Did "GLOW" Really Go to Vegas? How the Netflix Show Compares to Real Life

Because we know you’ve finished S2 and already want more.

If we have one complaint for GLOW—the funny, thrilling and surprisingly moving second season of which debuted on Netflix this past Friday—it’s that it’s over too GLOW-damn quickly.

With just ten episodes a season—and only about 30 minutes in each ep—the show can be devoured in one arvo.

In a sense, the swiftness is appreciated, especially given Netflix's habit of hour-plus eps elsewhere. But in another, more accurate sense, we demand more GLOW immediately, especially given the promise held by the S2 finale, "Every Potato Has a Receipt".

Don’t keep reading if you haven’t finished Season 2 of GLOW.

As anyone aware of the real Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling TV show probably already knows, the original program was short-lived, running for just four seasons, between 1986 and 1990.

(BTW, for clarity, when we’re talking about the original wrestling show, we’ll call it by its full name: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. We’ll only use GLOW to talk about the fictionalised Netflix series.)

So, it was probably no surprise to viewers of GLOW when Ruth (Alison Brie), Debbie (Betty Gilpin), Sam (Marc Maron) and the rest discovered their show was going to die at its 2am timeslot on its local L.A. station.

However, the gang get a reprieve in the finale’s closing moments, with strip club manager Ray (Horatio Sanz) hiring them to run a floor show at one of his clubs in Las Vegas, suggesting they’ll leave behind the world of television and focus on a grand stage at the casino capital of the world. We even see the cast boarding a bus and heading for Nevada in the final shots of the season. Huzzah!

Okay, but did this actually happen?

Though GLOW features fictionalised events and characters, it has remained fairly faithful to the overall truth of the original Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling world.

Except, in one big way: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling was filmed in front of a live audience in Las Vegas the whole time.

The Riviera..the original hotel where Glow was filmed..no longer there..sad thing. pic.twitter.com/1TEWL1zNJk

— GLOW Wrestling (@GLOWWrestling1) February 16, 2016

In fact, not only did the pioneering wrestlers shoot their show at the Riviera Hotel and Casino on the Vegas strip, but many of them lived there as well. (We see a version of this, albeit in lower-rent form, on GLOW, with the wrestlers staying at the same dingy motel in Los Angeles.)

This is my fav pic from my GLOW wrestling days. Rooftop of Riviera Hotel in #LasVegas Was weird to see hotel get imploded and dropped. pic.twitter.com/CEnLhqETIM

— Cindy Ferda (@CindyFerda) October 4, 2016

Ultimately, it was only when the hotel’s owner pulled his support at the end of the show’s fourth season that the program was axed.

What does this mean for S3 of GLOW?

Well, Netflix hasn’t technically given a third season of GLOW the green light just yet, but we can’t imagine it’s far away. 

It is a bit curious that the showrunners have decided to (all but officially) end the televised version of their show-within-a-show (also called GLOW; it's confusing) after one season. Maybe they're plotting to give it a new life with its Vegas location, and remain on the air for many years to come.

Or, perhaps the showrunners of GLOW made the move so they could speed up to a more contentious era in the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling story, wherein the original stars abandoned the program (prior to its third season) to launch the competing Powerful Women of Wrestling.

Either way, hurry up Netflix and renew GLOW before we have to send some old friends your way.

Header Image: Netflix