The youngest of the wild James siblings, Cherry Mae was grappling before she could read and fighting before she could spell. With two rowdy older brothers — Zeke, stoic and stern; Zeb, chaotic and sunny — Cherry Mae learned early that the best defense is to punch first and think later, and the best way to settle a family dispute is to tie your brother into a knot he can’t get out of.

Cherry Mae inherited the James family’s redneck rowdiness, but she also inherited something rarer: the not-yet-proven-by-science “Ellie Mae Clampett Gene,” the supernatural ability some pretty country girls possess to take down varsity wrestlers and fold them like laundry without any formal training.

Growing up under the watchful eye of their peg-legged outlaw uncle Frank Dylan James, Cherry Mae got the same “training” as her brothers — which mainly consisted of FDJ laughing himself breathless while she rolled her them around in the dirt. Frank believed firmly in “equal rights, equal fights” and pushed Cherry Mae to wrestle anyone she damn well pleased — while emphasizing that she wasn’t to come crying to him if someone hit her back hard. She never did. And while friendliness was Cherry Mae’s default, over the years she came up with a lot of ways to prove a point to opponents who asked for it.

By her teens she was wrestling in tiny Appalachian buildings and barnyard shows. By her twenties she was a core part of the James Gang — and quietly building a reputation as someone who could hang with the men and dominate most women.