5 most iconic WWE wrestlers of all time
By Chad Porto
Trish Stratus
When you look at icons in pro wrestling, the first thirty names are going to be men’s. That’s nothing we can change. For 80-odd years the world of professional wrestling has been powered and promoted by men, so it makes sense that women wouldn’t crack the top parts of the list just yet. With regards to drawing power, tickets sold, merchandise moved and general impact on the sport, that’s been a predominantly male-dominated area.
Yet it would feel incomplete if we did a list of the most iconic wrestlers and didn’t acknowledge at least one woman. That’s why Trish Stratus was added to the list. Now, why Stratus and not someone else?
Well, you have Chyna, but despite her boundary-breaking career, it was brief. A flash in the pan that was her life. You wouldn’t dub Jeremy Lin a Hall of Famer for that one part of a season, would you? That was Chyna’s general impact on pro wrestling. Fleeting.
You have Fabulous Moolah and Mae Young. While Young is a beloved and celebrated wrestler in her time, she was never a huge draw or a big get for most promotions. Moolah, on the other hand, was. That said, Moolah is a real-life monster who abused her students, so see-ya.
Of course, you have the women of the WWE today, with the likes of Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair one day being in the top parts of this list but right now are still paving their way.
So the pick is Stratus. Stratus’ career wasn’t that long as an active, full time, wrestler. From 2000 to the start of 2002, she was largely a non-wrestler, and then from the rest of 2002 to 2006, she was one of a handful of women to actually get showcased as a wrestler. Her match with Lita to the main event RAW in 2004 is still regarded a seminal moment for women’s wrestling in the WWE.
Stratus came in with a slew of other fitness models and the like but Stratus’ athleticism and natural charisma made her stand out from the run-of-the-mill models. She earned fans respect with her matches that were better than anyone else at the time in the WWE. While women were being used as a side-show act, or as a tag-along for a male wrestler, Stratus was being made to feel like a legitimate star.