WWE Evolution 2018: Top Ten Most Successful Female Wrestlers
Photo credit: WWE.com
#3: The Fabulous Moolah
Moolah started wrestling professionally in 1949. She wrestled for various promotions through out her history, dealing with sexism, racism, and financial hardships due to a tumultuous partnership with her ex-promoter, Billy Wolfe.
Despite the adversity, Moolah went on to accomplish a lot for women’s wrestling, getting to compete against Mae Young, Cecilia Blevins, and Mildred Burke along the way. Before working under Vince Jr. at WWF, Moolah worked with Vince Sr., and was known as the “First Goddess of the Squared Circle”.
She was the first women allowed to wrestle at Madison Square Garden, even though New York State had placed a ban on women wrestling, at the time. Moolah helped lift the ban, which the New York State Athletic Commission did in June 1972.
In 1983, Moolah joined WWF, participating in the Rock ‘N’ Wrestling Connection. While there, she was a team captain at the first Survivor Series in 1987, and after selling the rights to the Women’s World Championship to Vince Jr. for use at WWF, won the first WWF Women’s Championship, which she held four times.
She left WWF for a brief time, and returned in 1998, noting the sad state of the new women’s division. Moolah stuck around, though, and was the oldest champion in the history of professional wrestling after winning the WWE Women’s Championship in 1999 at the age of 76 at No Mercy.
She continued on her streak, and became the first octogenarian to compete in a WWE ring, proving age was just a number. Moolah even had the pleasure of being RKO’d by Randy Orton, and survived.
Moolah’s last appearance was at Survivor Series in Aug. 2007.
The Fabulous Moolah was the first women to ever be inducted into the Hall of Fame, when she was listed in the class of 1995. In 2010, WWE recognized her as the number 43 best wrestler ever.
Despite Moolah’s long legacy of firsts and her ever-lasting support for women’s wrestling, Moolah faced tremendous backlash amidst allegations of financial and sexual exploitation of women wrestlers underneath her during her days as a wrestling trainer. Compared to a pimp, women came out in strong numbers against Moolah and her status as a Hall of Famer, stating that she committed more travesties against women’s wrestling than she did help it.
Though her history makes her a conflicting choice for this ranking, to avoid bias, Moolah remains within the ranks solely on statistics.
The Stats
-Four title reigns
-21 years of active wrestling within WWE territories
-49 matches recorded
-75.51 percent win record
-Four pay-per-view matches