50 Fun Facts About GLOW (TV Series)

In GLOW, the Netflix comedy about 1980s women's wrestling, what does the G in the title stand for?

Gorgeous opens the name of the real 1980s league the show fictionalises, a syndicated women's wrestling circuit founded by David McLane.

Which GLOW star, already known as Annie Edison in Community, plays struggling actress Ruth Wilder?

Alison Brie had first gained recognition as Trudy Campbell in Mad Men, then spent six years as Annie before stepping into the ring.

Which stand-up comedian, the voice behind the WTF podcast, plays cynical director Sam Sylvia in GLOW?

Marc Maron launched the podcast in 2009, interviewing comedians, authors and musicians in his garage in Highland Park, Los Angeles.

Which creator of the prison drama Orange Is the New Black served as an executive producer on GLOW?

Jenji Kohan had already created Weeds for Showtime, and wrote one of the first season's episodes of the wrestling comedy herself.

After losing its TV deal, the wrestling troupe in GLOW moves to put on a live show in which city?

Las Vegas was also home to the original 1980s wrestling show, so the move takes the fictional troupe to where the real one performed.

GLOW was renewed for a fourth and final season, so what led Netflix to scrap it mid-production?

The COVID-19 pandemic halted filming in March 2020, when the cast had finished one episode and were about to start the second.

In GLOW's first season, teenage wrestler Justine Biagi turns out to be what relation to Sam Sylvia?

His daughter joined the troupe only to meet him: Sam had a one-night stand with her mother Rosalie in Sacramento nearly two decades earlier.

Which real tragedy unfolds on live TV as Ruth Wilder plays the villain in GLOW's third-season opener?

The Challenger disaster leaves Ruth racked with guilt, because she had been insulting the shuttle crew in character moments before it exploded.

Which Thelma & Louise star joined GLOW's third season as casino executive Sandy Devereaux St. Clair?

Geena Davis plays a former showgirl who now runs the entertainment at the Fan-Tan Hotel and Casino, unmoved by wrestling until she sees the takings.

Several GLOW wrestlers appear in character in the music video for Swish Swish by which pop star?

Katy Perry's 2017 video features five of the cast as their ring characters, among them Britney Young, Sydelle Noel and Ellen Wong.

Which ring persona does Ruth Wilder develop in GLOW after trying out the Homewrecker and Mint Julep?

Zoya the Destroya is a Soviet heel modelled on a real 1980s wrestler, and Ruth first finds the character at a store's ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Which ring persona does former soap opera star Debbie Eagan adopt as the leading lady of GLOW?

Liberty Belle is a patriotic Southern belle, a role first handed to Olympic medallist Reggie Walsh, who lost it for lack of personality.

Tammé Dawson worries what her son will think of which persona she wrestles under in GLOW?

The Welfare Queen flaunts riches supposedly taken from the state, a stereotype her son finds offensive even as he admits that watching her wrestle was empowering.

Carmen Wade, who comes from a famous wrestling family, performs in GLOW as which gentle-giant persona?

Machu Picchu is billed as a gentle Peruvian giant, and Carmen helps train the other women, teaching them moves and the culture of the ring.

Rhonda Richardson wrestles in GLOW as which genius persona, who tries to bring a mannequin to life?

Britannica is an English genius, and in the second season her storyline has her using science to animate a shop-window mannequin named Thomas.

Arthie Premkumar's GLOW villain, the Mad Bomber, is named after which Middle Eastern city?

Beirut the Mad Bomber draws such hostility that a fan hurls a beer can at Arthie, who is in fact an Indian-American pre-med student.

Sheila, played by Gayle Rankin, tells the other wrestlers in GLOW that she is spiritually which animal?

A wolf is what Sheila says she is in spirit, and she has kept up the look for at least five years, refusing to drop it even in everyday life.

What does Carmen Wade suffer from in GLOW that makes her pass out before the first live show?

Stage fright floors Carmen that night, and she only conquers it in the season finale when her disapproving father starts cheering for her.

Cherry Bang, the head trainer in GLOW, did which job on Sam Sylvia's 1970s films?

Stuntwoman Cherry had been out of work since 1979, so she seizes the chance to knock a troupe of complete beginners into shape.

Before joining GLOW, Debbie Eagan was famous for playing Laura Morgan on which fictional soap opera?

Paradise Cove lost Debbie around the birth of her son, and Sam later has to coax its former star into headlining his wrestling show.

Ruth Wilder's friendship with Debbie Eagan collapses in GLOW's pilot episode after Ruth does what?

Ruth sleeps with her husband Mark, and when Debbie storms into the gym to confront her, their real fight in the ring persuades Sam to keep Ruth on.

What does a cocaine-fuelled Debbie Eagan break during her match with Ruth Wilder in GLOW's second season?

Her ankle is fractured badly enough to sideline Ruth for eight weeks, and the hospital visit turns into a heated argument over everything between them.

To research her Russian character in GLOW, Ruth Wilder joins her motel manager at which family event?

A bris is being held for the manager's cousin, a young chess champion new to America, who asks Ruth to sing a Barbra Streisand song to ease his pain.

What is the name of the motel where the wrestlers of GLOW live together while they train?

The Dusty Spur was played on screen by the Pink Motel, a real building in the Sun Valley district of Los Angeles.

At a charity fundraiser thrown by Bash Howard's mother in GLOW, the wrestlers pose as what?

Recovering drug addicts is the cover story, under the banner Wrestlers Against Drugs, and Ruth uses her fake confession to apologise to Debbie.

To calm complaints about GLOW's content, Debbie and Ruth film a public service spot on which topic?

Teen pregnancy is the theme, and it backfires: the sponsor's boss is said to be offended, because his own mother was 15 when he was born.

Why does head trainer Cherry Bang briefly quit at the start of GLOW's second season?

To star in a cop show called Chambers and Gold, though Cherry struggles with her lines and Sam talks the network into letting her come back.

Newcomer Yolanda Rivas has no ring experience in GLOW's second season but impresses with which skill?

Breakdancing is Yolanda's strength: she teaches Ruth some moves, and their dance-off makes the cut for the next episode despite Sam's grudge against Ruth.

How does an injured Ruth Wilder enter the ring to win the battle royal in GLOW's second-season finale?

By zip line from the ceiling, Ruth swoops in to eliminate the last three women standing and take the crown, Sam's reward to his new co-director.

In GLOW's second-season finale, Rhonda Richardson agrees to an in-ring wedding because she needs what?

A green card would save Rhonda from deportation, but the planned groom, her biggest fan, is thrown out when Bash objects and marries her himself.

Which classic story do the wrestlers of GLOW perform in the ring in the festive third-season finale?

A Christmas Carol is Carmen's idea for lifting spirits days after a fire wrecks a charity ball, and she pairs it with a Secret Santa.

In GLOW's final episode, Debbie Eagan has Bash Howard secretly outbid her boyfriend Tex to buy what?

A TV station in Orange County, KXN, is the prize, and Debbie plans to run it as president and put the wrestlers back on air.

What does Justine Biagi give Sam Sylvia in GLOW's third season that soon draws him back to Hollywood?

Her screenplay impresses Sam enough that he quits the wrestling show to help her sell it, and a studio agrees to turn it into a film.

On the night GLOW's wrestlers swap personas, Sheila borrows a drag costume to play which star?

Liza Minnelli, played as a drunk, is Sheila's turn in the ring, in a costume lent by Bobby Barnes, the casino's resident drag performer.

The Libertine Ball that Debbie Eagan helps produce in GLOW's third season raises money for which cause?

AIDS awareness is the cause behind drag performer Bobby Barnes's charity ball, which ends in chaos when a homophobic gang starts a fire.

Which Midwestern city is Ruth Wilder's hometown, where she flies at the end of GLOW's third season?

Omaha, Nebraska is where Ruth fell for acting, honing her skills at the Blue Barn Theatre before chasing roles in Los Angeles.

Rhonda Richardson reveals in GLOW that she came to America as a groupie for which British band?

Duran Duran toured Los Angeles and Rhonda simply stayed behind, a story she tells her new mother-in-law, Birdie Howard.

Besides bankrolling the wrestling show in GLOW, Bash Howard appears on camera in which role?

Ring announcer and commentator are both Bash's jobs on air, while off air he is the heir to the Howard Foods business empire.

Which butler and childhood friend of Bash Howard in GLOW walks out after his pay cheque bounces?

Florian had known Bash since third grade, and news of his death late in the second season leaves Bash reeling on the eve of the finale.

Before GLOW, director Sam Sylvia had made his name in the 1970s with which kind of movie?

Exploitation films were Sam's trade: he directed eight of them in the 1970s and claims that two are taught in colleges.

Which actress earned three Emmy nominations for playing Debbie Eagan in GLOW after a run on Nurse Jackie?

Betty Gilpin's nominations were all for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, and the part brought her three Critics' Choice nods as well.

Which British singer, who had a 2007 hit with Foundations, plays Rhonda Richardson in GLOW?

Kate Nash topped the UK album chart with Made of Bricks in 2007, a decade before she learned to wrestle for the role.

Kia Stevens, who plays Tammé Dawson in GLOW, is a real wrestler best known in TNA under which ring name?

Awesome Kong made Stevens the most prominent real wrestler in the cast, and she also appeared in WWE under another name, Kharma.

Which Veronica Mars actor, who played Piz, appears in GLOW as wealthy producer Bash Howard?

Chris Lowell was a recurring guest for the first two seasons before being promoted to the main cast for the third.

Who trained the GLOW cast to wrestle, as his uncle Mando had done for the 1980s original?

Chavo Guerrero Jr. also turns up on screen in the second season as Chico Guapo, who helps crash the finale's battle royal.

Which 1984 rock hit by Scandal plays over GLOW's full opening titles in each season's first episode?

The Warrior reached number seven in the United States for the band, which was fronted by Patty Smyth.

Which writing duo created GLOW after stumbling on a 2012 documentary about the original wrestling league?

Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch had never heard of the league before seeing the film, and were hunting for a new female-centric show to make.

Which GLOW episode plays out entirely as an edition of the wrestlers' own TV show, sketches included?

The Good Twin introduces Olga, the kindly sister of Ruth's villain, who arrives in America with a goat to help rescue a kidnapped girl.

Which star of the 1988 film Big plays Birdie Howard, the mother of Bash Howard, in GLOW?

Elizabeth Perkins, also known for Weeds, plays the matriarch who freezes Bash's assets after he sinks over $600,000 into the wrestling show.

Sam Sylvia in GLOW is loosely based on which director of the original 1980s wrestling show?

Matt Cimber had recently directed the film Butterfly when he took the wrestling job, and one original wrestler called Sam a stark contrast to him.