10 Female Wrestlers Ignored In WWE's Revisionist History
3. Wendi Richter
There are great wrestlers, and then there are transformative wrestlers, whose work in the business fundamentally alters the entire landscape and reshapes what wrestling can be. Initially positioned as the premier women’s wrestler in the early 1980’s WWF, Wendi Richter was undeniably of the latter persuasion. The “Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Connection” that helped catapult WWF to prominence was initially built around Richter, and without her, the company may never have reached the heights it did.
Before WrestleMania, before celebrities had become commonplace in wrestling, it was Richter’s alliance with pop star Cyndi Lauper, aligned against The Fabulous Moolah and manager Lou Albano that first brought WWF into the mainstream. In July of 1984, Richter captured the WWF Women’s Championship from Moolah live on MTV. The event, known as The Brawl to End It All, brought the young network its biggest television ratings to that point. Richter had become a huge star, winning a title match at the first WrestleMania and having her name and likeness used for Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling animated cartoon.
By late 1985, however, the story had changed. Scheduled for a match against a masked opponent billed only as The Spider, Richter was the victim of “The Original Screwjob”. Despite kicking out of a pinfall attempt at one, the referee’s fast count ended the match, and Richter attacked The Spider, ripping off her mask to find The Fabulous Moolah underneath. By that point, the relationship between Richter and Vince McMahon had grown strained, allegedly due to compensation issues, and despite Richter’s undeniable popularity and starpower, the company opted to pull one over on her.
After that match, Richter never again wrestled in the WWF, but eventually did make appearances for WWE after a 2010 Hall Of Fame induction, including a memorable beating of Heath Slater on a 2012 episode of RAW. Still, Richter was instrumental in the WWF’s early popularity, rivaling Hulk Hogan in the early 1980s.
To be reduced to cameos and bit appearances, with little spoken
about her effect on the business, is a travesty.