GLOW Founder David McClane Opens Up About Accuracy Of GLOW Netflix Series, Was There A "Drug Robot"?
GLOW, which chronicles women's wrestlers, premiered on Netflix in 2017 to, pun-intended, glowing reviews. The series was founded by David McLane who also created the Women's of Wrestling (WOW) promotion.
McClane joined Nick Hausman on our WINCLY podcast where he talked about the GLOW series and how accurate it is to the real life women's wrestling circuit.
"Anybody who knows me knows that I use a phrase if I like something: It's a 10. In this case, it's a 12," McClane said about his happiness at seeing this resurgence of GLOW and women's wrestling.
"Little Egypt, who is a wrestler in GLOW, really was the foundation and force that made that happen. Without her gathering the tropps to participate in that doc, and then that doc being the seed that the producers at Netflix saw, there would never be a GLOW biographical series on Netflix.
"To that effect, I don't belive the WWE or WOW would be where they are today in women's wrestling [without GLOW]. Women's wrestling is more successful and acknowledged for being a sport and activity that one looks at and admires than any other time in wrestling history because of the GLOW documentary. That doc captured the essence of the sisterhood of women that participate in wrestling? The essence of that camaraderie has been captured in the Netflix programming which has spilled over to non-wreslting fans who appreciate what these women do."
Bash is one of the characters in GLOW and he is somewhat based off McClane, although the real McClane points out a big difference.
"Not too [close]," McClane responds when asked how close Bash is to him. "My fun vice was maybe a six-pack of beer, maybe a glass of wine. That was it. There was no drugs, no cocaine use. The director of GLOW's vice was a good cigar. He didn't smoke. He didn't do any drugs.
"That said, it does capture the essence, spot on, of the camaraderie of the performers and the struggles. It does capture that we were always struggling to keep it and get it on TV. Even now, there was always a pushback, "Oh, there is women's wrestling. It's out there. Who needs a one hour program dedicated to it?"
McClane then credits Mark Burnett and Mark Cuban for stepping up and dedicating a full hour in primetime TV for women's wrestlers.
A popular quasi-character of the GLOW series is a robot that dispenses drugs. Along the lines of McClane saying he avoids drugs, he denies the presence of a drug robot during the heyday of the GLOW promotion in the 1980s.
"Were there any robots back then? Hell, I've never even seen a robot today, definitely not one dispensing anything of that nature. But they captured the essence of the times," said McClane.
"I remember flying down to Miami Beach, going to a nightclub, and I couldn't believe the amount of cocaine being ingested in the restroom. So, they did capture the times of the era in which that was being done. We didn't have any of that taking place in WOW."
Wrestling Inc's full, exclusive interview with McClane can be heard as part of this week's WINCLY podcast. In it he talks more about the resurgence of GLOW, resurrecting Women of Wrestling, working with Mark Cuban and more. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc Audio on iTunes to get every podcast from Wrestling Inc as soon as it's released. You can listen to the latest episode of the WINCLY in the embedded player below: