wrestling / Columns
Top 7 Female Wrestlers with February Birthdays
Image Credit: WWE
It seems like most people I know have their birthdays early in the year. Within the past couple of weeks, my mother, my sister, my school best friend, my internet best friend and two of my ex-girlfriends have celebrated birthdays. I have a theory behind this…
-People get lonely around Valentine’s Day, or break up as a result of said day
-People meet shortly after
-People hook up
-People realize that they’re going to have a kid
-People get married in the fall so the kid is of proper parentage & family status
-Baby gets born in the winter
Granted, some parts of my theory were more important back in the day, but it seems solid to me. This abundance of people I know and actually have cordial relationships with having birthdays made me wonder who else had a birthday this time of year. As it turns out, many of our favorite female wrestlers celebrate their birthdays in February. Fun, right?
So today, we’ll take a look at the seven most magnificent women wrestlers that were born in February.
7. Madison Rayne (5th)
One half of the first SHIMMER Tag Team Champions, Madison worked her way up into a spot in the Beautiful People with Velvet Sky & Angelina Love in TNA. Madison started at the bottom of that pecking order, but she became one of the most successful Knockouts in Impact history. She reigned as Knockouts Champion five times, and held the Knockouts Tag Team Championship three times with three different partners. From where I sit she was also one of Josh Mathews’s best announce partners.
After a brief retirement from wrestling, Madison came back to team with Tenille Dashwood. She’s currently in AEW as a coach for their women’s division. Madison serves as a bit of an inspiration for those of us that were inactive for a bit and are hoping to find larger audiences one of these days.
6. Victoria (10th)
Lisa Marie Varon was first discovered by WWF brass while working with UPW in her native area of Southern California. She got the nod to be one of Godfather’s Hos, and the Ho that went through the table when Godfather joined the Right To Censor & became the Goodfather. She got sent to developmental afterward, and did stints in Memphis & Louisville, where your humble correspondent really took notice of her as part of the Revolution, the top heel group of the time with guys like Doug Basham & the Damaja before WWE ruined them.
Victoria eventually got the call up to the the main roster and had a hell of a run as the top heel in the Women’s Division, especially when she was pitted against Trish Stratus. Stevie Richards was by her side for a minute, she got to use a t.A.T.u. song for her entrance, it was a good piece of business.
Then WWE had her turn face and dance, and it wasn’t quite the same. Eventually Victoria got released to begin the next phase of her career. Tara would become a dominant presence in TNA/Impact Wrestling with her spider, becoming a five-time Knockouts Champion. Since we’re reaching the end of this I should mention her finisher, the Widow’s Peak, which still rates as one of the best finishes in wrestling. I should also mention my guy Mathew Sforcina here, who will only read this column if somebody tells him Victoria is mentioned.
5. Ronda Rousey (1st)
Ronda’s second WWE run hasn’t gone so well, so it’s easy to forget how successful her first run was. Her first match teaming with Kurt Angle against Triple H & Stephanie McMahon went as well as one could ask. Ronda looked like the second coming of Lou Thesz or Kurt Angle or whoever you think is the best wrestler of all time.
People started turning against her because they didn’t like success or they didn’t like Ronda, and it led to the first WrestleMania main event with women wrestling. Much of Becky Lynch’s rise is owed to the status of Rousey. We could say that Becky & Charlotte Flair could have earned a spot at the head of the table, but with Ronda involved it was certain. Rousey had a certain drawing power that boosted the Women’s Evolution to another level. I know a lot of people that will read this don’t particularly care for Ronda, but their favorite female wrestler wouldn’t have reached their current status without her.
4. Maria Kanellis (25th)
Maria started out in 2004 as part of WWE’s Diva Search, getting hired by the company after finishing as one of the runners-up. She became a backstage interviewer on Raw, asking silly questions that amused people. This was a step up from most of the backstage interviewers of the time that just asked silly questions and didn’t amuse anyone. Maria would have on-screen romances with the likes of Santino Marella & Dolph Ziggler, pose for Playboy and wrestle on occasion. She was one of the most popular Divas of the mid to late 2000s, winning the Slammy for Diva of the Year in 2009. The fans voted for her, but it wasn’t enough to keep WWE from releasing her a couple of months later.
Maria would reemerge in wrestling alongside her real-life boyfriend & eventual husband Mike Bennett. She would manage Bennett in Ring of Honor, Impact Wrestling & New Japan Pro Wrestling throughout the 2010s. Mike’s tag team with Matt Taven greatly benefitted from Maria’s involvement at ringside. Her time in Impact included a stint as the Commissioner of the Knockouts Division, where she mostly made the babyfaces’ lives hell. After serving as a face for her time in WWE, the heel life worked for Maria elsewhere. Mike & Maria would come to WWE in 2017, then make returns to ROH & Impact before debuting in AEW in 2022.
3. Gail Kim (20th)
Gail started out in the Toronto area training under Ron Hutchison, who also trained Ontarians Trish Stratus & Traci Brooks for the ring wars. Gail would join Trish in WWE a couple of years after her debut, and win the Women’s Championship in her very first match. Gail did a lot of good things in WWE during her two stints with the company, but she wouldn’t be champion again after losing the championship to Molly Holly four weeks after winning it.
Gail would find most of her in-ring success with TNA/Impact Wrestling, where she still works today as a producer. She started there managing America’s Most Wanted & Jeff Jarrett, who were the top heels in the company at the time. TNA didn’t have much of a women’s division until late 2007, and Kim would become the focal point of it. Her feud with Awesome Kong helped establish the Knockouts Division as something different than what WWE was presenting at the time. The company’s name was “TNA”, but “T & A” wasn’t what the top Knockouts were selling. Gail would become a seven-time Knockouts Champion & the first female Impact Hall of Famer.
2. Madusa (9th)
Much like the person who will finish #1 on this list, Madusa came up at an inconvenient time for women’s wrestling in North America. Promotions would often have a women’s champion, but wouldn’t feature the championship on a regular basis and didn’t have a lot of folks contending for the title. Madusa started in the AWA, where the “division” consisted of Sherri Martel, Candi Devine and Wendi Richter. I’m not sure the AWA had other women, but Madusa managed to get over mostly based off her association with Curt Hennig & even won Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s Rookie of the Year award in 1988.
Madusa went to Japan around the time the AWA faded into oblivion, and worked for All Japan Pro Wrestling for three years. She learned the Japanese style along with other fighting disciplines, which set her work further apart from the pack in North America. She came to WCW to serve as a valet for the Dangerous Alliance before moving to the WWF in 1993 and becoming their first Women’s Champion in three years. The next two years saw the newly-named Alundra Blayze defend the title against the likes of Bull Nakano & Bertha Faye. The Nakano matches were very good, but there wasn’t enough of a push behind the division to get it over. Madusa was released by the WWF while still Women’s Champion, which led to a memorable WCW Monday Nitro moment when she joined that company.
Madusa was with WCW for the rest of its existence. She didn’t get to hold the Women’s Championship there, but did become a Cruiserweight Champion. Madusa later became a monster truck driver, which has to be one of the coolest things a WWE Hall of Famer did after their time with the company was over.
Honorable Mention: Rhonda Singh (21st)
Rhonda had a good run in Japan as Monster Ripper. It’s more likely you remember her as Bertha Faye in the WWF, which is a shame as she got to work a silly gimmick and not do the stuff that got her over other places. The silly gimmick wasn’t even funny and didn’t get anybody involved over, if it had I would have excused it.
Honorable Mention: Francine (19th)
The Queen of Extreme! Francine was one of the staples of ECW’s existence, managing the likes of the Pitbulls, Shane Douglas, Tommy Dreamer & Justin Credible. She also had cat fights with pretty much every woman that appeared with ECW.
Honorable Mention: Isla Dawn (2nd)
Isla is working her way up the ranks in NXT. She’s had feuds with Alba Fyre & Meiko Satamura…she didn’t win either one, but one hopes she’s learned something along the way and has a bright future.
Honorable Mention: Devin Taylor (3rd)
Devin was a favorite of folks I knew that watched NXT in the early years when she was an interviewer. They teased her working, then canned her on an episode of the WWE Network show Breaking Ground. Such good people, those WWE higher-ups.
Honorable Mention: Vanessa Kraven (10th)
Vanessa never made it to the main stage, but The Mountain was a force in Canada & the US independent scene for many years. I first noticed her working for a company called RingDivas where she would squash young lady wrestlers like So Cal Val. The prices on those videos were high, so I hope it worked out for her.
1. Sensational Sherri (8th)
Sherri started out in the southern US before moving to the AWA, where she would become a three-time Women’s Champion. She’d later become the WWF’s Women’s Champion for fifteen months, defeating the Fabulous Moolah. Sherri Martel was a capable pro wrestler, but there was one problem. She came along at a time when women’s wrestling wasn’t featured in North America.
As it turned out, that was no problem for Sherri. She moved into managing and became the most talented valet in wrestling history. She would do absolutely anything at ringside to get a match over, and provided great assistance to whoever she managed. She led the tag team of Buddy Rose & Doug Somers to AWA gold before moving to the WWF. After the aforementioned title reign, Sherri became “Macho King” Randy Savage’s Queen, taking the place of Miss Elizabeth while Savage worked as a bad guy. Nobody can deny the chemistry of Randy & Elizabeth, but Sherri’s willingness to take bumps added to the Macho King’s act. After Randy & Liz got back together, Sherri moved on to managing Ted DiBiase before taking an interest in Shawn Michaels. Sherri was a key part of Shawn’s first push as a singles wrestler.
Later she went to WCW, where she would manage the likes of Ric Flair & Harlem Heat. Sherri added a lot to their presentation as well. Sherri was released from WCW in 1997, and bounced around multiple promotions for the rest of her career. There has yet to be a valet to take Sherri’s GOAT status away, and one wonders if there will be.
Thanks for reading! Hit me up at [email protected] or on the social media with thoughts, comments or suggestions. Until next time, true believers!
