Evelyn Stevens shocked the wrestling world by pinning Fabulous Moolah in 1978, only to vanish from view soon after. Decades later, fresh details reveal how this pioneering NWA Women’s Champion navigated championship triumph and an unexpected, life-altering turn that led to a twenty-year prison sentence.
Evelyn Stevens soared in women’s wrestling, then vanished. Discover the untold twists behind her championship legacy and fate. Artwork by Pro Wrestling Stories.
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Evelyn Stevens: The Unfortunate Case of a Championship Wrestler
Evelyn Stevens, along with Kay Noble, Betty Niccoli, Beverly Shade, and Donna Lemke, were some of the brave women who paved their way in wrestling without the Fabulous Moolah’s in-between business dealings.
A Tampa, Florida native but raised in Nashville, Tennessee, Evelyn enjoyed cheerleading and playing hoops.
Once in the grappling game, the statuesque blonde was unafraid to play on her sex appeal.
Deep in the kayfabe era of wrestling, an April 1969 edition of The Wrestler ran an article that Evelyn supposedly wrote entitled "Sex and the Girl Wrestler."
The article related how older men in the arenas ogled the lady wrestlers and couldn’t avoid fantasizing about them when laying in suggestive positions, as often happens in wrestling. The article resembled wrestling erotica and was a precursor to the hot and steamy apartment wrestling pieces shot by sports photographer Theo Ehret that were soon to come.
Stanley Weston, founder of the Pro Wrestling Illustrated magazine and its sister publications, believed that “broads and blood” is what sold the magazines. There were many years when the covers featured women in skimpy bikinis next to horrific photos of blood-drenched wrestlers.
Evelyn Stevens shares the cover with "The Destroyer" Dick Beyer in the August 1968 issue of Wrestling Revue. This cover is very tame compared to what was to come during the ‘70s. Photo Credit: Wrestling Revue.
Evelyn Stevens primarily plied her trade as a heel in the Midwest and Great Plains region until settling in Texas, where she went into the wrestling history books after a match booked by Gary Hart.
Winning Wrestling Gold Against Fabulous Moolah
Candi Divine faces Evelyn Stevens in a Midwest wrestling matchup, illustrating Stevens’ in-ring power. Photo Credit: NWA.
“In October 1978, I had Moolah booked in a couple of matches against Evelyn Stevens, and I thought it would be good to do a quickie title switch,” said Hart in his must-read (albeit incredibly hard to find in print) book, My Life in Wrestling.
"There were a couple of problems with that, however. First of all, Moolah first won the belt in 1956, and she didn’t like losing it. Second, Evelyn wasn’t one of Moolah’s girls- she was considered independent.
"It was rare enough she was getting in the ring with someone she didn’t control, and now I was asking her to drop her belt to that person! Moolah had a lot of trust in me, though, so when I asked her if we could do a title switch, she agreed."
Evelyn Stevens won the title on October 8th, 1978, but had it for only two days. Nonetheless, she is one of the few women who boast of pinning the Fabulous Moolah cleanly and holding her championship title.
Moolah never acknowledged Evelyn Stevens’ title win when speaking about her decades-spanning championship reign. And neither did she recognize the previous three women she dropped the title to: Bette Boucher on September 17th, 1966, Yukiko Tomoe in Japan in 1968, and Sue “Tex” Green on February 2nd, 1976, who got Moolah to scream “I quit,” by placing Moolah in an Indian death lock.
Fun fact: After 22 minutes, Green’s match with Moolah became a shoot (it went off-script and turned real). The catalyst seems to have been years of the controlling Moolah and strong-willed Green not getting along. On top of it all, Moolah slapped Green hard in the face before the match. Later Vince McMahon Sr. stepped in and obliged Sue Green to return the title. Some sources claim Green held it for a couple of days, but Green, in an interview on Dan and Benny in the Ring, assures that it was for five months. Eventually, she returned Moolah’s belt but demanded a picture be taken of her handing it back!
It is unclear whether the current NWA recognizes these women as world titleholders, and currently, there is no information on their official page. But at the time they occurred, they were not officially recognized.
When Moolah sold the title to the WWF in 1983, the lineage started anew, and the accomplishments of these three ladies were ignored.
The Life-Altering Turn in a Wrestling Icon’s Story
In the mid-’80s, Evelyn Stevens was still wrestling in Texas, mainly for Southwest Championship Wrestling, where she became their Texas Women’s Champion.
Previously, she had married Donald Delbert Jardine, better known in wrestling circles as the Canadian masked wrestler managed by Gary Hart, The Spoiler. His infamous claw hold and ability to walk the ring ropes made the feared Spoiler popular in many regions.
Although The Spoiler, seen here with Gary Hart, was known as an aggressive competitor inside the ring and sometimes short-tempered outside, his ex-wife, Evelyn Stevens, would end up doing the unthinkable. Photo Credit: WWE.
Once the two divorced, Stevens kept the Jardine surname and married Frank Riegle, a bodybuilder fitness center owner. But tragedy would soon strike during a lover’s spat.
The following is what San Antonio’s Seguin Gazette Enterprise reported on December 18th, 1986:
“A former women’s wrestling champion has been charged in the shooting death of a gymnasium owner she claimed was her common-law husband, police say. Frank Riegle, 41, died of gunshot wounds to the face and chest.”
A 1985 press photo shows Evelyn Stevens working out at the gym with her husband, Frank Riegle. About a year later, a couple’s disagreement would turn tragic. Photo Credit: Jose Barrera.The news release continued, “Officers reported that Riegle had driven from Powerhouse Fitness Center, the business he operated, to a home in San Antonio at the time of the shooting that Tuesday afternoon. Evelyn Jardine Riegle, 43, was charged on Wednesday and was being held in the Bexar County jail in place of a $50,000 bond.
“Evelyn’s divorce attorney, Diane O’Heir of Bandera, said that her client, who was under psychiatric care, had filed a police report stating that Frank Riegle threw her across the room. Also, several neighbors had witnessed him tossing her back and forth across her front yard in the snow.”
Prosecutor Juan Chavira believed that Evelyn was to blame for how things ended between the couple, warranting punishment.
“I guess if anybody was the aggressor in this relationship, it was her. She just blew him away. There was nothing in the lady’s background to indicate she was a timid wallflower. The pattern of the battered wife syndrome does not fit her at all. She was a wrestler. Wrestlers are actors.”
The book Sisterhood of the Squared Circle, written by Pat Laprade and Dan Murphy, adds that Evelyn shot Frank Riegle three times at point-blank range during the argument. Police also found a handwritten confession at the scene of the heinous crime.
“May God in heaven forgive me for what I’ve done," the letter stated. "I have reached out to everyone for help. I love [Frank] enough for us to die together.”
Subsequently, Evelyn entered a guilty plea and served several years in prison, though later evidence and the broader clemency movement pointed to a complex case of self-defense amid prolonged abuse.
Evelyn Stevens: Wrestling Legend’s Path to Parole and Redemption
Evelyn Stevens, a former wrestling champion, seen in 1987 after her legal battles following Frank Riegle’s death. Photo Credit: El Paso Times.
Evelyn Jardine Riegle only served five years of a 20-year prison sentence after being paroled to Western Colorado. Before Riegle’s death, a judge had signed a mutual restraining order.
While imprisoned, a nationwide clemency movement specifically for battered women gained traction. Its goal was to free inmates who, like Stevens, had documented evidence of prolonged domestic abuse and acted in self-defense. Evelyn’s early parole in 1992 reflects this broader shift in how the justice system recognized the context of her actions.
Evelyn applied for clemency to no longer report to a parole officer.
The thinking was that if the state was letting out "hard, cold, killers every day, then they should be letting out these battered women who would never kill again."
An original press photo dated one year before Evelyn confessed to shooting her common-law husband, Frank Riegle. She is wearing a T-shirt with the name of her former husband’s gym. Photo Credit: Jose Barrera.
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Where Is Evelyn Stevens Today? Updates on the Trailblazing Champion
Evelyn Stevens, in her later years, with her signature from an attached note supplied to Pro Wrestling Stories, lived a quiet life away from the spotlight following her wrestling career and legal battles. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Evelyn Stevens.
For many years, rumors about Evelyn Stevens abounded. Some claimed she remained in jail after the shooting of Frank Riegle, while others said she changed her name and was living under a pseudonym. We’re here to clear up the confusion and share what we’ve learned.
Decades after her rise and the tragedy of 1986, Evelyn Stevens has quietly returned to public view. After reading this article, a neighbor of Evelyn’s reached out to Pro Wrestling Stories to share the latest:
“Evelyn is 82 years old and moved into assisted living in Nashville in early August 2025. I first met her in the elevator when she was new and didn’t know anyone. My mother helped her carry furniture, and my son and I previously assisted her by taking her luggage downstairs and into a taxi.”
Her neighbor continued, “Evelyn flew to Arizona on August 22, 2025, for a heart procedure after her doctor discovered bleeding and needed to find the cause. When she returns, she’ll come back here to her room at assisted living.
“She has no close family nearby, so she was comforted hearing me tell her, ‘God said fear not, for I am always with you. Don’t worry – have faith.’”
The neighbor provided the photograph above, along with a handwritten note to confirm her identity.
Stevens asked that further information remain private for now, but hopes it reaches those who remember her pioneering spirit.
Stevens’ neighbor expressed, "It fills my heart with joy that you will bring this news to your readers. I’m sure she still has many fans who love her, and countless women entered wrestling because of her."
Evelyn hasn’t forgotten her time in the ring and enjoys sharing pictures of her wrestling days with her new neighbors, even showing off a photo of herself dressed in Wonder Woman attire. However, her health is currently deteriorating, and her neighbor asks that readers keep her in their thoughts during this challenging time.
“Evelyn was an icon for women’s wrestling and deserves to know that her fans still care about her.”
We will update this article with more details about her recovery and health as new information becomes available.
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"Evan Ginzburg’s stories are a love letter to wrestling, filled with heart, humor, and history. A must-read for any true fan."— Keith Elliot Greenberg
Javier Ojst is an old-school wrestling enthusiast currently residing in El Salvador. He's been a frequent guest on several podcasts and has a few bylines on TheLogBook.com, where he shares stories of pop culture and retro-related awesomeness. He has also been published on Slam Wrestling and in G-FAN Magazine.
Author: 
![A 1985 press photo showing Evelyn Stevens working out with her husband Frank Riegle at the gym. About a year later, a couple's disagreement would turn to tragedy. [Photographer: Jose Barrera / Stock Photo: HistoricImages.com]](https://prowrestlingstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Evelyn-Peters-Frank-Riegle.jpeg "Evelyn Stevens: Wrestling Star’s Path from Gold to Darkness")
