10 Times Women's Wrestling SERIOUSLY Kicked Ass
Jaws on the floor and not always by design; when matches and moments literally chose violence.
Despite often not getting the press, praise or television time it so richly deserves, there’s been so much of women kicking serious *ss in wrestling over the last century that the 10 below aren’t ranked as the “best” or “most” of anything because it’d be cruel to the omissions.
The 2000 GAEA Girls documentary was a revealing look life inside a brutal joshi dojo that's must-see, if you can get through it. A viewing of any Gail Kim/Awesome Kong outing highlights how TNA deserves more credit than it gets for the mid-00s Knockouts Division, despite diversions into titivation in a futile bid to keep up with the ills of the market leader.
Speaking of WWE, they've had their moments through several eras - Nia Jax smasing Becky Lynch's face could have been a disaster had 'The Man' not struck gold with the moment, Sable and Luna soared past low expectations at a nascent point in the company's ascension back to the top of the wrestling world, and Trish Stratus, Lita, Jazz, Molly Holly, Victoria and others battled through bikini bullsh*t to leave behind memories of a division that was only as doomed as their bosses made it.
There’s more than ten thousand times women’s wrestling seriously kicked ass, let alone the ten listed here. Thanks to recent showings across WWE and AEW, the conversation is yet again fresh but the genre of sh*t-kicking women’s pro wrestling absolutely isn’t…
10. Athena Vs Jody Threat Makes Its Mark And Makes A Point
Wrestling is sexist.
Wrestling is sexist, and that sucks. Especially so when it extends to fans and certain idiotic corners of the commentariat. It was easy to spot the worst of these worms in late-2022 when Athena took on Jody Threat on the October 17th edition of AEW Dark: Elevation.
Due to it only typically only capturing the attention of a niche audience, the match was viewed out of context and chopped up for Twitter consumption. There was good and bad to this; more people caught it, loved it, promoted it and helped grow it into something Athena had clearly been working on to elevate a slightly bland babyface run in AEW up to that point. Others flashed their misogyny, suggesting the stiff-looking shots were too dangerous, that Athena had taken liberties with Threat, and that the company needed to be stopped or shut down or whatever other shameless bullsh*t they could summon.
The reality was as awesome as the fiction, firmly putting these complete losers in their place. The two went hard to get all the good kind of the attention they drew (Threat was even caught briefly smiling while getting battered), and the match was the driving force for an Athena heel turn that scored her the Ring Of Honor Women's Championship less than two months later.