Netflix’s GLOW, a series about the all women’s 1980s professional wrestling promotion, returns to the streaming service with a new season on June 29.
The show released its first trailer for the new season on Monday, showing the characters as they deal with the show’s growing popularity and struggle to stay on the air.
Videos by PopCulture.com
The show centers around two of the promotions star wrestlers in Ruth “Zoya the Destroya” Wilder (Alison Brie) and Debby “Liberty Belle” Eagan (Betty Gilpin) as well as the show’s drug-abusing burnout promoter Sam Sylvia.
Numerous professional wrestlers have appeared on the show including Kia Stevens (Awesome Kong), John Morrison, Tyrus, Carlito, Joey Ryan, Alex Riley, Brooke Hogan, Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian.
All of the actresses perform matches inside the ring without stunt doubles, and were trained for months leading up to the show by former WWE superstar Chavo Guerrero.
“I kind of stated that to the producers, that I’m not just gonna come in as, ‘Here, we’re training the girls, OK, see you later,’” Guerrero said in an interview with Rolling Stone ahead of season 1’s premiere in June 2017. “This is my name, and I take pride in my work. They really embraced that. Being hired as a wrestling coordinator morphed into ordering rings and set designs, and they were even giving me the script beforehand, so I would highlight and change wrestling terminology. They were all about it, it was great.”
Brie, known for her roles in Community and Mad Men, said in an interview with News.com that she felt empowered by learning how to wrestle.
“It was a really empowering and confidence-building and I walked away from the show a totally different person in the way I view my body and the way I think about myself,” Brie said. “That relationship with my body, I think of it more — we became athletes doing this show.
“We had to overcome fear and try something we didn’t know if we could do,” she continued. “It’s a really powerful feeling to even prove to yourself you’re capable of more than you can expect.”
Brie mentioned in an interview with Deadline in April that modern movements such as #MeToo will be addressed in the show.
“The stories our show was going to tell would have been the same,” Brie said. “MeToo and Times’s Up are things people have been saying behind closed doors for a long time in our industry. It makes me very grateful as an actress to go to work every day. There are women behind and in front of the camera and at the top making decisions. It makes a big difference to feel really seen and heard on set and have ownershp of yourself.”
The original Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling was broadcast on television from 1986-89.
