Mjoseth was first introduced to professional wrestling after meeting a friend's boyfriend who worked as a wrestler. His mother, Beverly Shade, also worked as a wrestler and agreed to talk with Mjoseth. A couple of years after graduating college, she once again became interested in becoming a professional wrestler, so she moved to South Carolina to train with Fabulous Moolah at her wrestling school. While a trainee at Moolah's school, Mjoseth cut her hair into a mohawk and developed the Mad Maxine persona. The look, which also included leather lace-up wrestling gear that she sewed herself, was modeled on characters in the "Mad Max" films and the X-Men comic book character Storm. As Mad Maxine, Mjoseth appeared in the World Wrestling Federation in 1985 managed by Moolah. Maxine defeated Susan Starr in her first WWF match that aired on the March 31, 1985 edition of All American Wrestling. She was accompanied again by Moolah for her second WWF match, which was against Desiree Petersen on April 16, 1985. Although she was initially brought into the WWF to feud with Wendi Richter for the WWF Women's Championship, the two women never wrestled against each other. She began appearing in WWF merchandising at this time and was originally animated for the CBSSaturday morning cartoon titled Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling, appearing in early commercials and print advertisements for the cartoon. Her character on the show would have been named "Mad" Maxine Ryder, and would have driven a "punk cycle" as her vehicle. Mjoseth claims that Moolah never told her about the WWF's intention for her to be in the cartoon. Mjoseth left the company before the cartoon's debut, and Moolah took over her role. Mjoseth claims to have left the company because she was happier working as a journalist and did not like the percentage Moolah received of her earnings. She also needed further in-ring training.
Mjoseth is of Norwegian descent, but was born in West Germany and grew up as an army brat. She received a scholarship to play basketball at the University of Kentucky and played with the Kentucky Wildcats for two years before choosing to take a sabbatical from college studies. She lived with her sister in Washington D.C. and worked odd jobs. She eventually decided to return to college but turned down an athletic scholarship with the University of South Florida. Instead she focused on journalism and wrote for the school newspaper. After graduating in 1982, she worked as a writer and photographer for the Hillsborough Community Newspaper and as a reporter for the Sun City Center in Tampa. During her wrestling training period, she was editor of The Black News after infiltrating a Ku Klux Klan rally on freelance assignment. She also spent seven years working with the National Institute of Aging and developed an arts based program called Vital Visionaries. She is the Acting Chief of Communications for the National Human Genome Research Institute. Mjoseth also works as a video artist and independent art curator. She appeared in an episode of the HBOtelevision seriesReal Sex in the 1990s, which featured an erotic art auction she had curated. She has also written a novel based on her experiences training to become a professional wrestler available via https://books2read.com/u/3RKaQB.
