Madusa Miceli

• Real Name: Debra Lewandowsky
• Other Names: Alundra Blayze, Deborah Miceli
• Hometown: Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Current residence: Homosassa, Florida
• Trained by: Eddie Sharkey
• Favorite Moves: Spinning Heel Kick, Snap Suplex
• Finishing Move: German Suplex
• Championships: AWA World Women’s Title, IWA Women’s World Title, IWCCW Women’s title, WWF Women’s World Title, WCW World Cruiserweight Title

Madusa has a solid athletic foundation of track and gymnastics. She was a nurse when she met Eddie Sharkey, an independent wrestling promoter in the Minnesota area, in 1984. After training with him, she quit nursing to work the wrestling circuit full time. The independent road of small town wrestling doesn’t have the gliz and glamor of the national televised circuit. Madusa traveled in a van and shared a hotel room with other team members. They were on the road four nights a week and made about $5 a night. She lost her house and wound up filing for bankruptcy before finding success in signing with the American Wrestling Association in 1986.

In 1988 she became the first woman to be awarded the Rookie of the Year from Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Then in 1989, she did a six-week tour of Japan with the All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling tour and stayed with them until 1991.

During her time in Japan, Madusa also returned to America to wrestle in the Ladies Professional Wrestling Association. Because she didn’t stay very long during her stints in the LPWA, she was never a serious title contender, though she wrestled most of the women on the roster. It was there that she tested new gimmicks and techniques learned overseas. She was also known for wearing wildly different outfits to the ring, from traditional wrestling singlets to camouflage fatigues.

In 1991, Madusa signed with World Championship Wrestling. During her first stint at WCW, she helped establish “The Dangerous Alliance” with Paul E. Dangerously. At that time, however, the WCW used her more as as Rick Rude’s manager than a wrestler and she soon moved on to the World Wrestling Federation.

In the WWF, she used the name Alundra Blayze because they didn’t want to pay her for her trademarked name of Madusa. The WWF reinstated the vacant Women’s Championship and held a six-woman tournament to award the belt. As Blayze, she pinned Heidi Lee Morgan in the finals to win the championship title. At Blayze’s request, the WWF brought in Bull Nakano to feud with her and they traded the belt back and forth until April of 1995 when the storyline called for Blayze to be attacked by Bertha Faye and suffer a broken nose. In reality, this was planned time off for Blayze to get a nose job and breast implants. When she returned in August, she lost the title to Faye and then won it back in October.

In December, Blayze elected to return to the WCW. The WWF stripped her of their title after the opening storyline for the WCW called for her to throw the belt in the trash on national television. Madusa has said since that she regrets the action and would not have done it if WCW booker, Eric Bischoff, had not insisted.

She wrestled as Madusa with the WCW until its collapse. While there, she was the first woman to win the World Cruiserweight Championship, engaged in multiple feuding storylines, and helped train other wrestlers.

Micelli’s decision to retire was made partly because of a real feud with Vince McMahon, the owner of WWF and partly because she felt women’s wrestling was turning from real athletic competition to “Bra and Panties” displays.

In 1999, Micelli joined Dennis Anderson on the monster truck circuit. In 2005, she was the first woman to win the Monster Jam World Finals Racing Championship. In January of 2008, she became the Executive Vice President of the Major League of Monster Trucks.