CASEY, ANN SIGNED PHOTO (LADY WRESTLER)

Lucille Ann Casey (born September 29, 1938) is a retired American professional wrestler, better known by her ring name Ann Casey, or 'Panther Girl'. n 1962, while working at the ticket counter for a professional wrestling promotion, she met The Fabulous Moolah, who offered to train Casey to wrestle. Casey soon decided to take Moolah up on her offer and moved to South Carolina to train. Her first match was a tag team match that pitted her and Judy Grable against Rita Cortez and Brenda Scott that fall. Casey also wrestled Miss Brenda in a two out of three falls match for the opening of a December 1962 card also featuring Fred Blassie. While working under Moolah, Casey traveled all around the United States; she was also one of the first women to ever compete in a tag team match in the state of Hawaii. While in Hawaii, Casey fell in love with a local champion surfer and took a brief hiatus from wrestling. Two years later, Casey returned to the continental United States and professional wrestling. She worked for promoters Vince McMahon, Sr., Vince McMahon, Jr., and Leroy McGuirk. During this time, she wrestled Donna Christanello at Madison Square Garden in New York. In 1964, she had a match that pitted her and Penny Banner against Cora Combs and Kathy O'Brien. The following year, she defeated Kay Noble in a match, but was defeated in another match by Bette Boucher. She was also defeated by Mae Young in a 1968 NWA United States Women's Championship match. With Vivian Vachon as her partner, Casey defeated Donna Christanello and Cora Combs in a 1970 match. In 1972, Casey discovered that her son had gotten involved in drug trafficking with a truck driver, and after she forced him to stop, the truck driver shot her six times. Although the doctors told her that her professional wrestling career was over, Casey was able to wrestle again within several months. In 1974, Moolah offered to let Casey win the USA Women's Wrestling Championship from her, and Casey was subsequently never defeated for the belt. Later that year in December, Casey also won the vacated NWA United States Women's Championship by defeating Toni Rose in a match. She held the championship for approximately four years before losing it to Joyce Grable. Meanwhile, wrestling magazine Pro Wrestling Illustrated recognized Casey as the "Girl Wrestler of the Year" in 1975. Casey's last match occurred in 1990, when she defeated Judy Grable to retain the USA Women's Championship. Offered here is a vintage promotional photo of Ann Casey which she has signed and inscribed.
This is an original, vintage promotional photo of Ann Casey at the height of her career. Signed in ink, "To Jim Ann Casey." Tiny corner creases. Minor edge wear. Some yellowing from aging. 8" x 10."