WWE WVR GIRLS WRESTLING ENTERPRISE CORA COMBS VS JUNE BYERS JUNE 1950 REMASTERED SD 4K 60FPS

DeAlva Eyvonnie Sibley (May 25, 1922 – July 20, 1998), better known by her ring name June Byers, was an American women's professional wrestler famous in the 1950s and early 1960s. She held the Women's World Championship for ten years and is a member of the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame. She is overall a three-time women's world champion. June Byers Personal information Born DeAlva Eyvonnie Sibley May 25, 1922 Houston, Texas, U.S. Died July 20, 1998 (aged 76)[4] Houston, Texas, U.S. Spouse Sam Meneker Professional wrestling career Ring name June Byers Billed height 5 ft 7 in (170 cm)[1] Billed weight 150 lb (68 kg)[1] Billed from Houston, Texas Trained by Billy Wolfe Mae Young Debut 1944 Retired 1964[2][3] Early life edit Born in Houston, Texas, the tomboyish Sibley grew up around wrestling. Her uncle, Ottoway Roberts,[3] worked for local wrestling promoter Morris Siegel, and as she got older, she often hung around the wrestlers and asked them to teach her their moves.[2] On one occasion while DeAlva was playing around in the ring, the women's wrestling promoter Billy Wolfe happened to see her and recognized her potential.[2] Already divorced once and facing poverty,[4] she accepted Wolfe's offer to be trained as a professional wrestler. Professional wrestling career edit Taking her family nickname of "June" and her ex-husband's last name of "Byers" for her ring name, Sibley made her professional debut in 1944. She spent the first years of her career traveling the country in Wolfe's promotion, sometimes winning preliminary matches but regularly losing to the more established stars such as Mae Young and champion Mildred Burke. Slowly rising in the ranks, she first won gold in 1952 when she and partner Millie Stafford won the Tag Title over Young and Ella Waldek.[2] That same year Mildred Burke had a bitter falling-out with husband Wolfe and departed the promotion, leaving the world title vacant. On June 14, 1953, a still relatively unknown Byers won a 13-woman tournament in Baltimore to claim the belt. She quickly became a popular fan favorite champion, even appearing as a contestant on the popular game shows What's My Line? and I've Got A Secret on August 16, 1953.[5] After a year of tense negotiation, Wolfe finally coaxed Burke into meeting Byers in a definitive two out of three falls match on August 20, 1954, in Atlanta, Georgia.[2] Byers won the first fall, and then the match was called after an hour during the second fall. In the book The Queen of the Ring author Jeff Leen writes that despite battling injuries, Burke was able to hold Byers to a stalemate after dropping the first fall and thus deprive her of the second fall she needed to truly defeat Burke. Despite the inconclusive finish, the Atlanta Athletic Commission eventually awarded the match to Byers.[2] Burke angrily returned to her own promotion, the World Women's Wrestling Association, where she held its title and billed herself as world champion. She maintained later that she had dropped the first fall with the intent to compete stronger in the second, and it is noted that Wolfe used all possible connections to try to get a win for his new star (and daughter-in-law) Byers.[6] Byers, for her part, stressed that "Mildred claims she wasn't defeated, but I pinned her in the first fall. During the second fall, she left the ring and refused to come back. Regardless of what she told people, it was a shoot."[2] Whatever the truth, the match outcome was satisfactory enough for the media to discredit Burke and acknowledge Byers as the legitimate world champion.[6] Jeff Leen's account in Queen of the Ring contradicts Byers's claims about Burke leaving the ring and refusing to return. Furthermore, Leen details how Billy Wolfe had a great deal to do with putting Byers over as the "winner" and he quotes the ring announcer following the match as saying, "Commissioner stops the bout. Mildred Burke is still officially champion of the world". As the face of women's wrestling for the next decade, Byers's athleticism and technical skills did much to open new markets for women's wrestling and improve its perception in the eyes of the public as being more than mere tawdry spectacle.[4] Complementing her repertoire of scientific moves was her toughness in an age of very tough women, and she was known for working incredibly stiff against newcomers: one such wrestler recalled getting a broken nose and two black eyes from Byers intentionally punching her in the face.[7] Byers wrestled many matches with Penny Banner, and the two had great respect for one another: Byers ranked Banner as among her toughest opponents,[4] while Banner named Byers the greatest of all time.[8]