The history of women in professional wrestling is a long and storied one, filled with pioneers, challenges, and triumphs. From its early days in carnivals and circuses to the modern era of WWE and independent promotions, women have fought for recognition and respect in a male-dominated industry.
Mildred Burke, a pioneer in women's wrestling
Early Pioneers and the "Golden Age"
Modern professional wrestling was born in the late nineteenth century. One of wrestling’s first famous women was Mildred Burke, a circus-born strongwoman at the precipice of a new wave. Really, pro wrestling in itself began on the carnival circuit. You’d have amateur wrestlers and carnies and everything else. They would do little contests where they’d have a traveling carnival, who could stay in the ring with the champion for the longest bit of time. And some of the carnivals began having women in that role.
It wasn’t until Billy Wolfe began to build up a stable of women wrestlers that would challenge Mildred Burke, who was his wife at the time, in the 1930s up until the 1950s-the stable of women wrestlers he built up became really kind of his own personal harem through the years, and there’s a lot of crazy details and back-biting and politics going on with them-but together they captured the attention of the country. Post World War II, and you had the nation looking for some type of entertainment, and it was just this very odd thing at the time.
They were not on the same shows and the same events as the men, because a lot of the men thought that it would ruin the credibility of pro wrestling to have women doing it. In the TV show, one of the characters has a dad who’s a legendary wrestler, and he tells her that it’s a freak show, basically. The women wrestlers were, like they said, treated like the midgets, in that they were a good little novelty match.
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The Rise of WWE and the "Diva Era"
Throughout its history, women have served in various onscreen roles in the American professional wrestling promotion WWE. In 1983, The Fabulous Moolah, who was the NWA World Women's Champion and legal owner of the title, joined the WWF and sold them the rights to the title after they disaffiliated from the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and recognized her as the first WWF Women's Champion. The following year, music artist Cyndi Lauper began a verbal feud with her manager "Captain" Lou Albano; this brought professional wrestling into mainstream culture in a storyline that became known as the "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection". Moolah lost the title at The Brawl to End It All, broadcast live on MTV.
In the summer of 1985, the WWF did a storyline where all established managers in the promotion competed to offer their services to Randy Savage. Savage revealed his new manager to be Miss Elizabeth on the August 24, 1985, edition of WWF Prime Time Wrestling. In 1988, Miss Elizabeth was given the title "First Lady of the World Wrestling Federation" due to her being the first woman in World Wrestling Federation history to manage the World Wrestling Federation champion. The first Survivor Series pay-per-view saw the first female elimination match.
In 1994, WWF signed Sunny as a manager for Chris Candido, becoming considered as the first WWF Diva. At first, the characters were a continuation of the WWE female manager, but became more sexualized as time progressed. Sable became the first WWF female talent to refer to herself as a "Diva" during the April 19 episode of Raw Is War in 1999; the term shortly thereafter became the official title for WWF's female performers.
The year 2000 saw the debuts of Lita, Trish Stratus and Molly Holly. Finally, the spring of 2001 saw the WWF's purchase of its chief competitors, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), and the consequent entry of former WCW and ECW female talent, such as Stacy Keibler, Torrie Wilson, Jazz, and Sharmell.
The WWE women's division competed in more match-ups previously contested only by men (including for the Women's Championship), such as street fights and hardcore matches. Numerous Divas competed in contests ranging from "Pillow Fights" and "Bra and Panties" match-ups to "Bikini Contests", which were based more on the sexual appeal of the women involved. WWE eventually re-introduced the Diva Search, in which Christy Hemme became the inaugural winner.
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WWE’s Attitude Era (approximately 1997-2002) embraced boundary-pushing storylines, including a match type in which victory was achieved by stripping an opponent down to their undergarments. This match type became emblematic of the Attitude Era’s boundary-pushing content before WWE transitioned to PG programming.
| Championship | Years |
|---|---|
| Original WWE Women’s Championship | 1956-2010 |
| WWF Women’s Tag Team Championship | 1983-1989 |
| Divas Championship | 2008-2016 |
| NXT Women’s Championship | 2013 - Present |
| WWE Women’s Championship | 2016 - Present |
| Women’s World Championship | 2016 - Present |
| WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship | 2019 - Present |
| NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship | 2021 - 2023 |
| NXT Women’s North American Championship | 2024 - Present |
The Women's Evolution
At WrestleMania 32 in 2016, WWE announced their discontinuation of the "Diva" branding for its female performers, as part of a move to present them in an athletic manner more in line with their male counterparts, rather than in a means based around sex appeal. The promotion began to refer to them using the "Superstar" title it uses for male performers, and established a new WWE Women's Championship to replace the WWE Divas Championship. Subsequently, women's matches were featured more prominently across their programming, which included more frequent main event positions.
The women of WWE are making history and breaking barriers. Women are now judged more for their in-ring performance and promo skills than their physical appearances. 2024 has shown me that the future of women’s wrestling is bright; WWE fans are now just as ecstatic to see a women’s match as a men’s match, which was not the case even 10 years ago I feel.
Last year WWE for the first time ever main-evented one of their pay-per-views with a women’s match. And since then, women have been one of the focal points of their TV. It’s no longer just T&A, to be honest.
Examples of Impactful Women in Wrestling
* Chyna: Chyna first rose to prominence in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 1997, where she was billed as "The Ninth Wonder of the World" She held the WWF Intercontinental Championship (the only female performer they wrote to do so) twice and the WWF Women's Championship once. She was also the first woman to participate in the Royal Rumble match and King of the Ring tournament, in addition to becoming number one contender to the WWF Championship.* Gail Kim: Korean-Canadian professional wrestler known for her work for WWE and TNA. Made her TV debut in a battle royal for the WWE Women's Title on the June 30, 2003 "WWE RAW," helping Victoria eliminate Trish Stratus and then eliminating Victoria herself to win the match and the title. Over her various runs in TNA, she has held the TNA Knockouts Title six times, matched only by Angelina Love, and the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Title once with Madison Rayne.* Amy Weber: She is best known for her time in WWE as a WWE Diva on the show Smackdown. Amy was also a star on the hit F/X show "Son of the Beach" produced by Howard Stern.The Insane Evolution of Women’s Wrestling #wwe #aew #highlights #wrestling #womenswrestling
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