Shout out to Cageside’s Total Divas reviewer, and all around great member of this community, caitlynah12, for her assistance on this mammoth post!
They’re smart, sexy, powerful, gorgeous, trailblazing, eyebrow-raising, heart-stopping, jaw-dropping, and without them, professional wrestling would look a lot different.
So here’s to the ladies of professional wrestling. From the ones who wowed audiences with their talents from bell-to-bell, to the ones who weren’t afraid to show skin and raise a little hell. You all have a place in this big story called professional wrestling.
With that, thanks to your votes, we at Cageside Seats present...
the 25 most important women in wrestling history.
Again, please note: this list was decided by a community vote. So if you’re not satisfied with the final outcome, it’s your fault. That said, among those just missing the cut are:
- the rock half of the Rock ‘n Wrestling Connection, Cyndi Lauper.
- WWE Hall of Famer Jacqueline.
- former WWE Women’s Champion, WWE Divas Champion, and TNA Knockouts Champion Mickie James.
- longtime WWE general manager and heat magnet supreme Vickie Guerrero.
- one-half of the legendary Crush Gals and the inspiration for the current NXT Women’s Champion Lioness Asuka.
- former TNA President Dixie Carter.
- former WWE CEO Linda McMahon.
- famed joshi duo the Jumping Bomb Angels.
- WWE Hall of Famer and arguably WWE’s original diva, Sunny.
- “The Dangerous Queen” and one of the most resilient wrestlers ever Akira Hokuto.
Also worth noting, Josh Gagnon did a post in 2015 on a brief history of African-American women in wrestling in the 1950s and 1960s, including Marva Scott, Babs Wingo, Ethel Johnson, Mary Horton, and Louise Greene. It’s worth your time. It’s right here.
Before we begin the countdown, I made a call to the bullpen. I mean, I’m a guy, and a post like this needs a woman’s perspective. So along for the ride is fellow Baltimorian and Total Divas recapper Caitlyn.
Right, on with the countdown.
(Note: All photos via WWE.com unless otherwise noted.)
25. Sable
No, no, don’t click off the window. You’re here now, you might as well stick it out.
Sable burst on the scene in March 1996 under some interesting circumstances. Her husband, Marc Mero, aka Johnny B. Badd, was released from WCW after a pay dispute. The WWF was quick to snatch him up. But it turned out the WWF got a package deal, as they managed to get Marc’s then-wife Rena on board. It would turn out to be one of the biggest steals of the Monday Night Wars.
The husband-and-wife duo proved to be a popular act, but in February 1997, Marc tore his ACL. In the six months he was out, his wife Rena (aka Sable) surpassed him in popularity by leaps and bounds. In fact, by 1998, Sable was so popular, the WWF revived its women's division and built it around the buxom beauty.
But art imitated life and Sable's popularity got to her head both figuratively and literally. On an episode of RAW is WAR in April 1999, Sable in a promo called herself a “diva”, which ironically would describe her attitude when the cameras were off. That word would become the marketing term for WWE's women for well over a decade.
As for Sable, she would leave the WWF amid major controversy in May 1999, then sue them citing sexual harassment and unsafe working conditions. Seeking $110 million, Sable ultimately settled for way, way less. But it would be water under the bridge when she returned for a year and a half run in 2003 and 2004. And she found love in “The Beast Incarnate” Brock Lesnar. So... there’s that. -E
24. Molly Holly
Nora Greenwald probably isn’t going to come to mind right away when considering the greatest women in wrestling history. She hardly stood out, but at the same time she did.
Debuting as the cocktail-dressed Miss Madness as a part of Macho Man Randy Savage’s entourage Team Madness in 1999, Nora would get in the business of anyone who opposed Savage and even took off her shoes to throw down. After being ditched from the group, she wrestled on WCW’s B- and C-shows until the company sent her packing in the summer of 2000.
Nora wouldn’t be unemployed long; she would emerge under her most famous persona, Molly Holly, the wholesome cousin of Hardcore and Crash. The next year, Molly Holly became superhero sidekick Mighty Molly.
A few months after, Molly returned as conservative, prudish Molly Holly. It wouldn't be her most popular gimmick, but it would be her most-well known. Standing out from those who showed a little more and wore a little less, Molly would win the WWE Women's Championship twice (and even book her own Wrestlemania moment when she volunteered the idea of having her head shaven at Wrestlemania XX).
After walking away from wrestling in 2006, Nora began working with trouble teens, got married, and is now a wrestling coach in her native Minnesota. Nora proved that in the 21st century, you don't have to necessarily “skin to win”. -E
23. Bayley
The first time I ever had tears well up in my eyes from pro wrestling was WWE Battleground. Sasha Banks had just made her entrance and was standing in the middle of the ring. She turned her head to the ramp with a sparkle in her eyes as she acknowledged the buzz in the air as the crowd breathlessly waited for the notes to hit. Sasha nods firmly, eyes fixed to the stage.
Those notes play. Bayley. Happiness.
The crowd’s thrill. Sasha’s joy. Bayley is here.
I tried weakly to explain that moment to some of my friends. “Bayley got to have a really special moment with 16,000 people who love her and her sister/friend who loves her and they got to team up in achieving a common goal doing what they love. It’s kind of like…e don’t live these big lives where I ever get to be that happy for anyone unless it’s like their wedding which is once-in-a-lifetime, but I can for Bayley.”
It was a stupid analogy but it’s what Bayley does for many of us. A performer and a character like Bayley is once-in-a-lifetime.
And every time we see her, we are happy. We are happy she’s there. We are happy she’s Bayley. Not to be morose, but life doesn’t bequeath us many opportunities to be happy. (I’m SO fun to know IRL). We work for the happiness and we clasp our fingers tightly around the moments and pray they don’t slip from our grasp.
But Bayley gives us this over and over. We can’t ever lose Bayley and what she has given us.
Bayley is a story we know. We’ve seen her struggle. We’ve seen her been betrayed. We’ve seen her fail. We’ve seen her dismissed. We’ve been alongside her for this. We’ve seen her succeed. We’ve been alongside her for this.
And it has all been worth it because of who she is.
Bayley has given us tons of moments in her few years in WWE. She will give us many more. We will rise and we will fall with her.
There will never be another Bayley. You can’t fake a Bayley and as such, you could never forget Bayley. Even though her main roster booking has been shaky, it hasn’t mattered yet. Bayley is important on the main roster because she is important to us, no matter how or when you met the character. Bayley is another woman wrestler who is living her dream but she won’t do it any other way because she can’t. She can only be true to who she is: a genuinely good person with a big heart. We know and we love Bayley and we wish we could be as good as she is. -C
22. Asuk
There are frequent references on WWE programming lately – largely by the same two individuals – about things that cannot be taught. I’ll add to the list of things that cannot be taught: presence.
With just one look in her very first segment on WWE programming, her presence was felt. You shuddered and you knew from that point on, nothing in WWE would be the same and you couldn’t freaking wait. She’s sold matches with looks. She’s sold matches with just three words – which were shouted at William Regal. She makes everyone she wrestles look good. She makes them bring their best.
She has a dynamic moveset and every match is different yet they all end the same – with her victorious.
Asuka brings something else that just isn’t found too often anymore: genuine fear. She scares the shit out of you. This 5’3 woman with colorful hair and gear with ribbons gives you no other choice but to remember that she could kill you if she felt it was worth her time to do so. She came in with a high pedigree and a storied legacy of broken opponents left behind and she has delivered in every sense of the word. She’s one of the best wrestlers in the world, combined with a superstar presence, fabulous gear, memorable entrance and killer expressions.
In 20 years, your favorite wrestlers will be talking about what it was like to work with Asuka. In 30 years we’ll be discussing how privileged we felt to watch one of the best performers of all time. -C
21. The Fabulous Moolah
Debuting in 1949, Mary Ellison served as an occasional valet but also wrestled under promoter Billy Wolfe, whose issues run a mile long, wide, and deep. In 1955, she began working for Vince McMahon Sr.’s Capitol Wrestling Corporation and just a year later, she would win a 13-woman battle royal for the World Women’s Championship.
Rechristened The Fabulous Moolah, she would have a death grip over the title holding it for most of the next 28 years, including uninterrupted runs of 10 years and 7 years. Moolah also populated the sport with many female wrestlers while champion as a trainer and promoter.
As history has taught us, even people who do terrible, terrible things can be important too. And Moolah’s got a lot of red in her ledger. Yes, she’s populated the sport with a lot of female talent, but she used said female talent, pimping them out to promoters and getting a cut of their pay in exchange.
She forced out anyone who was considered remotely a threat (see Mad Maxine, Wendi Richter, and the Jumping Bomb Angels). Moolah, who was trained by real shooter Mildred Burke, realized she couldn’t shoot like Burke, so she resorted to hair pulls, snapmares, and catflght-like spots—and that pretty much defined women’s wrestling for generations of people, including one Vincent Kennedy McMahon.
There are somehow two notes in Moolah’s favor: she got the ban on women’s wrestling overturned in New York in June 1972, and she was a part of the then-most watched program in MTV history, The Brawl to End it All in July 1984.
In late 1999, Moolah, at age 76, won the WWF Women’s Championship, making her the oldest champion in professional wrestling history. Moolah, inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1995, the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003, and the NWA Hall of Fame in 2012, died in 2007 at age 84.
I honestly could go on about Moolah, but Cagesider Flashking wrote a brilliant three-part series on Moolah’s influence when it comes to women’s wrestling in the United States, and it’s required reading. -E
20. Nikki Bella
“May all the women in the world know their worth, find their strength and walk this world with confidence.”
–Nikki’s Instagram post on International Women’s Day.
Oh Nikki Bella, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
Nikki’s WWE beginning was pretty underwhelming and largely centered around her being a beautiful woman who was a twin. She met the love of her life, was a centerpiece of a very successful reality show had a blossoming fanbase and then she encountered a career-threatening neck injury. She very easily could have said it was enough and no one would have blamed her. But she didn’t. She fought back against this fate because she believed in her future and she knew she had more left to give.
She was on the receiving end of vitriol from many fans who didn’t care what she could become. They had her pigeonholed for what they thought she was but Nikki didn’t care and she got to work. She knew she could contribute. She knew there was a place for her in this new division that many wanted her to be left behind in.
She married her passions for fitness and for wrestling by adapting a strong style that is both lethal and unique. Watching her find her niche in the ring has truly been a joy.
Nikki is a woman who fully owns who she is and how she lives her life. Yeah, she signed a 70 page contract to live with John Cena. Yeah, she says the occasionally stupid remark or doesn’t know who Sacagewea is. Yeah, she has fake boobs. She is who she is, she believes in herself, she knows her worth, and even better – she wants the same for you.
Nikki and twin sister Brie have built an entire brand around wanting to inspire women. They’re naturally beautiful, happy women who are grounded in their personal lives, are on two wildly popular reality shows, serve as excellent brand ambassadors for WWE, have found rare crossover success, won awards, and have millions of fans who idolize them, but that wasn’t enough. They wanted their largely female fanbase to feel empowered and feel good about themselves. They recognize what many women around the globe do not: that knowing your body and recognizing how powerful it is can help you realize how powerful you already are and how powerful you could be. Amazing, right?
She and Brie are launching Birdiebee, a pay-it-forward platform for women across the globe to feel empowered, have a voice and feel confident in their bodies and how they work. That’s pretty freaking awesome. In Nikki’s own words: ‘Do you think you’re strong?’ It’s a question that we ask ourselves every day and your answer should be ‘yes.’ That’s what Birdiebee is here for, to make sure that your answer is yes.’
And the ‘fearless’ branding that she came up with on her own and preaches on social media? That’s also pretty freaking awesome for her fanbase to be reading and absorbing and hopefully applying to their own lives when they need a reminder or inspiration. -C
19. Alexa Bliss
She may like to dress up as other people, but Little Miss Bliss is one of a kind and forging a path all her own at a rate faster than you can say ‘Rude!’
She reminds you of the cheer captain, mean girl, villain in Taylor Swift songs that you’d pivot and book it the other way if you saw her sitting in the cafeteria at the head table with her cronies loudly relishing her position of not being one of the lame, low-life losers. Alexa was drafted to Smackdown Live not even a year ago and through sheer will she has cemented herself as a top performer among the roster and her poise, rapid improvement and hard work has landed her as the first two-time champion Smackdown women’s champion.
Character work and audience reaction is vital in WWE and this is a woman who possesses the innate ability to play a character who knows how to make you react the way she wants you to. She made you grin when you saw how emotional she was after being drafted to Smackdown Live. She made you go ‘ooh’ the first time you saw her hit that Twisted Bliss. She made you wince when she fooled you with that double-jointed arm spot after a Becky Lynch armbar. She made you desperately wish for Becky to shut this spoiled brat up and prove her wrong. She made you cringe when she told Naomi- with that Regina George delivery- “Say hi to obscurity for me! Thanks.” She made you thirst for her to get kicked in the damn face when she dismissed Naomi and refused to acknowledge her. She made you tear up when you watched her talk about her eating disorder and how she had to fight back from death and find her purpose. At such an early stage in her career, Alexa is already a top talker in the company with sky-high potential and she just gets it.
Her place on this list may feel premature but it says volumes about the path she is on. Buckle up Blissfits and get on board. Or don’t. Whatever. Alexa Bliss doesn’t care what you do anyway. Thanks. -C
18. Miss Elizabeth
In a world full of giant, big, sweaty men, when someone as beautiful as Elizabeth Huellette comes along, everything stops.
No, seriously. Look at her WWF debut back in 1985. Nobody knew what to do when a woman who looked like she walked straight off a movie set came on the scene.
Miss Elizabeth, as she would be known, would be the valet for Randy “Macho Man” Savage. It turned out she was also the wife of Randy “Macho Man” Savage. And Randy was, to say the least, very protective of her woman, for better or worse. If anyone so much as looked at her, Savage would snap. But even as protected as she was, she proved to be quite valuable.
Elizabeth would be the catalyst for the formation of the Mega-Powers—and its destruction. This isn’t to say she wasn’t without her clutch moments: when Macho was in a pinch, she often threw herself in harm’s way—and stopped traffic again (i.e. the end of Summerslam 1988, her tearful reunion with Savage at Wrestlemania VII). In the end, real life doomed the first couple of the WWF, and the two divorced in 1992.
Elizabeth would of course be around for a few more years in WCW before ultimately taking her own life in 2003 at just age 42. Even more than a full decade than her tragic end, no one defined beauty and class quite like the first lady of the WWF.
No wonder why most everyone wanted to woo her. -E
17. Charlotte Flair
When we look back at recent years in women’s wrestling, we will see Charlotte. WWE decided they were willing to give women a chance to prove themselves and they stuck Charlotte out there at the forefront to get this show on the road. Where would we be today if Charlotte, the center of the division, didn’t constantly knock it out of the park? She has put in the work each and every day and risen to every occasion.
She is a fantastic representation of female athletes, women wrestlers and WWE. She carries herself like a queen with a presence that is both regal and menacing. She pairs this with that intimidating 5’10 stature, impressive athleticism, that graceful-screw-you moonsault, incredible agility, and her persona as the arrogant belittling bitch that you yearn to topple off her throne. You understand Charlotte and you hate her. Her matches all have big fight feels and you realize that if you were foolish enough to turn away when she is on-screen, you’re going to miss something.
She’s been wrestling for five short years and is an absolute natural at it. It can’t be easy to step in to a world that your father has already altered forever and try to carve out a path all your own but Charlotte is doing so and succeeding with her own flair. When we look back at recent years in women’s wrestling, we will see Charlotte… and we will marvel. -C
16. Luna Vachon
Gertrude “Luna” Vachon didn’t have a model body or movie star looks, but she had the genes. And by most accounts, a good heart.
A member of the famed Vachon family, Luna was nearly talked out of going into the family business (not just by family, but by Andre the Giant, no less), but at age 16, she went for it.
After training under her aunt Vivian and the Fabulous Moolah, she traveled around Florida before landing in Florida Championship Wrestling in 1985. Initially debuting as reporter Trudy Heard, two slaps from Kevin Sullivan in a huge brawl she was caught up in morphed Trudy to her most famous persona, Luna Vachon. She shaved half her head, covered herself in bodypaint, and sneered. Luna was every bit the vicious that was expected of being a Vachon.
Luna travelled the world an off-the-grid Vachon (as in so off the grid, the WWF hired a private investigator to find her) joined the WWF in time for Wrestlemania IX. In 1994, Luna made history, joining only a handful of women to compete at Wrestlemania, and becoming the first woman to appear in a WWF video game.
She had brief runs in ECW and WCW before returning to the WWF around the time of the Attitude Era. In a case of art imitating life, her feisty behavior on-screen would be her undoing off-screen, and WWF cut her loose in 2000 after multiple incidents of verbal outbursts against fellow wrestlers.
Though she would never win a major women’s title, she continued to follow the business even after her retirement in 2007, particularly watching fellow Canadian wrestler Nattie Neidhart. She was also chairitable, working with Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Though her final years were marked by tragedy (a stint in rehab and her home burning down in the summer of 2009), Luna was a friend to many, and she made a significant impact in the business. -E
15. AJ Lee
There’s a phrase I encountered in a book years ago that stayed with me: “When you move, they can’t getcha.”
For some reason this makes me think of AJ Lee. She always kept it moving forward despite constant circumstances that wanted her to stay stagnant, to stay down. There is power and there is bravery in the decision to move forward when it’s easier to stay in place or retreat to more familiar ground.
We look back at AJ Lee and we see her. AJ Lee came from a nightmare of a childhood and fought her entire life for the chance to live her dream. And when she finally made it to her dream, to this promised land, she found it wasn’t what she wanted it to be. She did what she could with what she had where she was, which in itself, is something we can all relate to and/or learn from.
What did the Black Widow have? A passion for women equality, a charisma most performers could only dream of having, the powerful knowledge that differences are what truly make us special, the courage to be herself in a business that didn’t care, and the acceptance that while she was in a shitty situation, she was going to do what she always did: fight and make her impact how she felt she could.
AJ was a good wrestler who didn’t have many opportunities to be a great wrestler. But she knew what legacy she could leave behind that WWE couldn’t take from her: she would show us how to stand up and to proudly be you. Not who the world wants you to be, not who society thinks you should be, not who your boss would like you to be, not a revised version of you with the “weird” parts sliced off. It can be tough to be you, in a world that may think you’re weird, crazy, or different, but it is always enough.
She refused to be intimidated by the business she was in. She was going to do what she could to make it better for those who came after her. When she won “Diva of the Year” she stood up there in her acceptance speech and said ‘I hope next year someone else wins’, citing NXT wrestlers such as Sasha Banks and Bayley. She publicly proclaimed she wanted someone else to win because that would mean progress and that was what she wanted.
WWE will always be a better place because AJ was there sowing the seeds to make it easier for those who come after her and proving that individuality resonated. Not many have the foresight to constantly think ‘what am I doing right now for the people who come after me?’
Thank you AJ. -C
14. Becky Lynch
For a solid decade now, the Irish lass has been one of the best technical women wrestlers in the world with a penchant for ripping people’s arms off and making a good pun.
Her nasty as hell armbar paired with her fun personality and desire to be back on top but to do it with integrity makes her a captivating character. The women’s division of WWE needs Becky Lynch for her different wrestling technique and for her fiery character that audiences have yet to fall out of love with. However, just as important, Becky Lynch needs this women’s division of WWE.
Becky’s been wrestling longer than her Horsewomen counterparts (Sasha, Bayley and Charlotte) and was on the brink of success in Japan where she popped up over and over, occasionally wrestling men. Soon it wasn’t working anymore. She felt deflated and doubtful that she could do this on her terms. She was starting to feel like a failure, and then a scary injury confirmed what she was beginning to believe: Wrestling was taking more than it was giving. So Becky walked away. She left wrestling for seven years, trying out many different occupations and hobbies, before making her return and realizing she had a second shot at her dream and doing it her way.
I absolutely adore this part of Becky’s story. She walked away from it all and left it all behind for nearly a decade. There is no shame in walking away from something when we start to doubt its purpose.
But the squared circle kept calling to her and when she finally answered, things fell back into place because they were meant to. Becky Lynch is absolutely meant to be doing this- suplexing women across the ring, ripping their arms off, and leading the way for a whole new generation of women wrestlers and showing them that her ground-based, technical style can be just as cool as flips. Becky gave it all up and then came back with a renewed sense of purpose and passion – and the firm assurance that she was meant to be doing this and she will never forget that again. -C
13. Sara Amato
The thing with a great teacher is that you will never be able to definitively tell where their influence ends.
Hi Sara Amato! We’ll be thanking you forever. She is the first ever female coach at the WWE Performance Center and you could probably make a case that she’s the 5th Horsewoman for her influence on them. Not only is she a driving force and sculptor behind many of your favorite WWE women wrestlers today, but she’s also one of the best American female wrestlers e-v-e-r and not many will ever know that.
Yup, Sara del Rey was a mainstay in the global women’s wrestling scene who trained under Daniel Bryan and had the reputation of a top worker in the world. She traveled the globe learning different wrestling styles and techniques to form a moveset and style that was incredibly smart and diverse.
When asked to join WWE as a trainer, she mimicked her mentor and said ‘yes.’ She knew the significance of women wrestlers learning from a woman and she knew she would have an impact. What’s essential is she recognizes the importance of diversity in performers. She’s meeting these women where they are. She is teaching them to give the best of who they are and to run with their uniqueness. -C
12. Mae Young
By the time Johnnie Mae Young had made her WWF debut in 1999, she had been in the business longer than most of its fans had been alive. Hell, she’d been in the business longer than Vince McMahon had been alive. And yet, Mae could probably still take you in a fight.
The youngest of eight children, she learned to wrestle with the help of her brothers and made the high school boys’ wrestling team at age 15. While still in high school, she took on professional wrestler Gladys Gillem in a shoot fight and beat hear in less than a minute. Promoter Billy Wolfe had seen enough, and convinced Mae to become a pro wrestler herself.
Young debuted during World War II (somewhere 1939 and 1941 depending on who’s telling the story). But it was in a time of tragedy Mae found inspiration: after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, Young became a face for women’s wrestling and helped many women get into the sport.
She would wrestle and train for over a quarter century, joining Mildred Burke’s World Women’s Wrestling Association, become the first ever NWA Florida Women’s Champion, and become the first NWA United States Women’s Champion.
Younger generations of fans know her for her many comedic roles in the WWF. She still fought on the rare occasion, and was not afraid to make fun of herself (i.e. expose herself at the 2000 Royal Rumble—though she didn’t really expose herself... and of course that whole thing with the hand) or put her body in harm’s way. In perhaps her most memorable moment, Mae Young was powerbombed on consecutive weeks on RAW is WAR—first from the second rope, then from the stage.
She would continue to sporadically appear over the next decade, even lacing up the boots at age 86 in November 2010. Her final appearance just before her 90th birthday on an Old School episode of RAW. Post-show, she was presented with a personally monogrammed WWE Divas Championship belt.
Mae died in January 2014 at age 90. She was laid to rest alongside her longtime friend The Fabulous Moolah. Whether it was for her wrestling or her comedy, Mae Young left lasting memories that will be enjoyed for years to come. -E
11. Manami Toyota
If wrestling had an angel, they’d probably name her Manami. Her name does mean love and beauty in Japanese. But heart-stopping good looks doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the legendary joshi.
Gaining a national following in her native Japan after an epic tag team match involving her was included on a four-hour compilation, Manami won her first title, the All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling Championship, at just 18 years of age.
By that time, Toyota was not just good... but really good. Like your mind’s blown away good. Her feud with Toshiyo Yamada gripped AJW throughout 1991 and 1992, But in rivalry came respect, and the two eventually became a team; in fact, after defeating Yamada in a hair versus hair match, Manami had to be physically restrained so that the wager could be paid off.
After another long and heated rivalry with Kyoko Inoue, she would move to her most famous rival, Aja Kong. Top rope Germans, piledrivers on the floor, the occasional bloodbath, and this thing that I hope nobody is even considering doing like ever (it’s called the Victory Star Drop, and it’s doomsday for your head, neck, and spine. I call it WHYFAMWHYWOULDEVENDOTHISTOANOTHERHUMANBEING).
By the end of 1995, Toyota had seventeen matches rated five stars by Wrestling Observer Newsletter and had claimed two Match of the Year honors from the same publication. Plus she won their Most Outstanding Wrestler award (to this day, still the only woman to win the award). Oh, and she finished third for Wrestler of the Year (behind a couple people named Shawn Michaels and Mitsuharu Misawa—that’s some good company).
Even after her home promotion, AJW, shut down in 2005, she still wrestles to this day, and even appeared for a few bouts stateside in 2011 and 2012 for CHIKARA. If you’re a fan of wrestling, Google a Manami Toyota match. Your day will be better for it.
Also, enjoy her while you can. After 30 years in the business, the Flying Angel will retire her wings for good this November. -E
10. Stephanie McMahon
Style and grace. Yep, Stephanie was born into this business and bred for this billion dollar empire. She likely always knew what she was going to do with her life, but she likely didn’t know how.
Well she found her way and the Queendom was formed.
While, at times, her character is wildly inconsistent there is no performer quite like Stephanie. Every single appearance is Stephanie versus a live crowd of 16,000+ people and she more than holds her own. She knows exactly what to do to every crowd to get them to react how she wants. She understands in every segment what she is there to do. She is there to help drive someone else’s story.
You can easily forget ‘this is a mom of three young children who is working to provide for her children’ because she is so freaking despicable and you absolutely loathe this evil tyrant with every fiber of your being. You crave for any form of comeuppance to find her, dammit: her grocery bag breaking and her groceries topple onto the concrete, heel getting stuck in the crack of the sidewalk, the store locking its doors to close for the evening as she strolls up to it.
Wrestling has always been a man’s world and while Stephanie was born in to it, she gives you no choice but to respect her for who she is and how she handles herself. She simply commands authority. She represents the company extremely well as the savvy businesswoman on press tours and media circuits. Women’s wrestling in WWE doesn’t get anywhere without Stephanie deciding it will. She wanted women to be presented better, she knew they had the talent, and she made it happen. -C
9. Mildred Burke
And suddenly, people are taking to their Google like, who’s Mildred Burke? I’ll tell you. Mildred Burke was, for lack of a better term, a BMF.
Burke, real name Mildred Bliss, was an office stenographer by day and a prospective wrestler by night. But promoter Billy Wolfe didn’t want to train Bliss, who really, really, really wanted to wrestle. Billy thought he could get her off his back if he had a male wrestler bodyslam him, but Mildred was like NOPE, and she bodyslammed him. Billy trained her, and eventually the two fell in love and got married and made a lot of money together.
Burke took on over 200 men during the 1930s, but only one man managed to beat her. Late in the decade, she would win the Women’s World Championship from Clara Mortensen and would reign for most of the next 16 years. But the perks of having a promoter for a husband would ultimately prove her downfall. Wolfe was a known womanizer, and often slept with other women. Eventually, the extramarital affairs caught up to the couple and the two split in 1952.
Wolfe essentially held all the cards, and Burke (and her whole sport essentially) was essentially frozen out of the National Wrestling Alliance. In August 1954, Burke took on June Byers for the World Women’s Championship. Byers was Wolfe’s daughter-in-law. The two ended up shooting on one another, and Burke gave up a fall to Byers. The match ended with the second fall still in progress. Mildred believed it was best of three, but the title changed hands anyway.
Mildred’s name became lost in the ether over time, but her legacy would not: she started her own company in the fallout of the whole mess with Wolfe and the NWA, and her championship would become the primary title of All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling in 1970, 14 years after her retirement.
She would finally get her due posthumously, first as an inaugural member of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 1996, then in the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2002, then as an inaugural member of the WWE Hall of Fame’s legacy wing this past year.
Generations of women owe their legacy to Burke. Her toughness, style, and perseverance made her a legend in a sport that wasn’t always accepting of her. -E
8. Wendi Richter
In 2017, it’s not that much of a stretch to argue that the women of World Wrestling Entertainment are just as popular as their male counterparts.
In 1985, this was probably unthinkable, but two women made that possible. One was pop music sensation Cyndi Lauper. The other is the woman she briefly managed, Wendi Richter.
Like many other female wrestlers of her time, she was trained by the Fabulous Moolah. Unlike many female wrestlers of her time, she succeeded in spite of her trainer.
Beginning her career in 1979, Richter would have a years-long feud with Velvet McIntyre that spanned multiple organizations. But it was thanks to the magic of cable television that Richter’s starr took flight.
On July 23, 1984 with a record television audience watching on The Brawl to End it All on MTV, Wendi Richter with pop music sensation Cyndi Lauper in her corner defeated The Fabulous Moolah to end what was billed as the longest championship reign in wrestling history (it wasn’t really, but when one holds the title for all but about two months over 28 years, nobody’s gonna dispute semantics).
The win launched what would become known as “The Rock ‘n Wrestling Connection”. The blend of pop and rock music with professional wrestling helped turn the WWF from regional territory to national superpower.
Wendi would lose the title at the sequel to The Brawl, The War to Settle the Score in February 1985 to Moolah protege Lelani Kai, but she would win it back just over a month later at the very first Wrestlemania. Billed as 150 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal, Richter could be argued she was on a good day on par with Hulk Hogan in terms of star power.
She was in animated form on the short-lived Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n Wrestling, but the reality was far from it. She wasn’t paid like a top star (only $2,500 a week before travel expenses, with her biggest payday being just $5,000), and she made it clear she wanted to be treated like one financially.
Then along came a spider. On November 25, 1985, a masked Fabulous Moolah as the Spider Lady defeated Richter for the WWF Women’s Championship. Well, not so much defeat her as much as screw her out of the belt. Having been done in by both the office and her one-time trainer, Richter packed her bags and left the WWF that night.
Wendi would appear on the indy circuit, World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico, and the AWA back in the States before basically going off the grid in December 1988. She went into occupational therapy, a far cry from kicking ass in the ring.
The 2010 WWE Hall of Famer was for a generation of fans the first woman they could get behind and not feel guilty about it. If only Vince McMahon had chosen exuberance over experience, Wendi surely would have gone down as one of the most celebrated women in company history. -E
7. Bull Nakano
While most people are figuring out what they want to do with their life at sixteen, Keiko “Bull” Nakano was conquering joshis all over Japan.
Debuting for All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling at just age 15, she would win the company’s junior title just a year into her career. Just a year later, she would win the AJW Championship (a rough equivalent to the WWE Intercontinental title) and would hold it for two and a half years. And she won tag team gold with her mentor and fellow monster joshi Dump Matsumoto.
It’s her time with Matsumoto that Nakano created her classic look: the mullethawk with the painted face. The Devils of Japan dominated AJW’s tag team division until Matsumoto retired in 1988. Nakano would continue to dominate, winning the tag titles twice more with two different partners, winning the Japan Grand Prix (AJW’s version of the G1 Climax) and the AJW All-Pacific title in 1989. In 1990, she would win AJW’s top prize, the WWWA World Heavyweight Championship. She would hold it for nearly three years before being defeated by Aja Kong.
After a stop in Mexico (where she would win the CMLL World Women’s Championship), she joined the WWF for a second time (she was there briefly in 1986—you probably missed it as she wrestled only three matches for the company) as part of a rebooted women’s division and would become the chief rival of Alundra Blayze. Though she failed to defeat Blayze for the title at Summerslam in August 1994, she would win the title in her home country of Japan at the mega-event Big Egg Wrestling Universe in November. That would represent the height of her WWF run; she lost the title just after Wrestlemania XI in 1995, and was fired soon after after she was arrested on cocaine possession.
She would take part in the Pyongyang wrestling festival for peace in 1995 (known in the States as Collision in Korea) before joining WCW as part of their fledgling women’s division. She would renew her feud with the former Alundra Blayze (aka Madusa) and was defeated by her at Hog Wild, losing her motorcycle.
Though she retired from wrestling in 1997, she didn’t have her official retirement ceremony until a decade and a half later. In the interim, she made a few spot appearances reuniting with Dump Matsumoto and became a professional golfer.
The one-time “Boss of the World” is by most accounts as sweet a person now as she was frightening back then. These days, she runs a bar. But you almost wouldn’t recognize her if you saw her. -E
6. Sherri Martel
She was a sister, a queen, scary, sensuous, and... Peggy Sue. And she was a Martel, though she had no relation to a model named Rick. Whatever her nickname, Sherri Martel’s career was certainly sensational.
Wanting to get into the wrestling business since her days as Sherri Schrull in Mississippi, Sherri trained under Butch Moore and the Fabulous Moolah, but allegedly her party lifestyle got her kicked out of Moolah’s training school.
Despite that (and a career-threatening injury), she found her calling as a manager in the Tennessee territory managing the Heavenly Bodies. Eventually, she would get back to wrestling, and in September 1985, Sherri Martel won the first of what would be three AWA World Women’s Championships. She would win it twice more over the next year before landing in the WWF.
In her WWF debut on July 24, 1987, she defeated her former teacher the Fabulous Moolah for the WWF Women’s Championship. Four months later, she would take part in the last all-women’s Survivor Series match for more than a decade. By the time she lost the title in October 1988, the women’s division was no longer a priority in the company.
So she went back to managing. Over the next few years, she would manage the likes of the Honky Tonk Man, Randy “Macho Man” Savage, “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase, Shawn Michaels, and Tatanka before being released from the WWF in the summer of 1993.
Though she occasionally wrestled, Sherri spent the remainder of her career as a manager, managing (and later turning on because of course) Sting, Ric Flair, and most notably Harlem Heat, whom she managed to seven of their ten WCW world titles.
Her last notable WWE appearance came in 2005 when she joined Kurt Angle in an “interesting” rendition of Shawn Michaels’ “Sexy Boy”. (Yeah, that’s Sherri’s voice in the beginning of the original version of his theme.) After joining the WWE Hall of Fame in April 2006, she appeared on an episode of Impact that September, offering her managerial services to Bobby Roode.
It would turn out to be her last television appearance. Sherri like many others of her era ultimately succumbed to a common vice associated with the industry, drug abuse. In June 2007, just over a week before Chris Benoit’s double murder-suicide, she was found dead in her mother’s home in McCalla, Alabama. She was 49.
Though she had a solid in-ring career, Sherri will be remembered as one of wrestling’s greatest—and most sensational—managers. -E
5. Sasha Banks
For the next 50 years, wrestling schools around the world will be filled with women. Many of them will show up on day one citing a Sasha Banks match as the reason they are there. Men too.
Whether she was snatching headbands off little girls in the crowd, cranking Charlotte Flair in half through a steel railing, bringing a tough Brooklyn crowd of 15,000 to near tears, or despairingly tapping out with blood streaming down her face after a 35 minute war, chances are in the last 3 years there’s a Sasha Banks moment that you vividly remember.
Oh Sasha. What can we even say?
Women’s wrestling matters and Sasha Banks will be the one to show YOU, whoever you may be, why it matters because 1) she will insist on it being her 2) this is a woman who just gets every aspect of pro-wrestling.
NXT Sasha was initially happy to be there. But she had to be reminded it was getting her nowhere in her ultimate quest to prove why women’s wrestling with Sasha Banks in it was important. She was so desperate for success in this mission that she transformed herself into a cutthroat warrior who called herself a boss and refused to show anyone respect because they were in her way (and a girl gonna push it all out the way). This was how she could get where she wanted to be. This was how she could get where she needed to be. Everything she does is for women’s wrestling and it will always be worth it to her at whatever cost.
It was always her destiny to be bigger and she got fight. She will scratch. She will claw. She will put her body through anything. She will collapse onto the ground in heartfelt sobs. She will mock your elderly father. She will make your daughters cry either because she has manipulated them through perfect sports entertaining to do so or because in her they(we) recognize a common soldier. And she will do it all for women’s wrestling and the chance to be remembered. She lives for this and on a daily basis she fights for this because it is her destiny and it is the breath in her lungs.
Sasha is the personification and constant reminder for us that “sky’s the limit when you never giving in.”
Every little thing she does is magic. Sasha makes frequent references to what happened before her. But we know that because she is here, everything that happens next and in the foreseeable future, will be important because she will make it so, however she has to.
Sky’s the limit when you never giving in. Sasha Banks shows us how. -C
4. Madusa
Kevin Duncan once said none of us should be defined by the worst thing we’ve ever done. If this is true, Debrah Anne Miceli probably would still be in the wrestling business.
The Italian-born Miceli had done more by her 25th birthday than most people would have done in their entire career. She managed AWA world champion Curt Hennig, AWA tag champions Badd Company, and was an AWA women’s champion herself. And that’s just by 1987, just three years into a career that began with Miceli wrestling indie bouts for $5. Just a year later, she would become the first (and for a quarter century, only) woman to win Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s Rookie of the Year award.
In 1989, after a six-week tour with All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling, Miceli, known by this point as Madusa (as in Made in the USA) made even more history by becoming the first foreign wrestler to sign with the company. While many would sink under the intense pressure of working the joshi style, Madusa thrived—big time (in fact, so big time, she cut a pop album. SHE CUT A POP ALBUM.) In 1991, Madusa returned to the States as the “director of covert operations” for Paul E. Dangerously’s Dangerous Alliance.
In 1993, Madusa became the face of a reborn WWF women’s division as Alundra Blayze. She would win their women’s title three times over the next two years. While it was a far cry from what women’s wrestling was doing overseas, at least American audiences got a taste of what the fairer sex could do in the ring. But with the WWF in bad financial shape, anything expendable was on the chopping block, and that included its entire women’s division (a decision only made easier after Aja Kong broke the nose of Chapparita Asari on a live episode of RAW).
So back to that “worst thing we’ve ever done” thing. Just a week after the spinning backfist that got the whole women’s division fired, Debrah as Madusa returned to WCW and in her first act—under threat of unemployment by Eric Bischoff—she junked the title she had held for most of the prior two years. The backlash was massive. It didn’t matter that she was coerced. It didn’t matter that had she not done it, she would have been out of work. She would be a black sheep in the male-dominated world of wrestling.
Her time in WCW was full of ups and downs. She was to be the face of a new women’s division, but the company did practically nothing with it. She would be the first woman to hold their cruiserweight title, but she beat a much-maligned caricature of Jim Ross to do it. She would participate in a tournament for the vacant WCW world title, but would not win a match despite having two shots at it. And there’s the whole thing of shilling cologne in a bikini on PPV.
With WCW bought out in 2001, and the perception of women in wrestling changing around her, Madusa gave up her wrestling boots for monster trucks. And just as she did when she was “Made in the USA” the wrestler, “Made in the USA” the monster truck driver had broken down walls.
And in 2015, she kicked down one last wall: the wall between her and WWE, when she was finally inducted into the company’s Hall of Fame. If monster trucks had a Hall of Fame (it does as it turns out), there will be a place for her there too once she hangs up her driver gloves—which will be the end of this year, by the way. So give her a thanks if you see her this summer.
Maybe Kevin Duncan was right after all. We shouldn’t be defined by the worst thing we’ve ever done. Miceli refused to be defined by that one night in December 1995. Her full story is one of kicking down doors and breaking down walls, and it’s one most anyone, especially an aspiring wrestler, can get behind. -E
3. Lita
For a generation of girls growing up, Lita was them. She wasn’t one of the pretty and polished Divas. She wore baggy pants, she had tattoos, and she was scrappy. She was a vibrant tomboy who wasn’t afraid to get rough and fly high. She fit in with the tough men she hung around with and was an incredibly generous performer who enhanced every act she was a part of. She had a never-say-die attitude and wasn’t afraid to take nasty bumps or make herself look bad for the sake of a story. Whether her face was busted open or the crowd was raining derogatory chants down upon her, you couldn’t keep Lita down.
Lita, alongside Trish Stratus, were the first women to main event Monday Night Raw and Lita did it twice. Lita also faced off against Victoria in the first ever women’s steel cage match. She (and Trish) broke barriers for WWE women and both were incredibly generous performers.
Without Lita, there is no AJ, Alexa, Charlotte, Paige or Sasha. -C
2. Chyna
The ninth wonder of the world was a trailblazer in every sense of the word. In a delicate and awkward time of bras-and-panties matches, Chyna revolutionized what it meant to be a woman wrestler. She was presented differently than all the other women. She was an equal to the men. Through sheer force and presentation, Chyna would not be stopped and she would not be denied.
She proved that not only could women hang with the boys, but they could outwork them and could win against them. She won the Intercontinental Title which was a huge statement from the company for a woman to have a reign with a meaningful belt. She was number one contender for the WWE title, she was in the Royal Rumble, she was in King of the Ring, she was in main events, she was a bodyguard for D-Generation X and remarkably, it all felt right. She was a badass.
It was awe-inspiring to see a woman on TV bask in her strength and not her fragility. She was strong, she was tough, she was female and she was unapologetic about all of it.
She raised the bar for women wrestlers and served as an example for girls that you could do anything a boy could do – and you could do it better. She showed us girls that you weren’t just limited to what people thought you, as a woman, should be.
Chyna paved the way for intergender wrestlers like Candice LeRae taking thumbtack kicks to the face and for moments like Kimber Lee winning the CHIKARA Grand Championship.
There will never be anyone like Chyna again but her impact will be felt forever. Like a girl, indeed. -C
1. Trish Stratus
When you share a birthday with the biggest draw in wrestling history, someone somewhere has something special for you.
Patricia Anne Stratigeas, a longtime wrestling fan, was studying to become a doctor, but a faculty strike in 1997 put those dreams on ice. A year later, Stratigas as a receptionist at a gym had a bit of serendipity land on her lap: a test shoot for MuscleMag International that would later land on the cover and a two-year deal with the magazine. She didn’t totally leave wrestling behind: while working with the magazine, she became the third host of Live Audio Wrestling, a then-local radio show covering the world of wrestling. A year and a half later, her fitness modeling caught the eyes of the WWF, and she would train to become a wrestler.
Debuting as Trish Stratus in March 2000, she would manage the aptly-named T&A (Test and Albert) and Val Venis, but her first big role came early the next year when she was the on-screen mistress of Vince McMahon. The next few months were spent feuding with Stephanie McMahon in a heel-vs-heel feud and barking like a dog in her intimate wear. You’d think anyone with those two lines on their resume, you’d think their upside would be limited at best.
You’d be wrong.
Over the next five and a half years, she would win the WWF/E Women’s Championship seven times, a company record that will likely stand for a long time (though a certain Nature Girl may have something to say about it). Her last reign as a full-time competitor went a staggering 448 days, longer than anyone in the modern era. Hell, she was even hardcore champion for about a minute. She’s been involved in many of the best women’s matches in WWE history, including a main event on RAW with Lita and a featured bout at Wrestlemania 22 with Mickie James.
And here’s perhaps is the biggest part of her legacy: in the decade since Trish Stratus hung up her boots, WWE has tried to catch that lightning in a bottle again. The fitness model/model experiment that became the Divas division over the next few years was an utter disaster. Even with the quality of the women’s division improving in recent years, it will take someone truly special to surpass Trish. Perhaps that woman is on the roster now. Or maybe somewhere down the road in developmental. Or someone who hadn’t laced her boots yet.
Trish could have just coasted on her good looks; she is a beautiful woman. But her wit, charm, athleticism, and savvy business sense made the three-time Babe of the Year and WWE’s Diva of the 2000s not just the most decorated woman in WWE history, but in your minds the most important woman in wrestling history. -E
Ok, have at it. Discuss your results in the comments.