Despite originally being renewed for a fourth and final season, Netflix has cancelled GLOW.
Deadline reported that Netflix has reversed its renewal decision due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Netflix had originally committed to a fourth season of the show back in August of 2019.
“COVID has killed actual humans. It’s a national tragedy and should be our focus. COVID also apparently took down our show. Netflix has decided not to finish filming the final season of GLOW,” series creators Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch said in a statement. “We were handed the creative freedom to make a complicated comedy about women and tell their stories. And wrestle. And now that’s gone. There’s a lot of sh*tty things happening in the world that are much bigger than this right now. But it still sucks that we don’t get to see these 15 women in a frame together again.”
“We’ve made the difficult decision not to do a fourth season of GLOW due to COVID, which makes shooting this physically intimate show with its large ensemble cast especially challenging,” A Netflix spokesperson told Deadline. “We are so grateful to creators Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, Jenji Kohan and all the writers, cast and crew for sharing this story about the incredible women of GLOW with us and the world.”
The report said that over the last several months, Netflix had been finding ways to put the show back into production. But the season wouldn’t have premiered until early 2022, two in a half years after the premiere of season three. That plus the uncertainty of COVID-19 and the physical aspect of the show were the reasons for cancellation.
GLOW was loosely based on the real like Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling promotion that was run by David McLane that aired in syndication from 1986 through 1990. The Netflix show starred Alison Brie, Betty Gilpin, and Marc Maron. It earned fifteen Emmy nominations and won three.
Netflix announced today that they’ve renewed GLOW for its fourth and final season. The critically-acclaimed series, which is based on the 1980s Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling promotion, made its debut in 2017.
Each season of GLOW has consisted of 10 episodes. Season one debuted in June 2017, season two premiered in June 2018, and the most recent Las Vegas-themed season of the show was uploaded to Netflix last month.
AEW wrestler and coach Awesome Kong (real name Kia Stevens) plays Tammé Dawson on GLOW and has been part of the cast since the show began. She debuted in AEW by making a surprise appearance at Double or Nothing in May. She’s wrestled twice for the promotion and also appeared at Fight for the Fallen.
GLOW star Alison Brie and Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch appeared together on the cover of ESPN The Magazine’s Blockbuster issue earlier this year.
For the first time ever, a current WWE wrestler is on the cover of ESPN The Magazine.
Becky Lynch and GLOW’s Alison Brie are on the cover of ESPN The Magazine’s Blockbuster issue, which is about the intersection between sports and Hollywood. The magazine will be available on newsstands this Friday (July 12).
Lynch tweeted about being on the cover: “Last year I said I wanted to be the face of this business that I love so much. We don’t always have to accept the status that’s given to us. It’s been quite a year and it’s an honor to be the first @WWE superstar to be on the cover of @espn magazine”
Season three of GLOW will premiere on Netflix on Friday, August 9. Brie appeared on an episode of SmackDown in June 2018 to promote GLOW’s second season.
Charlotte Flair was featured in last year’s edition of the Body issue of ESPN The Magazine.
It was announced in April that the print version of ESPN The Magazine would end this September.
WWE also has its own category in the ESPY Awards for the first time this year. Roman Reigns announcing his leukemia is in remission, Lynch winning the Raw and SmackDown Women’s titles in the main event of WrestleMania 35, Kofi Kingston defeating Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35, and Ronda Rousey winning her first title in professional wrestling by defeating Alexa Bliss at SummerSlam 2018 are nominated for Best WWE Moment.
The ESPYS will air on ABC at 8 p.m. Eastern time tomorrow night (Wednesday, July 10).
Season three of Netflix’s GLOW has its premiere date.
Netflix announced today that season three of GLOW will be uploaded on Friday, August 9. Like with the first two seasons, this one will have 10 episodes.
The season is described as: “Season 3 follows the ladies of GLOW as they take the Las Vegas Strip by storm. Now headliners at the Fan-Tan Hotel and Casino, the women quickly realize that Sin City is much more grind than glitter. Ever the team cheerleader, Ruth’s passion for the show begins to take a backseat to her growingly complicated personal life. Debbie is making headway as a producer but continues to be consumed with guilt over the distance between her and her son. As their residency wears on, the lines blur between performance and reality, and the cast find themselves struggling with their own identities both in and outside of the ring.”
GLOW debuted to strong critical praise when the first season was released in June 2017, and that continued when season two premiered the next year. Netflix officially announced that season three had been picked up last August.
Kia Stevens, who is known as Awesome Kong and Kharma in professional wrestling, plays Tammé Dawson on GLOW. She made a surprise appearance as Awesome Kong at AEW Double or Nothing last Saturday and was added to Britt Baker vs. Nyla Rose vs. Kylie Rae. Baker pinned Rae to win the match.
GLOW is officially returning to Netflix for a third season.
The series’ renewal was announced today, with it set to return for another 10-episode season. When the episodes will be premiering has yet to be announced.
GLOW, which is based on the 1980s Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling promotion, premiered to significant critical praise in 2017. It returned for season two this June, again getting strong reviews.
Season one of GLOW was nominated for 10 Emmy awards this year, including for Outstanding Comedy Series. Betty Gilpin, who plays Debbie Eagan on the show, was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
Netflix’s GLOW was created by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch. Kia Stevens, who wrestled for WWE and TNA as Kharma/Awesome Kong, is part of the cast and plays Tammé Dawson.
While WWE’s attempt to score an Emmy didn’t pan out like they hoped, GLOW walked away with several big nominations.
The first season of GLOW on Netflix has been nominated for ten Emmy awards, the biggest being Outstanding Comedy Series. Betty Gilpin, who plays Debbie “Liberty Belle” Eagan, was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy series. Director Jesse Peretz was also nominated for the direction of the pilot episode.
WWE had attempted to get some of their television nominated for Emmy awards, even going as far as holding a “For Your Consideration” event in Los Angeles last month. Some content did appear on the preliminary ballot, with Raw and Mixed Match Challenge appearing for Best Structured Reality Program, Total Bellas and Total Divas for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program, WrestleMania 34 for Outstanding Variety Special and the WWE 24: Empowered and Andre the Giant documentaries for Best Documentary or Nonfiction Special. In the end, none of them made the final cut.
The Emmy awards will air live September 17 on NBC.
More matches and segments have been announced for tonight’s episode of SmackDown.
Rusev vs. Xavier Woods and Becky Lynch vs. Peyton Royce have been added to the show. Both Rusev and Lynch won matches last week, with Rusev winning a gauntlet to become WWE Champion AJ Styles’ challenger for Extreme Rules and Lynch submitting Billie Kay.
The Bludgeon Brothers will also appear on Miz TV, and WWE is hyping that at least two of the cast members from Netflix’s GLOW will appear. Britt Baron (who plays Justine) and Sydelle Noel (who plays Cherry Bang) tweeted videos where they said they were going to add glow to the show and sent messages to Naomi, referencing her “feel the glow” catchphrase. Season two of GLOW will be uploaded to Netflix this Friday.
Tonight’s SmackDown is taking place at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California. As was previously announced, Jeff Hardy will be defending the United States Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura on the episode.
Netflix is gearing up for the second season of GLOW.
Ahead of its premiere on June 29th, Netflix released the trailer for the show’s second season today. The trailer covers the issues between Ruth (played by Alison Brie) and Debbie (played by Betty Gilpin), the characters grappling with fame and the offensive gimmicks they play, the threat of cancellation as Ruth resists an unwanted sexual advance from someone who appears to be a TV executive, and the promotion’s time slot being given to a men’s wrestling show.
Based on the 1980s women’s wrestling promotion of the same name, GLOW debuted last year to strong critical praise. It was created by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, stars Brie, Gilpin, and Marc Maron, and features Kia Stevens (pro wrestler Kharma and Awesome Kong) in a prominent role.
Chavo Guerrero Jr. is also the stunt coordinator for the series, and bigger and more elaborate in-ring scenes have been teased for the second season.
Like with season one, season two will have 10 episodes. All of them will be uploaded to Netflix on June 29th.
Netflix announced today at a press conference in Rome that the second season will premiere on the streaming service on June 29. The new season will comprise of ten episodes. A teaser was also put up on their YouTube page, with the stars of the show lip syncing the 80’s song “Maniac”. The second season will deal with the local success of GLOW and the fame that comes with it.
The series is based on the original syndicated television show Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling which ran from 1985 to 1989. It featured women with bizarre gimmicks wrestling while also doing skits and singing their own entrances on a rap track. Ivory, who wrestled as Tina Ferrari in the promotion, would become the most prolific star following the promotion’s demise and was recently inducted into WWE’s Hall of Fame.
GLOW’s first season premiered on June 27 of last year. It was nominated for several awards, including a Golden Globe Best Actress nomination for the show’s star Alison Brie.
GLOW is officially returning to Netflix for a second season.
Netflix announced that the show had been renewed last night, with another 10 episodes set to be produced. The first season’s run was also 10 episodes, and the renewal comes after the comedy-drama series received overwhelming praise from television critics upon its release in June.
GLOW was created by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch and is based on the 1980s women’s wrestling promotion of the same name. It stars Alison Brie, Betty Gilpin, and Marc Maron in key roles, with Kia Stevens (who was known as Awesome Kong and Kharma in pro wrestling) also part of the series as a cast member.
There was more involvement from others in wrestling as well, with Chavo Guerrero Jr. working as the show’s fight coordinator and several wrestlers making cameo appearances. Our Chris Aiken detailed those in his review of the first season.
Women’s pro wrestling is the backdrop for a new television series now streaming on Netflix. GLOW is a reboot that revives and re-imagines the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling concept.
The newly-released series is a fictional story chronicling the making of the original GLOW TV show. Set in Los Angeles during the mid-1980s, the story follows a struggling actress as she lands a role on the women’s wrestling show alongside an ensemble cast.
The original series titled “Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling” was a syndicated show that ran for four seasons from 1986-1990. Similar to Lucha Underground today, the initial GLOW series was a TV show as opposed to a traditional wrestling promotion.
The original series returned to the forefront several years ago as the subject of the documentary film “GLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.” That project helped inspire the idea for the new reboot. Like with the new series, the documentary is available to watch on Netflix.
The new GLOW series was created by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch. Their concept became the new show as they went about developing a comedy-drama that revolved around the beginnings of Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.
Premise —
The new show is a fictional reimagining of the GLOW origin story. The series follows the characters on their journey through the filming of a pilot for the fictional version of the original TV show. Much like with the true story of GLOW, the characters all move into a hotel together and must coexist after being cast as wrestlers. Many of the characters are unfamiliar with wrestling, and must adapt to their new surroundings.
Cast of Characters —
The main character in the story is Ruth (Alison Brie), a struggling actress looking for her big break. She finds herself cast on a fledgling women’s wrestling show despite having no prior experience as a wrestler. Her character takes on the role of a stereotypical Russian heel as the show progresses.
Debbie Eagan (Betty Gilpin) is a former soap opera actress who in storyline gets recruited to play the all-American top babyface character. In the story, Debbie is the only cast member on the show with actual experience acting on a TV show. She is the mother of an infant, and she is also Ruth’s friend-turned-foe.
Sam Sylvia (Marc Maron) is the director and showrunner tasked with bringing the TV show to life. The character’s passions include screenwriting, directing, smoking cigarettes, and doing cocaine.
Carmen Wade (Britney Young) is the only character with a wrestling background before joining the fledgling cast. She is from a wrestling family that has a ring in their backyard, but her father is against her getting into the business so she has no actual in-ring experience. Having lived a sheltered life, her joining the cast of the TV show begins a turning point in her character’s development overcoming self-doubt.
Cherry Bang (Sydelle Noel) is a former stuntwoman that becomes the head trainer despite in storyline not having been trained as a wrestler. Her kayfabe husband is a former stuntman, and both have past history with the director. Her husband becomes the referee for the promotion.
Pro wrestler Kia Stevens (formerly Awesome Kong in TNA and Kharma in WWE) portrays Tamme Dawson in a breakout performance delivering a memorable role. Ironically, Stevens in her first on-screen acting role plays a character doing that exact thing. Her character on the show has no prior experience in wrestling, unlike Stevens herself.
Other characters include a party girl, a furry that identifies as a wolf, a gold digger, a punk rocker, and others including stereotypical wrestling gimmicks like with an Asian-American character becoming a heel named Fortune Cookie. Likewise, a young student whose family immigrated from India is given a Middle Eastern heel gimmick.
Sometimes the characters become upset with stereotypical portrayals. Stevens’ character forms a tag team with Cherry Bang, and they question their gimmicks at one point. The character that becomes Fortune Cookie also questions her role.
Wrestler Cameos —
Stevens is the only actual pro wrestler on the main cast, but many other wrestlers show up on the show in various roles. John Hennigan (Johnny Mundo/John Morrison) appears on the pilot episode as a wrestler tasked with initially training the women’s roster.
Other wrestlers in recurring roles on the cast include Tyrus (Brodus Clay) and Carly Colon (Carlito). They portray the brothers of Carmen as wrestlers from a fictional wrestling family.
Alex Riley plays the top babyface of a local wrestling promotion. He has a match with Joey Ryan that serves as a breakthrough moment for a character on the show. Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian are unnamed wrestlers that have a match together leading up to that scene.
In an off-camera role behind the scenes, Chavo Guerrero Jr. trained the new cast in wrestling for the show. His uncle, Mondo Guerrero, helped train the cast of the original series in the ‘80s.
Footage of wrestling matches is shown at various times throughout the show, usually on a TV set being watched by the characters. One scene shows the main character watching a videotape of Hulk Hogan in the ring at Madison Square Garden the night he won the WWF title.
Also seen is footage of Kerry Von Erich against Ric Flair from their NWA title match at Texas Stadium. Flair is shown at various other times as well. Grainy footage of Gorgeous George makes an appearance along with other retro matches usually seen on TV sets in the background of different scenes.
Final Thoughts —
To see or not to see, that is the question. GLOW has a lot of wrestling-related content to interest fans of actual pro wrestling. For fans looking to share their love of wrestling with family or friends who are not fans, this series is a great vehicle for that. The show has plenty of squared circle references, but the story itself can captivate an audience unfamiliar with pro wrestling.
The show captures the vibe and style of the 1980s, but some of the wrestling scenes are a disconnect from the style of the time period. Personally, I would still recommend the show to both wrestling fans and even non-fans.
The show is for a mature audience as it contains nudity, profanity, drug use, and other adult situations so parental discretion is strongly advised.
