10 Greatest Female Wrestlers In Lucha Libre History

Written By Alfredo Esparza

Women’s wrestling in Mexico has had an interesting history. In Box y Lucha’s 1967 Annual that looked back at the best of the year 1966, when awarding Luchadora of the Year to Chabela Romero, they provided some info on what was the history of women’s wrestling in Mexico at that time that I translated.

The first women’s matches featuring Mexican luchadoras happened in 1955 with Jack O’Brien behind it as he was part of PUM (Promotores Unidos Mexicanos). O’Brien was joined by other promoters including Giraldo del Hierro, Elias Simon, Chucho Garza Hernandez and Javier Samano.

The idea came from Jack O’Brien, who was also the trainer for the women. This idea came about when O’Brien remembered the great entrances (draws) that shows featuring North American female wrestlers had when they visited Mexico City going back to the first visit in September 1942 which included the Women’s World Champion at that time Mildred Burke, along with Susan Paul, Betty Garvey and Mae Young. They wrestled in Arena Mexico on three occasions on September 4, 13, and 18. In 1945, Mildred Burke, Mae Young, Nellie Stewart, June Byers and Rosa Evans wrestled in Mexico City. In 1948, Mae Young, Betty Dotson, Violet Wolf and Lilian Ellison traveled to Mexico. Their final visit was in 1950 due to the new order prohibiting women’s wrestling in Mexico City.

The ban on women’s wrestling in Mexico City which started in the late 1950s would go on for about 30 years with the ban coming to an end in the mid-1980s. For several years there were attempts by the wrestlers and referees unions to get the Mexico City ban overturned. Those in charge put referee Baby Richard in charge of working this out. It took EMLL/CMLL boss Paco Alonso’s involvement to overturn the ban and would lead to the return of women’s wrestling in Mexico City on December 14, 1986 with women appearing on an EMLL show in Arena Mexico.

Throughout that time Promociones Mora (UWA/LLI) would have women on their shows. Several of the top Mexican women would even wrestle outside of Mexico for All Japan Women and other promotions including several in the Southwest/West Coast regions of the United States.

Once the ban in Mexico City was over, EMLL/CMLL would have women’s matches on some of their shows but they weren’t as prominent on them with some occasional appearances. They did have title and stipulation matches and brought in several stars from Japan for matches. You wouldn’t really notice women’s wrestling as much early on when EMLL was on TV especially for those of us in the U.S. watching on Galavision.

AAA’s formation was really when fans started seeing women’s wrestling televised frequently. The Moreno sisters, Martha Villalobos, Lola Gonzalez, Neftali, Las Brujas, Estrellita later the arrivals of Fabi & Mari Apache, Sexy Star, Taya Valkyrie, Lady Shani and many others.

This would later lead to CMLL rebooting their own women’s division in 2005 and that really became the point in time were the top two promotions in Mexico would now have women wrestling on their shows. There’s also more women wrestling on the independents and some women-only independent promotions in Mexico.

So now we countdown to the 10 Greatest Female Wrestlers in Lucha Libre History.

Honorable Mention: Pantera Sureña, Vicky Carranza, Irma Aguilar, Princesa Sugehit, Vickie Williams, La Dama Enmascarada, Esther Moreno, Mari Apache, and Natalia Vasquez!

10. Amapola

The top and best working ruda in CMLL in the 2000s. She’s been in CMLL since before they re-started the women’s division to feature women’s matches more frequently on their shows. Had the longest reign as CMLL Women’s Champion starting in late 2007 and ending in late 2011 at the hands of her long-time rival Marcela. She lost her mask to Dark Angel and later lost hair matches to Lady Apache and Estrellita. She also won a pair of hair matches against Diana La Cazadora and Kaho Kobayashi.

9. Martha Villalobos

The most charismatic ruda in Mexican wrestling history. Very popular with fans and at times in the late ’80s she would join the commentary team to call matches. She’s kind of a cross between Dump Matsumoto and a fun-loving punk rocker. While her ring work was not quite the level of others listed, she could bump for the quicker tecnicas and she knew her role well as a ruda. She won numerous hair matches including against La Sirenita, Pantera Sureña, Briosa, and Rossy Moreno. She’s held the AAA Reina de Reinas, Mexican National Women, National Women’s Tag Team and other territory titles throughout her career.

8. Rossy Moreno

Part of the Moreno family with her father (Alfonso “Acorazado” Moreno), brother (El Oriental), sisters (Alda, Cynthia & Esther) , sons (Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. & Galeno del Mal), ex-husbands, and who knows how many more family members have wrestled. She held several titles throughout her career including the National Women’s & AAA Reina de Reina titles. She’s wrestled in AAA, CMLL, Promociones Mora (UWA/LLI) and various independent promotions throughout Mexico. Rossy was also part of two of the most memorable trios in women’s wrestling in Mexico as part of Las Monjas Asesinas (The Nun Assassins) with Lola Gonzalez and Rosa Maria and Las Brujas (The Witches) in AAA with Miss Janeth and Xochitl Hamada.

7. Marcela

One of CMLL’s top tecnicas in the 2000s and one of the more skilled female wrestlers of all-time. In her prime, Marcela’s speed and athleticism set her apart from most of the women wrestling at that time. She mostly wrestled in Japan and as an independent in Mexico early in her career with a few appearances in CMLL but when CMLL decided to push their women’s division, Marcela was a key part of that . She has held the Distrito Federal Women’s, Mexican National Women’s, and the CMLL Women’s (5x) Titles. Among the hair and mask matches she’s won, she’s beaten Dalys, Tiffany, La Seductora and Princesa Blanca.

6. Lady Apache

Might be the best all-around female wrestler from Mexico from the 1990s thru the mid-2000s. When one thinks of women’s wrestling in Mexico during the 1990s odds are Lady Apache is the first name mentioned because it always seemed that she was the one that would pop-up on TV whenever CMLL had that one women’s match that would get televised. She’s had success in CMLL, AAA, and as an independent throughout her career. Lady Apache also traveled numerous times to Japan and the U.S. She was part of CMLL’s reboot of their women’s division in 2005 but left rather quickly. She’s held the AAA Reina de Reinas, CMLL World Women’s, National Women’s, Distrito Federal Women’s, the AAA Mixed Tag Team titles (w/ Eleectroshock) and countless other titles across the independents.

5. Dark Angel

The only foreign female on the list and while there were several others who enjoyed some level of success in Mexico including some of the early pioneer women like Mildred Burke, June Byers, Mae Young and in later years with Vickie Williams, La Monster (Monster Ripper), Bull Nakano, Reina Jubuki (Akira Hokuto) and countless others, none remained in Mexico for the extensive amount of time that Dark Angel did. She spent about 11 years and was one, if not the main reason CMLL decided to put more focus on a women’s division. She had the right combination of looks and wrestling ability to win over CMLL crowds. While she never won a major title in CMLL, she did win the mask of one of her biggest rivals, Amapola. CMLL thought of her so highly that when she announced that she was leaving CMLL on August 26, 2015, CMLL decided to give her a farewell match against Princesa Sugehit at the 82nd Anniversary show as a way to honor her career with the promotion and thank her for her contributions to lucha libre and women’s wrestling in Mexico.

4. Fabi Apache

The best luchadora in AAA’s history. Fabi has competed and had success against both women and men while in AAA and on the independents. She’s held the AAA Reina de Reinas title on three occasions and the AAA World Mixed Tag Team titles four times. She was also part of arguably AAA’s best telenovela-type storyline in the early 2000s that featured herself, her father (Gran Apache), sister (Mary Apache), ex-husband Billy Boy, her son baby Marvin and countless others including Sexy Star and Brandon from Los Warriors. The family feud storyline would lead to several hair matches involving the family including Faby Apache beating both Mary Apache and Billy Boy in hair matches. Fabi also lost a couple of controversial hair matches to Sexy Star were she didn’t get her head shaved but just got a short haircut and most recently at the 2018 Triplemania to Lady Shani.

3. Chabela Romero

One of the first big stars in women’s wrestling in Mexico. There was a ban on women’s wrestling in Mexico City which forced female wrestlers to make their name on the outskirts of that city and the rest of the country. Romero ended up having a great career as she would also travel quite a bit to Japan and work for All Japan Women during the 1970s and early 1980s. She held the Mexican National Women’s title three times as well as the UWA World Women’s title and the WWWA All-Pacific Title. Her rivalry with Irma Gonzalez led to them having numerous title matches and three hair matches.

2. Lola Gonzalez

Lola “La Dinamita” was the most popular luchadora of the 1980s. Lucha magazines would have her photos on numerous issues from being on the cover, the back cover, poster or small feature story. Whether she westled as a ruda or tecnica, Lola excelled in the ring wrestling throughout Mexico as well as Japan, the United States and other countries. She wrestled for UWA, CMLL, AAA, All Japan Women and made appearances for World Class Championship Wrestling. Among the numerous titles she’s held, Lola was a 4x UWA World Women’s Champion. She won several hair and mask matches including against Vicky Carranza, Pantera Sureña (mask & hair), Vicky Williams, Sirenita and Zuleyma.

1. Irma Gonzalez

One of the pioneers for Mexican women in pro wrestling as she was among a group of women who were trained by Jack O’Brien. That first group also included Chabela Romero and La Dama Enmascarada. Much like Chabela Romero, she was a star in women’s wrestling in Mexico at a time when women were not allowed to wrestle in Mexico City. This didn’t stop Gonzalez from succeeding as she wrestled throughout Mexico and wrestled worldwide including for All Japan Women, NWA and World Class Championship Wrestling. Irma had a career that spanned 40 years as she debuted in 1955 and retired in 1996. She held the Mexican National title 4x and also held the UWA World Women’s title (2x) and teamed with her daughter Irma Aguilar to win the National Women’s Tag Team titles. She won several hair and mask matches throughout her career including wins over La Dama Enmascarada (mask), Chabela Romero, Marina Rey, & Chela Salazar.

———————————–

QMee – Earn Rewards & Cash