Canadian-born Asian female wrestler wins WWE Women's Championship in her first ever match on television. If you know anything about WWE, nothing about that sentence actually makes any sort of traditional logic. However, that's exactly what Gail Kim did in WWE in 2003, and in evolving from a groundbreaking face in the company to a seasoned veteran who could get great matches out of a slew of unseasoned divas, she deserves praise. Kim worked in WWE from 2002-2004 and from 2008-2011. In WWE from 2002-2004, she was overshadowed by the likes of Trish Stratus, who was a rocketing superstar redefining success for women's wrestlers from a financial and in-ring standpoint. Back in the company from 2008-2011, she was overshadowed by a slew of new divas that WWE was attempting to create a similar-to-Sable like performers, wrestlers like Kim needed to raise their level of appearing to be deserving of such acclaim. Intriguingly, it's in TNA where Kim has had more of the championship level success that she so richly deserves. However, as a pure in-ring talent, she's more than deserving of such a high ranking on this list.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
