Mildred Burke
She was basically the first popular female wrestler. She came up in a time where she had to fight over 200 male wrestlers because there weren’t many other women in the business. The only reason why she was ever given a chance was because World War I had worn out, killed, or rapidly aged most of the male talent. That and initial nepotism as she married her trainer Billy Wolfe. Once the two divorced years later due to his adultery and emotional abuse, he left along with all of his connections and Mildred was blackballed from the industry. Nevertheless, she went on to hold the NWA women’s title on and off for almost 20 years and inspired the next generation of wrestlers to follow in her footsteps. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be taken nearly as seriously and treated even worse than she was.
The Fabulous Moolah
Oh boy. She was referred to as the grandmother of wrestling up until her death in 2007, but her passing also saw several female wrestlers step forward to expose the awful things she had done to stunt the growth of the women’s division. Similarly to Mildred, she was able to get to the top with the connections of her husband Buddy Lee. He also slept with other upcoming women’s wrestlers except Moolah knew about this the entire time and frankly, didn’t want to sleep with the man who was several years her senior. Eventually she would have so much influence in the industry that any women who wanted to wrestle had to go through her wrestling camp first. Her “training” was mostly having her other proteges beat up the new girls as a way to “make them tougher”. These girls also had to pay her rent, utilities, outfit and make-up costs, travel costs, and any other things she could come up with, as well as 25% of their wrestling money for getting them the jobs. On top of all of this, she would only truly promote girls she liked or thought she could outshine which is how she held onto the WWF women’s title for a total of 28 years. Reminder, this made less sense because now there were actually other women in the business. To top things off, she would would basically pimp out these girls and send them off to have sex with the men in the business despite knowing that some of them were underaged.
Manami Toyota
Now for a story that’s not disturbing, Manami Toyota was one of the hardest working wrestlers of all time. She began wrestling at 16 years old and retired a few years ago in 2017. She is known for taking pride in all of her matches and wrestling out of a passion for the art and not for the stardom that comes with the tiles. She and her long time on screen rival Toshiyo Yamada worked exceptionally well together and gave fans several 5-star matches. In fact, Toyota has accumulated a whopping seventeen 5-star matches, the most of any woman ever. Her exceptional work in Japan was so revered that she was able to break into the American circuit and win the title.
Chyna 
Known to most as the ninth wonder of the world, Chyna was a cultural icon with a troubling personal life. She struggled a lot with body dysmorphia and eating disorders as well as alcoholism and a drug addiction that would go on to take her life. Wrestling and bodybuilding were her ways of escaping her issues and avenues where she “finally felt confident”. Her bodybuilding work caught the eyes of the wrestling industry and led to her being trained and then hired by the WWE. She began as a bodyguard for D’Generation X which was then the popular tag team of Shawn Michaels and Triple H. She went on to become the first woman to compete in the King of the Ring tournament, the first to compete in a Royal Rumble Match, and the only woman to ever hold the Intercontinental championship. She was especially proud of her photos taken for Playboy which went on to be a number one selling issue of the magazine, redefining what was thought to be the beauty standards at the time. She is respected by many and fans hope to one day see her inaugurated into the WWE Hall of Fame.
Jacqueline
Speaking of the Hall of Fame, Jaqueline Moore aka Jacqueline aka Jackie helped carry the fading women’s division during the Diva’s Era of the 2000s. She was the first African American women’s champion and the first African American woman to be inducted into the aforementioned Hall of Fame. She was also loved by many of the other talents backstage and known for being humble despite her success. Other minority wrestlers including Naomi, Tamina, and Sasha Banks have all credited her career as one of the reasons why they felt confident enough to get into wrestling. She’s also a third degree black belt in taekwondo so that’s cool too!
Thunder Rosa
Nowadays, the company on everyone’s lips is AEW, the first company in decades that’s been able to go toe to toe with the WWE. The current women’s champion of the company is Thunder Rosa who shares ties to all of those that came before her, except Moolah thankfully. Like Mildred, she’s also held the NWA title. Like Manami, she began her career in another country and was able to get over with the American audience as well. Like Chyna, she uses wrestling as a way to build her own confidence as well as the confidence of others. She’s also been a source of representation for minority wrestlers as well. With stars like Rosa in the forefront of a division that is finally being taken seriously, I have hope that women’s wrestling will soon be treated the same as men’s.
