Throughout the past decade, we've witnessed a plethora of women's wresting firsts -- the women's Royal Rumble, Hell in a Cell, brand-new championships to name a few. Women's wrestling has never been bigger or more popular than it is today -- and rightfully so. The match quality, athleticism and storytelling are consistently top-notch, so much so that a PLE featuring only women (Evolution) was developed and debuted in 2018.
Stars including Alundra Blayze, Bull Nakano, Trish Stratus, Lita and Mickie James paved the way, and AJ Lee, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks (Mercedes Moné), Charlotte Flair, Bayley, Iyo Sky, Rhea Ripley and many others have taken women's wrestling to even greater heights. It has become commonplace to see women wrestlers headline events and steal the show.
Below, we highlight some numbers with historical women's wrestling significance.
35
As in WrestleMania 35. Of all the firsts in women's wrestling, this was arguably the greatest accomplishment. For the first time in history, a women's wrestling match main-evented WrestleMania, the biggest show of the year. Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey took the stage and headlined at MefLife Stadium in a triple-threat match for both the RAW and SmackDown women's championships.
Lynch's popularity was soaring in 2019 following her persona's increased aggression, particularly at the previous year's SummerSlam in a postmatch attack on Flair after a loss. Her refusal to back down connected with the audience. She then won the 2019 Royal Rumble and the WrestleMania 35 main event to become the RAW and SmackDown women's champion, earning the moniker "Becky Two Belts."
14
No woman in the WWE has held as many main roster world championships as the great Charlotte Flair. She's a 14-time world champion and one of the most decorated champions of all time. In addition to her 14 championships, she held the NXT championship twice and is a two-time (and current) WWE women's tag team champion with Alexa Bliss.
Flair won her most recent world championship on Dec. 30, 2022. She returned to the WWE after seven months off and challenged then champion Ronda Rousey. She defeated Rousey that night to become a 14-time world champion.
With Flair still going strong, it's likely that we'll see that total grow.
29
The WWE Hall of Fame symbolizes a stellar pro wrestling career filled with prominent contributions to the business. Since 1993, there have been 29 women honored at WWE Hall of Fame ceremonies.
That accounts for 21 inductions, six legacy wing additions and two Warrior Award recipients (named after the Ultimate Warrior and presented to someone who displayed courage and heroism). Some inductees have included Mae Young in 2008, Jacqueline in 2016, the Bella Twins in 2020 and most recently, Michelle McCool earlier this year.
It was announced at Wrestlepalooza that the first inductee into the 2026 WWE Hall of Fame class will be Stephanie McMahon.
6
This one flies under the radar, but it shouldn't. The WWE women's tag team championships debuted in 2019. The inaugural winners were Bayley and Sasha Banks. There have been 32 different reigns, but no one has held WWE women's tag team gold more times than current Judgment Day member Raquel Rodriguez (6).
Throughout her six reigns, Rodriguez has had three different tag partners -- Liv Morgan, Roxanne Perez and Aliyah.
To further solidify her spot atop the women's tag team division, Rodriguez also held the NXT (WWE's developmental brand) women's tag team championships twice before they were merged with the WWE version. In fact, she and Dakota Kai were the first-ever NXT women's tag team champions in 2021 when they also won the Women's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament.
522
A lot of what we've mentioned so far pertains to women's wrestling on the main roster, but NXT deserves continued admiration. Many of today's top stars got their WWE starts as part of the NXT roster -- including Asuka.
Asuka, an 11-year pro wrestling veteran by the time she signed with NXT in 2015, did not take long to make an impact. She became the NXT women's champion on April 1, 2016 when she defeated Bayley at TakeOver: Dallas.
The WWE recognizes her reign as lasting 522 days, the longest NXT women's championship reign of all time. In fact, she never truly lost the title. She relinquished it on her way to the main roster.
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