411’s WWE 50 Greatest Women Superstars (#10 – 6) Report

-We are getting towards the end and at this point we know the 10 women left. Now it’s just a matter of seeing who gets ranked where. In the first episode they did mention they would have segments spotlighting women from before the Modern Era (93-Present) and women who weren’t used for in ring work and we haven’t gotten that yet. Curious if that happens on this episode. Let’s get to it!

-As a quick reminder the WWE stated this list was a ranking of women from the Modern Era (1993-Present).

-Sarah Schreiber welcomes us back to the 4th episode in this series.

10: Bayley
-2 Time SmackDown Women’s Champion; RAW Women’s Champion; NXT Women’s Champion

-Huh, I thought she might be a little higher. The first of the 4 Horsewomen to pop up on this list. Bayley has won every Title in the WWE and the only thing missing from her resume would be a Royal Rumble win. Bayley grew up as a wrestling fan and followed her dream to NXT in 2013. She instantly became an adored fan favorite with her hugger gimmick. Takeover Brooklyn: Sasha vs Bayley which may be the greatest woman’s match in WWE history and just one of the best matches in WWE period. Bayley knocked off Banks to win the NXT Title and at the next special her and Sasha had the first Iron Woman Match in WWE history. She was the last of the Horsewomen to get to the main roster and from there she beat Charlotte to win the RAW Women’s Title. Her reign included a successful defense at WrestleMania. She made history again when she and Sasha won an Elimination Chamber match to become the first WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. From there she won MITB and cashed in the same night to win the SmackDown Women’s Title. After losing the title to Charlotte, Bayley turned to the dark side (including slaughtering the Bayley Buddies) to get the title back. She then dominated the division as she held the title for a record 380 days. During the reign she also became Bayley Dos Straps as she won the Tag Titles with Banks for a second time. They show Austin telling Bayley that she will end up in the Hall of Fame one day. This list is going to be fun and it is interesting how they rank these final 10 as the women from this era have certainly had more opportunities to pad their resumes with Tag Titles, MITB, Royal Rumble, etc.

9: Ronda Rousey
-RAW Women’s Champion; Main Evented WrestleMania; UFC Hall of Famer

-Well, this should ease the anger from some who were getting upset she would end up in the Top 5. This seems about right as yes, her run was short, but it was a hell of a run that broke down doors. Rousey of course came from the UFC world, but always hung on the outside of the wrestling world as a fan. She made her official WWE debut at Royal Rumble 2018 and her in ring debut at WrestleMania 34. She teamed with Angle against HHH and Steph in a show stealing match that delivered more than anyone expected. Everyone played their part perfectly including HHH selling his ass off for Ronda. Steph tapped in quick manner to give Ronda the shine in her debut. From there it was only a matter of time before Rousey won the RAW Women’s Title and she destroyed Bliss in short order to claim it. Ronda ran through challenger after challenger and the first all Women’s PPV was headlined by Rousey defending against Nikki Bella. Sorry, but that PPV doesn’t happen without Rousey headlining. Ronda soon found herself being booed by the fans as Becky Lynch caught fire and Ronda rolled with it as she turned heel. Her promo before attacking Charlotte and Lynch was great. “Damn you fantasies, damn the man, screw the Woo, and no more Mrs. Nice Bitch,” before beating the piss out of both of them. Awesome! The three way brawl with the police in the back was also great as they made you feel they all hated each other. That lead to WrestleMania 35 being headlined by Rousey vs Lynch vs Charlotte for RAW and SmackDown Women’s Championships. Again, short run, but full of memorable moments.

8: Lita
-4 Time WWE Women’s Champion; WWE Hall of Famer

-Here is one half of the one two punch that helped the rise of the WWE Women’s Division during and following the Attitude Era. Lita made her debut as a valet for Essa Rios (I guess they aren’t going to mention her short ECW run) and got over more than Rios because of her daredevil, high flying style. Soon she was paired up with The Hardy Boyz and Team Extreme was born! Lita won her first WWE Women’s Title from Stephanie McMahon on RAW with The Rock as the special ref. I mean, having THE ROCK count the pin and hand you a World Title is pretty awesome! Lita vs Trish! Amazing rivalry between the two and it didn’t matter who was the heel or the face. They made history when their WWE Women’s Title match was the Main Event on RAW. Great match with a hot crowd and I still don’t know how Lita didn’t break her neck on the dive to the floor. Another first as she competed in the first Women’s Steel Cage Match in WWE history against Victoria. Lita took her rightful place in the WWE Hall of Fame in 2014 and has made surprise appearances in the Royal Rumble and teamed with Trish at Evolution.

-Back to Sarah and now we get a video package on women that made a name for themselves outside the ring:

–Miss Elizabeth (HELL YEAH!). I grew up on the WWF in 80s and Elizabeth was the first crush I ever had as a kid. Her story with Randy Savage is Shakespearean on some levels and she is my all time favorite woman in pro-wrestling history. WrestleMania VII reunion, dress removal at SummerSlam, “will you marry me?” Give me all this!

–Stacey Keibler: Good lord! Stacey was just flat our beautiful and thanks to her we have the Vince falling out of his chair GIF got all eternity. She doesn’t get as long as a video package as Liz, but it was still fun.

–Sharmell: Queen Sharmell it should read! She was great with Booker and both of them just threw themselves into that gimmick. “All Hail King Booker.”

–Jillian Hall: Not much here other than her gimmick of not being able to sing.

–Vickie Guerrero: Heat magnet here as she was getting booed out of arenas. Her cougar phase with Dolph, and Edge was fun.

–Sapphire: Aww, Rest in Peace! She seemed to have a blast with Dusty Rhodes.

–Nidia: Tough Enough Season 1 Winner. I was actually pulling for Taylor in that one. I just started watching that show again and it’s great. Noble and Nidia! Trailer Park Couple!

–Debra: They leave out Lawler yelling “Puppies” during the video package. Jarrett was great as using her to get heat as he would nearly cause riots sending her back to the dressing room. One the most molten crowds you will ever hear is Goldust vs Jarret where if Jarrett lost Debra had to strip. Yes, we have come a long way with these women.

–Terri Runnels: Debuted as Marlena with Goldust and was a key feature of The Attitude Era. Remember, it was the Terri Invitation Tournament that kicked off The Golden Era of the WWE Tag Division.

–Sunny: Here we go! It was amazing how over she got and she was everyone’s crush in my high school in 1996. The issue was she was so over that nobody cared about the people she was managing and thus they had to keep finding other ways to get her on screen.

–Torrie Wilson: WWE Hall of Famer! She started in WCW and was brought over to the WWF because well, look at her. SWEET! They left in her joke about being part of guy’s puberty from her Hall of Fame speech. Not sure why someone would share that with her, but whatever. Big E and Woods giving her a standing ovation for that comment is great!

-Yes, there were plenty of women they didn’t feature, but they covered a lot of them and had to stop some where I guess. I was kind of hoping to see Renee Young spotlighted though.

7: Alundra Blayze
-3 Time WWE Women’s Champion; WWE Hall of Famer; WWE 24/7 Champion

-They include her winning the 24/7 Title, but not the WCW Women’s Championship. Whether Medusa or Alundra Blayze she was a bad ass. The WWE basically brought back the Women’s Title and Division for her. She started out in the AWA where she won the AWA Women’s Championship. Next she went to WCW and was a member of The Dangerous Alliance. Hell of a group there! This may come as a shock, but Dangeroulsy went off on a misogynistic rant and fired her from the DA leading to a feud. In 1993 she kickstarted the Modern Era we have been ranking as she came to the WWE and won the Women’s Championship. She had a good run, but then she gave us one of the great moments of The Monday Night War as she showed up on Nitro and dumped the WWE Women’s Championship in a trash can. Yes, heavy stuff at the time. Medusa then made history by winning the WCW Cruiserweight Championship at Starrcade. In 2015 she returned to the WWE and took her place in the WWE Hall of Fame. In 2018 she competed at Evolution and then won the 24/7 Title before selling it to Ted Dibiase. Good stuff and you can only imagine what she could have done in this golden era of the division.

6: Sasha Banks
-5 Time RAW Women’s Champion; SmackDown Women’s Champion; NXT Women’s Champion

-Hmm, didn’t crack the Top 5. Sasha made her debut in NXT and it is so weird seeing her as anyone other than The Boss. She made the change to The Boss gimmick and instantly looked like a star. At NXT Takeover 4 Way she won a 4 Way match to claim The NXT Women’s Championship. She carried the Title to NXT Takeover Brooklyn and as mentioned earlier she tore the house down with Bayley in what many consider the greatest Women’s Match in WWE history or North American history. The 4 Horsewomen posing after the match is still cool to watch! Stephanie McMahon then announced the start of a Revolution and Sasha was brought up to the Main Roster. She stole the show at Mania 32 with Becky, and Charlotte and then went on a run with Charlotte where they kept trading the Women’s Championship. She is one of 4 women to be Grand Slam Champion. She was also part of the first Women’s Hell in a Cell Match, was #1 entrant in the first Women’s Rumble, and along with Bayley became the first WWE Women’s Tag Champions. Late last year she ended Bayley’s epic run to capture the SmackDown Women’s Title for the first time. Over this past summer, Bayley and her basically were the workhorses of RAW and SmackDown as they appeared on both shows nearly every week.

-Well, I thought they would do the Top 10 in one episode, but apparently not as we get another 50 minutes for the top 5. I assume we will get something on the ladies from pre 1993 as well. I guess tomorrow we will find out how they rank Chyna, Trish, Charlotte, Becky, and Asuka. Thanks for reading!