We men are dopes sometimes. Wrestling promoters spent over 50 years promoting “plus midgets and the girls” on their cards that they seldom thought to see if they actually could work. During the '80s, each promotion had one or two solid valets and WWE had a semblance of a division. The '90s brought…well, you know, the Attitude Era and all its glory, which unfortunately didn't have many prominent or appropriate spots for female performers.
With each generation of female workers brought a couple of barrier breakers along with it. Fit Finlay and the crop of girls from the Ruthless Aggression Era began to start sneaking in real wrestling moves into their bra and panties matches, edging us ever so closer to what we have now, where the women are close to equal on the card.
10 Rockin’ Robin
As a second-generation star, Rockin’ Robin endured a ton of hardship on her way to the ring. But once she got there, she was every bit the in-ring worker that her brothers Jake Roberts and Sam Houston were. She would also win the WWE Women’s Title and officially held the gold for 501 days before the title was deactivated.
Robin even had a rare “forbidden door” match against IWA's Madusa Miceli. This was a "champions vs champions" match with Robin defending the WWE Women's Title against Miceli's IWA World Title. The match took place in May 1991 while her women's title was deactivated in February 1990.
9 The Jumping Bomb Angels
Long before the WWE reintroduced the women’s tag team titles, Judy Martin and Lelani Kai were ruling the roost as The Glamour Girls. They had an iron grip on the titles too until they ran up against Japanese imports, Noriyo Tateno and Itsuki Yamakazk, The Jumping Bomb Angels.
The duo was pulling off moves that would innovate the sport for the next 20 years. At the first Royal Rumble, they were able to topple the Glamour Girls for two-out-of-three falls to win the tag team titles.
8 Bull Nakano
When Madusa came to the WWE to become Alundra Blayze, there weren’t many great women wrestlers in the Western Hemisphere that could pose a big threatening challenge to the Women’s Champion. The champion looked to the East and suggested to WWE that they start bringing in hard-hitting females from Japan. Bull Nakano was that big nasty heel who also had an intriguing look. The flat top and lightning bolt facepaint matched with her unique skill set, some moves still haven’t been seen in America to this day, one of which was co-opted by Paige for her PTO submission hold.
7 The Sensational Sherri
There probably isn’t an '80-'90s wrestling fan on the planet who doesn’t know about the contributions of Sherri Martel as a manager of champions to the likes of Ted DiBiase, The Harlem Heat, and of course the Sensational Queen to The Macho King. But she was also an in-ring competitor ahead of her time for a long time. Her move set was filled with basic moves now like a suplex and a big splash, but the way she pulled them off had a voracity the likes of which was not seen before.
6 Velvet McIntyre
In an era where hair tosses out of the corner were the big high-impact moves of the time, Velvet McIntyre was bringing a big-time offense. Velvet (no relation to Drew) was wrestling barefoot just like the Von Erichs were and long before Riddle was seen bro-ing around. For anyone that thinks her moves were tame - just watch Cesaro in the ring. Her last name might be McIntyre, but it’s The Swiss Superman that bears more of a likeness thanks to their shared usage of big-time elbows and the giant swing.
5 Nidia
The first-ever winner of Tough Enough became a decent competitor in her own right. During a time when the girls weren’t thought of as big-time competitors, she worked hard to learn both the in-ring and entertainment aspects of the sports entertainment business.
Her time was short, but she had a memorable program with Jamie Noble involving both Tajiri and Rey Mysterio.
4 The Women Of G.L.O.W.
On the big stages of both WCW and the WWE during the late '80s, there wasn’t much action with the girls. So the girls went and made their own promotion. GLOW, the Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling had to present their show more as a sitcom type of broadcast, but that doesn’t mean that the women weren’t badass competitors in the ring. All trained by Mondo Guerrero, each of the ladies learned how to put on some decent matches. Some of the standouts were Matilda The Hun, Bambi, Mountain Fiji, and Tina Ferrari, who fans know better as Ivory.
3 Cherry
On the independent circuit during the early aughts, Kara Slice was making a decent name for herself. It earned her a developmental contract and a spot on the main roster as a valet to Deuce And Domino as a roller-skating, poodle skirt wearing Cherry. She was able to lead them to tag team glory before they ditched her for Maryse. Her singles career wound up not being as long as she’d like, but she does have the footnote of having Natalya’s first match on the roster.
2 Brooke Tessmacher
Despite TNA having a legacy of being the “they’re still in business” opinion from fans, they did a pretty good job of building up the women’s division long before the WWE was building their own up.
In WWE, Brooke Adams was delicious eye candy alongside Kelly Kelly and Layla El. However, she learned a move or two in TNA and became one of the better reasons to watch TNA as Brooke Tessmacher.
1 Sara Del Ray
Casual fans might not know the name of Sara Del Ray. But thanks to her career on the Indy scene during the early aughts, she was hired by WWE. She came on board as a trainer for their then-new Performance Center. Yes, all of the women we see today are incredibly skilled in the ring, but they’ve all been through the training for Sara Del Ray. Without her guidance, there’s no telling how the Women’s Evolution might have turned out.