The five most influential women wrestlers of this generation
Women’s wrestling went through a drastic change during the last decade. Most professional wrestling fans saw the difference in the WWE, where the Women’s Evolution ended the Divas’ Era and initially changed the perception of women’s wrestling in the promotion.
WWE can’t take all the credit for the change of perception in women’s wrestling in North America. Impact Wrestling had always made it their point to ensure the women on their roster got as much time as the men. Another professional wrestling company that made sure its women’s division was getting the proper treatment is Lucha Underground. All Elite Wrestling is now in the spotlight as fans call for them to feature more women across the roster. In this article, I will discuss this generation’s five influential women wrestlers.
The Five most influential women wrestlers of this generation
5. Asuka
In 2010, before she was in WWE, Asuka had made a name for herself in Japan by putting on some of the most remarkable women’s matches. She made one of the first new signee appearances in the crowd at NXT Takeover Brooklyn, and Triple H soon announced her to the NXT audience as the future of the NXT brand.
Asuka is best known for her time in NXT, where she held the NXT Women’s championship for 522 days. Asuka’s wrestling style has helped push the current WWE product forward regarding women champions being built as a threat to the women’s roster.
4. Tessa Blanchard
Tessa Blanchard is the daughter of wrestling legend Tully Blanchard and has proven that she can also go in the ring. A lot of wrestling fans first introduced Tessa in 2017 when she was in the Mae Young tournament that the WWE had. She would get eliminated by Kari Sane in a good match, and despite that, she still wasn’t signed by the WWE.
Blanchard would sign with Impact Wrestling in 2018, showing the world that she was ready to be a star in Impact wrestling. She would win the Impact Knockouts Championship soon after debuting and enter into an acclaimed feud with Gail Kim, eventually pushing her to feud with male wrestlers. Sami Callihan and Blanchard would start a rivalry that would ultimately make news around the world of professional wrestling because Tessa would become the first woman since Chyna to go regularly against the men in the US. Tessa would become Impact World champion and make more headlines for her backstage behavior.
3. SEXY STAR
Tessa Blanchard gets a lot of credit for wrestling men in Impact Wrestling and becoming Impact world champion, but that groundbreaking moment belongs to Lucha Underground wrestler Sexy Star. Sexy Star was part of Lucha Underground and wrestled against men regularly on their programming and would beat them. Sexy Star would win the Lucha Underground Championship in an Aztec Warefare match and win the Gift of the Gods title in a game with six male wrestlers.
2. Charlotte Flair
Three of the Four Horsewomen of NXT made impactful debuts on Monday Night Raw within the last decade and changed everything. When Charlotte Flair made her way to the main roster, Nikki Bella was the top woman in the company leading the Diva era.
When Flair debuted, she was the leader from the start. No one won more titles in the last decade than Flair, who captured the NXT women’s twice, the Diva’s title once, the Raw women’s title six times, and the SmackDown women’s title six times. She, along with Sasha Banks, had first-time matches in a Hell in a Cell and a Fall’s Count Anywhere match, and she was part of the first WrestleMania main event to feature women. Charlotte’s Flair is one of the essential pieces regarding the women’s revolution.
1. Sasha Banks
Sasha Banks began her professional wrestling training at 18 and worked on the independent scene before signing with the WWE in 2012. It was Sasha’s Childhood dream to become a WWE wrestler.
Banks would make her WWE debut on the NXT brand and perform all-time classics against Bayley in Brooklyn. The two would continue to make history in NXT. Banks’s feud with Flair in 2016 is still discussed today because they had so many first-ever moments for women’s wrestling, such as being the main event of a PPV and entering Hell in a Cell.
Banks became one-half of Bayley’s first-ever Women’s Tag Team Champions in 2019. Sasha has won the Women’s Championship six times in her career. Last year, Banks and Bianca Belair made history when they were the first two black women to the main event at Wrestlemania. Banks has won awards from ESPN, Sports Illustrated, CBS Sports, and PWI. Banks’ popularity has allowed her to crossover to mainstream media as she’s featured in commercials, walking red carpets, regularly making outside appearances, and has a recurring role on The Mandalorian television series that is part of the Star Wars franchise.