanned from the mid-1930s to the 1950s and began in carnivals where she wrestled men for money. As the story goes, she wrestled 200 men in the 1930s and lost to only one.
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Burke, who died at age 73 in 1989, pioneered the sport at a time when all-female wrestling was banned in most of the U.S. She was paramount in spreading women’s wrestling around the globe, leading to the formation of the World Wide Women’s Wrestling Association (WWWA).
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Burke was posthumously inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2002 and the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016 as a “legacy” member.
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As you can imagine, the Coffeyville, Kan., native’s story is full of twists and turns. Her perseverance was as powerful as her signature alligator clutch move.
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“I didn’t know anything about her,” said Rickards, whose big break was a recurring role on the Vancouver-shot TV show Arrow in 2013. “Then when the script made its way to me to read, I tore through it, and then got on the internet … I was tearing through as much information as possible as I could, and there were all these photos of her so I could just get lost in her eyes for a long time.
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“I just thought it was such a disservice that I didn’t know who she was. I was so excited to be a part of her story, because I think her legacy deserves to be remembered. It’s just so inspiring.”
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A championship belt-holder for two decades, Burke was a top-notch hype woman and huge draw for the sport, which led to her becoming the first million-dollar female athlete. Throughout her career, she stood up for and demanded better treatment of female wrestlers.
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“The platform that she fought for and created is something that I as a woman get to stand on now, something we hope to carry the torch for,” said Rickards. “I hope that this story sort of continues (to push) all of us to want to fight what she fought for then, and hopefully one day it’ll all be equalized.”
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While discussing Burke’s career and her against-the-odds success, Rickards expressed respect for Burke’s ability to bounce back and power through a world that, for the most part, wanted to block her from realizing her dreams and changing the sport she loved.
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“If there was a ‘no’ or an obstacle in her way, she would pivot. And sometimes those pivots made her stronger,” said Rickards. “That’s kind of what wrestling is like, it’s improvising, it’s being on your toes, it’s pivoting, it’s making it work. And I think that’s a characteristic of who she was.”