10 Wrestlers You Didn’t Realise Were Vitally Important To Their Promotions

Wrestling, a systemically awful industry, is an inherent lie that breeds liars and fantasists.

Vince Russo, in an increasingly futile attempt to remain relevant, will cry "RATINGS BRO" at the mere mention of f*cking anything. He will not mention his deplorable record of pay-per-view buys when at the helm of WCW. He will not mention his inability to distinguish the gulf in star aura between Steve Austin and Jeff Jarrett and The Rock and Buff Bagwell. He will take credit for the popularity of the Attitude Era as if he chugged beer and won the World Title, even though, when he booked himself to do precisely that, it accelerated the demise of a company that killed him, not the other way 'round, per the title of his memoir.

Swerve!

Stephanie McMahon graced us all with the Women's Revolution. It was her gift to us, and shame on us all for not demanding it sooner. All we had to do was ask! Stop masturbating and show some bloody respect. They are women. They literally weren't even worth being called women until 2016, but we didn't see #GiveWomenAChance trending, did you?

Wrestling is teeming with carnies who will skew anything to fit their narrative.

This article, in a small way, aims to right that wrong.

The Four Horsewomen will forever be immortalised in WWE canon as the leaders of the Women's Revolution.

Stephanie McMahon, with just infuriating audacity, is its spokeswoman and, for f*ck's sake, its purported originator.

Mercifully, most have no-sold this and credited the iconoclastic AJ Lee, whose impassioned and brave criticism of Steph's hypocrisy instigated the #GiveDivasAChance movement.

Paige's victory over her is marketed now as a turning point, as if it didn't predate that insult of a 30 seconds-long match. Subsequently, insidiously, WWE has attempted to control and reframe the narrative. The Revolution was marketed as a response to WWE's systemic poor treatment of women, and yet the women that were mistreated soon returned in nostalgic cameos - tone-deaf celebrations that no-sold the point of it all.

WWE never glorifies Emma in the marketing. WWE has yet to bring her back and allow her to bask in a heady atmosphere of respect or condescension, depending on your perspective. And yet it was Emma's excellent series with Paige, those snug, accomplished struggles, that simply were, without posturing, women's wrestling years before WWE had rid itself of the word 'Diva' from its promotion.

It's a damn shame. A lot of people do credit Emma for her crucial role in all of this, but that won't pay any bills - particularly in an industry that, for all its euphemistically definitive marketing, remains institutionally sexist within and beyond the walls of Stamford.