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Women's wrestling really has never been this good, especially in WWE. The current crop of female wrestlers under contract with the company are some of the most talented women to ever step foot inside a WWE ring.
It's hard to pinpoint where the revolution started exactly. Was it NXT, with the likes of Paige, Emma, Charlotte and Natalya? Maybe when Stephanie McMahon introduced the likes of Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch to the main roster? Or does Nikki Bella have a point when she claims that Total Divas got the ball rolling?
In all fairness, it's likely a combination of all the above and more. What's often forgotten is that there are many women who came before who laid the groundwork for today's females. Here are five women that revolutionised women's wrestling before anybody ever spoke of a women's revolution.
#5 Alundra Blayze
Alundra Blayze, Madusa, Debrah Miceli. However, you know her, she is most certainly one woman who would not be out of place on today's women's roster. Throughout the late '80s and '90s she blazed a trail for women in the wrestling industry, pun very much intended.
Blayze would ply her trade in both WWE and WCW but unfortunately, it's an incident that happened during the transition between those two companies that often overshadows her other accomplishments. That incident was when she threw the WWE Women's Championship in the bin live on WCW television.
That unfortunate event happened over 20 years ago now and WWE have gone out of their way to prove that it's water under the bridge. Not only has Blayze since been inducted into the Hall of Fame, but she plays an active role in helping the women of WWE to this day.
#4 Beth Phoenix
Another woman that is currently playing a very active role in WWE right now is Beth Phoenix. The similarities between her and Alundra Blayze don't stop there either as The Glamazon is also a deserved Hall of Famer and a woman who laid a lot of groundwork for today's ladies.
Beth came to the scene much after Alundra did, however, and missed out on the current Women's Revolution by a lot less than Blayze. Phoenix only left WWE five years ago in 2012 after winning the Women's Championship three times and the Divas' Title once.
Phoenix didn't have the physique or the in-ring style of any other woman in WWE at the time. She was a lot more muscular and would have felt much more at home on today's roster. Her work back then played a big part in what is going on in WWE right now though.
#3 Trish Stratus
The third Hall of Famer in this list (are you starting to see the pattern here?) is Trish Stratus. Stratus was hired under the old mantra of WWE, that being she was an incredibly attractive model and it didn't matter that she couldn't wrestle.
Unlike many other women at the time, Trish didn't want to merely be eye candy to the WWE Universe. The former Women's Champion took her training extremely seriously and soon became just as good a wrestler as she had been a model.
Trish demonstrated 15 years before the Women's revolution had even begun that female wrestlers could be both beautiful and incredible in the ring. There have been rumours of Stratus returning to WWE recently, let's hope those rumours come to fruition.
#2 Lita
Without Lita there would have been no Trish Stratus, and vice versa. At least not in the way that we know them today. Their rivalry is tremendously underrated and should really go down as one of the greatest in wrestling history, male or female.
Lita got into WWE at around the same time as Trish did and really rose to prominence as the third member of Team Extreme alongside The Hardy Boyz. It soon became apparent that Lita was capable of much more than being a third wheel.
Nowadays the women's division is full of unique women who break the mould. Lita was one of the first women to do that and proved that females could reach the top of the company without being blonde supermodel types.
#1 Chyna
Ironically, the number one entry on this list is the only woman on this list who hasn't yet been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, Chyna. A former Intercontinental Champion, Chyna is to this day the most revolutionary woman to ever step foot inside a WWE ring.
Chyna broke down barriers and smashed glass ceilings like nobody has ever done before. "The Ninth Wonder of the World" didn't just want women to be treated better in wrestling, she wanted to be treated as an equal. She got that too and for a large part of her WWE career, she competed against male Superstars.
Sadly in 2016 Chyna passed away at the age of just 46. It's upsetting to think that Chyna will never get to see the culmination of something that she had a huge hand in building when it comes to the Women's Revolution, and was never really recognised for it by being inducted into the Hall of Fame while she was still alive.
