Meet the Las Vegan who helped inspire Netflix’s ‘GLOW’

Lori Palmer always wanted to be on television. It just took a couple of decades for her to be able to take pride in how she got there.

From 1986 to ’90, the longtime Las Vegan starred as the Russian powerhouse Col. Ninotchka on “GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling,” the syndicated whirlwind of spandex and political incorrectness that called the Riviera home.

“I didn’t really enjoy ‘GLOW’ as much as I should have because I was so embarrassed to be wrestling,” says Palmer, 57. “I just thought that was so embarrassing because I had all this training as a dancer: ballet, tap, jazz.”

It’s hard to stay embarrassed, though, knowing you brought to life a character that inspired Zoya the Destroya, the in-ring persona of struggling actress Ruth Wilder (Alison Brie) on the Emmy-winning fictionalized version of “GLOW,” which returns for its third season Friday on Netflix.

‘I jumped at it’

As a child, Palmer had dreams of being an Olympic figure skater. When she was 9, she and her mother, Marianne, moved to Las Vegas to be near her coach. The single mother had started crafting skating outfits as a way to help pay for Palmer’s lessons. It wasn’t long before their costuming business expanded to Las Vegas showrooms.

“At one time, we had done costumes for almost every show on the Strip,” Palmer recalls, including productions such as “Splash,” “Enter the Night” and “Folies Bergere.”

It was through “Folies” that Marianne got to know one of the show’s dancers, Lauri Thompson, and made the costumes when Thompson competed on “Star Search.” Thompson would go on to portray cheerleader Susie Spirit in “GLOW,” and the Palmers were hired to create that show’s wardrobe.

Once Palmer heard about the Russian character that would have recurring pre-taped skits on the show, she had her long brown hair chopped off and dyed blond and threw herself into training to become a wrestler.

“Very few people got those skits where you were gonna be on TV every single episode,” she says of the “Easy as KGB” segments. “So I jumped at it.”

‘It was 24/7’

For four years, Palmer was essentially the Daniel Day-Lewis of dancers-turned-costumers-turned-professional wrestlers.

Because of the strict rules employed by “GLOW” producers and the adherence to kayfabe — the practice of pretending everything about wrestling was 100 percent real — she had to remain in character whenever she was in public. The good girls could never be seen associating with the bad girls outside of the ring.

“Americana (Cindy Maranne) was my best friend in ‘GLOW’ because we spent so much time together practicing and rehearsing every day,” she says of her frequent opponent. “But you had to go to the rehearsal separately and leave separately. And we couldn’t go to the buffet together.”

That was a big deal, considering the women ate up to three meals a day at the buffet at the Riviera, where they lived during the first two seasons.

“I do think it really made a difference because it was 24/7. We really had to live in our characters,” Palmer says of that commitment to authenticity.

There are worse things than having to remember to speak in a fake Russian accent at all times.

“Chainsaw (Donna Wilinsky) had to have her chainsaw with her. She would take the chainsaw to the buffet. She could not ever be without her chainsaw — ever,” Palmer recalls. “Yeah, plop it right on the back of the booth. It was always there. It was never out of her sight.”

And the hotel was fine with her bringing a chainsaw into the buffet?

“At the time, it wasn’t questioned,” Palmer says. “Because it was just like, ‘Oh, it’s the “GLOW” girls.’ ”

‘The only one left’

Palmer didn’t just wrestle for “GLOW,” she also trained the other performers.

“Well, I was a natural,” she says, before laughing. “I think it was, basically, because I was the only one left.”

“GLOW” taped two seasons at a time, with a long break between the second and third. As a result, almost all of the women had moved on by the time the series resumed. That included the show’s reigning champion, Tina Ferrari, portrayed by Lisa Moretti, who would go on to a successful career as Ivory that saw her enshrined in the WWE Hall of Fame.

“I probably never would have gotten to wear the crown except, again, everybody was gone after Season 2,” Palmer says.

Needing to establish a new champion after the mass defections, Palmer says the creative team went in and edited one of the many matches between the two to make Ninotchka come out victorious.

Dramatic departure

When they were creating the dramatized version of “GLOW” for Netflix, which also takes place in the 1980s, Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch knew they needed to find a way to build up to a match between Ruth and her former best friend, Debbie Eagan (Emmy nominee Betty Gilpin).

“That felt like the sort of big match to move toward,” Flahive says, “with an America vs. Russia story.”

Ruth took on the Zoya character, while Debbie assumed the Americana-ish persona Liberty Belle.

“We very intentionally tried from the beginning, knowing that we would be creating our own characters, we didn’t go back and watch the old ‘GLOW’ episodes and matches, just because (it) would be hard to not accidentally absorb things,” Mensch says.

Noting the connections between the characters, Mensch adds, “We both love, love, love what she did with Ninotchka, and I think have kind of intentionally tried to block it out of our brains.”

‘It mattered!’

Palmer managed to avoid the chronic injuries that have befallen many wrestlers.

“I have trouble with my hip now, but that’s all from just sewing hours and hours and hours,” she says before another day of creating costumes for a new show on a cruise line.

She also skipped the reunions of her former colleagues, although she’s now actively looking to see some of them again. “I never went to college. They’re like my sorority sisters.”

Palmer only recently started feeling good about her time with “GLOW,” and some of those warm feelings stem from the Netflix series.

“I watched some interviews before it came out, and Alison Brie had mentioned that she had watched my tapes. … It was just this huuuuuuuuuge compliment.”

Seeing some of her efforts dramatized on a critically acclaimed series, no matter how loosely inspired it is by the real women, helped with Palmer’s change of heart.

“You feel appreciated. You feel, like, ‘Oh, my gosh. It mattered! It mattered what we did!’ ” she says.

“Now, it’s wonderful to be, like, ‘Aw, man. I was part of that!’ ”

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567. Follow @life_onthecouch on Twitter.