Sable
When thinking about the most beautiful women in WWE history, you could go back several decades and still find women playing a prominent role in the company’s presentation. But beginning in the mid-’90s, women really started to gain more attention, thanks to the introduction of several attractive and vocal female performers.
This past decade, we witnessed the women’s evolution, where top female talent was given the chance to truly assume, and shine, in the spotlight. With a wealth of beautiful female talent coming through the company over the past few decades, there’s been no shortage of butt-kicking eye candy in WWE…
Miss Elizabeth
If Sunny was the first Diva, then Sable was the first Diva to take over the industry. Debuting by escorting Tripple H to the ring at Wrestlemania XII, Sable’s first storyline was with then-husband Marc Mero. It quickly became obvious that Sable was the more popular part of the act, leading to a storyline where Mero grew jealous of her popularity.
Sable became the second winner of the reinstated WWE Women’s Title in 1998, a title that was brought back mainly due to her presence in the company. Unfortunately, she left the company on bad terms but at least is still happily married to WWE superstar Brock Lesnar.
Dawn Marie
Considered by many to be the most beautiful woman in WWE history, Miss Elizabeth debuted in 1985 as the valet of her real-life husband, The Macho Man Randy Savage. Elizabeth is sometimes considered to be the pioneer of the women’s movement in WWE, as her on-screen presence was so unique and special.
Prior to Elizabeth’s arrival in WWE, most women in the company were active competitors and were presented in a less-than-feminine manner. Elizabeth gave viewers a totally different perspective on female performers, and in many ways paved the way for the Divas movement of the mid-2000s.
Candice Michelle
Best known for her work in ECW, Dawn Marie was a real estate agent before a chance meeting with a wrestling promoter saw her managing wrestlers on the independent circuit in the mid-90s. Her original deal with ECW was for just three weeks, but she became so popular that she was with the company from 1998 until 2001, the peak years of the promotion.
In WWE Dawn Marie is best remembered for her feud with Torrie Wilson, which saw her marry the father of her rival. Dawn Marie was a talent who always gave her most to any angle, no matter how crazy the storyline actually was.
Debra
Candice Michelle is another Diva who joined the ranks of the WWE via the Diva Search. But Michelle, who didn’t even make the final 10 of the 2004 Raw Diva Search, was still hired ahead of women who finished ahead of her to play the role of a makeup artist on the show.
After time spent running the gauntlet of match types that would not be sanctioned in the company today, Michelle worked her way into a career as a legitimate in-ring competitor. She was then named the Most Improved Wrestler of the Year by Pro Wrestling Illustrated in 2007 and she is a one-time WWE Women’s Champion.
Sunny
Debra was a Diva known for her southern twang that came from her Tuscaloosa, Alabama upbringing. She fell into the wrestling world by accident as she initially trained at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York City and spent some time as a flight attendant. During this time, she also competed in pageant shows such as Mrs. USA.
Debra was probably best known in the wrestling industry for her time managing Jeff Jarrett both in WCW and later in WWE. She also spent time feuding with the likes of Sable, Jacqueline, and Terri Runnels.
Sherri Martel
The original Diva (yes, even before Sable) Sunny was a trendsetter who probably doesn’t get her due in the history of the WWE. Instantly popular, Sunny was used as a valet, a referee—especially of the little person matches back when the company ran those on PPVs —and very rarely as a wrestler.
Sunny was, for all intents and purposes, an experiment to see if a performer with her looks and style would get over with the fans in an era that still (just about) believed in kayfabe. She is one of the most important Divas on this list because without her success we may never have seen the Divas we have over the last couple of decades.
Miss Jacqueline
Debuted in 1985, Sherri Martel quickly became one of the most popular WWE managers in history, managing big names like Randy Savage, Ted DiBiase, and Shawn Michaels. But she was also an accomplished wrestler, defeating The Fabulous Moolah for the WWE Women’s Championship in 1987.
Fabulous Moolah had held the title for over 28 years before Martel won the title. Despite officially leaving WWE in 1993, she still continued to work in other promotions in throughout the 1990s. At one point, she even managed Ric Flair and Harlem Heat in World Championship Wrestling in a brief stint.
Terri Runnels
Miss Jacqueline was a staple of the Attitude Era, debuting on the June 1, 1998, episode of Monday Night Raw as the new on-screen girlfriend of Marc Mero. She immediately began a feud with Mero’s ex, Sable, and famously took part in a bikini contest against her at Fully Loaded: In Your House, where Sable removed her halter top to reveal a painted-on bikini top.
Jacqueline played a huge role in WWE history, as she became the first African-American women’s champion ever, winning the title from Sable in 1998. She would go on to capture a second women’s championship and would be a part of the company until 2004 when she moved on to the independent circuit. She was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016.
Trish Stratus
Terri Runnels rose to prominence in WWE in the mid-’90s as Goldust’s valet, Marlena. In reality, the pair were married off-screen and had met during their time working together in WCW, when she played the role of Alexandra York, and he was “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes.
Terri left WWE toward the end of the Attitude era, but not before she left her mark as one of the most attractive and impactful women of her generation.
Mandy Rose
For many watchers of the Attitude Era, and specifically the later years of the Attitude Era, Trish Stratus is the ultimate Diva. A fitness model before she was bought into the fold at Titan Towers, Stratus was initially thrown into the company with risqué storylines as was the norm during that time period. Stratus worked her way through some storylines that would have knocked a lesser woman down and developed her skills in the ring to become one of the best in the industry.
She retired as a record-setting seven-time WWE Women’s Championship winner, she was the PWI Woman of the Year in each of 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2006, and she was the PWI Woman of the Decade from 2000-2009.
Torrie Wilson
Mandy Rose came to the WWE via the 2015 edition of Tough Enough where she placed second before eventually signing a contract. She came into that competition with a background in bodybuilding and fitness competition. She then became a cast member of Total Divas while spending a short time in NXT before her charisma saw her promoted to the main roster quickly in 2017.
Rose is probably best known in the company for her time in the tag team Fire & Desire with Sonya Deville. This was to lead to a huge blow-off match with a hair vs. hair stipulation at Summer Slam in 2020 before real-life events prevented the feud from reaching its desired conclusion.
Stephanie McMahon
Torrie Wilson was a WCW fixture when the company was competing with WWE in the heated Monday Night Wars of the late 1990s. A fitness model and competitor, Wilson won the Miss Galaxy Competition in 1999 and was signed by WCW after attending a show with her boyfriend that same year.
Wilson was asked to valet Scott Steiner to the ring that very same night and that would be the first act of a decade-long career in the business. She was never really known for her in-ring work, but she was a talent that made the wrestlers she managed. She was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2019 and is now a successful fitness and Instagram model.
Becky Lynch
Writing the history of women in the WWE is impossible without devoting a chunk of the information to Stephanie McMahon. The daughter of the boss—Vince McMahon, not Sasha Banks—Stephanie has contributed to the company in major ways both behind the scenes and as an in-ring talent.
Stephanie, who is married to Triple H, is in a prime position to carry the legacy of the company on whenever Vince hands over the reins. She is a smart, savvy businesswoman and she has been instrumental in shifting the focus of the women’s division from gimmick matches to what we see today.
The first of the Four Horsewomen of NXT on this list, Becky Lynch, had a long road to WWE. She started in 2002, working in her native Ireland and working in small promotions for over a decade before getting her break at the big time in 2013. It is that story of sacrifice and determination that made Lynch so hard to dislike as a heel and so easy to root for in her career-defining feud against Charlotte Flair.
By the time of her pregnancy in 2020, Lynch was already a one-time Raw Women’s Champion, a three-time Smackdown Women’s Champion, and she had won the 2019 Women’s Royal Rumble. She’s currently one of the most popular on the WWE roster.
Lita
Lita was unlike any Diva that the WWE had seen when she debuted in the company in 1999. The 2014 Hall of Fame inductee had a career that ran parallel with that of Trish Stratus, with the two women progressing in women’s wrestling in WWE whenever they were allowed to truly show what they could do in the ring.
Lita originally debuted with luchador Essa Rios, but it was his association with The Hardy Boyz as part of Team Xtreme that really put her on the map. Lita was a wrestler never shy about putting her body on the line with an array of aerial moves and she retired as a four-time winner of the WWF/E Women’s Championship.
Michelle McCool
Michelle McCool was a finalist of the 2004 Diva Search where she lost to eventual champion Christy Hemme. The future two-time Divas and two-time WWE Women’s Champion was working as a seventh-grade teacher in Palatka, Florida before she entered the search and got her break with WWE. McCool won the inaugural Divas Championship title at The Great American Bash in 2006 and went on to hold the title for five months.
McCool also unified the Divas and Women’s titles in 2010, becoming the first and only WWE Unified Divas Champion in the process. She was also the No. 1 ranked wrestler in Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s Female 50 in 2010.
Stacy Keibler
Stacy Keibler began her wrestling career as one of the Nitro Girls in 1999 in WCW. She quickly stood out from the crowd and went into an onscreen role as a manager under the name Miss Hancock.
While many of her storylines revolved around her figure, Keibler was able to parlay her WCW and WWE careers into acting and modeling. She was a contestant on season two of the incredibly popular Dancing with the Stars, and she even went on to date George Clooney in 2011.
Kelly Kelly
Kelly Kelly (yes, it is a rather uninspiring name) had a background in gymnastics and cheerleading. She was seen by WWE when working as a model in 2006 and was signed to a developmental deal that same year. She quickly was pushed to the main roster and the ECW brand where she was the youngest Diva on the roster at just 19 years old.
Initially debuting on the Extreme Expose, which was basically a stripping gimmick, Kelly Kelly progressed in the ring quicker than many expected. She was rewarded with a Divas Championship run from 2011 to 2012 after beating Brie Bella on a special Power to the People edition of Raw.
Christy Hemme
Christy Hemme was the winner of the 2004 WWE Diva Search which meant she picked up a cool $250,000 and a one-year contract with the company. Hemme was a model before joining the WWE and her first storyline in the company saw he face off in a feud against the runner-up of the competition, Carmella DeCesare.
Hemme never developed into a competitor for championship honors in WWE, but she forged a successful career both within the company and in TNA as an announcer, manager, and backstage interviewer. Hemme even had a two-year stint as a booker in TNA, an impressive rise for a Diva who was tarred with the Diva Search brush for the early part of her career.
Gail Kim
A wrestler who never fully got her due in the WWE, Gail Kim is a seven-time TNA Knockouts Champion who actually won the WWE Women’s Championship in her first-ever match in the company. She had a couple of stints in the WWE from 2002 to 2004 and 2008 to 2011, leaving on both occasions because she didn’t think that the women’s division was taken seriously enough within the company.
Kim was the No. 1 female wrestler in the world according to Pro Wrestling Illustrated in 2012 and she was the first female grappler to be inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame in 2016.
Eva Marie
Eva Marie is a Diva that split opinions both between the fans and her co-workers in the Divas division. A talent whose red hair made her stand out from the crowd, Eva Marie was played up as the villain in the Total Divas series, where she alienated herself from her fellow Divas by being given the same opportunities as those who had been around the company for longer despite her relative greenness in the business.
After coming about a casting call by chance in 2013, the former fitness model made a big impression in the WWE despite never becoming a huge success inside the squared circle.
Victoria
Victoria had a unique look that made her stand out immediately in the crowd of tanned, bottle-blonde contemporaries of her era. A winner of the ESPN2 Fitness America Series in 1997, Victoria got her start in wrestling via a chance meeting with WEE legend Chyna. Victoria bought into the idea of wrestling whole hog, moving to Los Angeles to train before making her WWE debut in 2001.
After light work as one of The Godfather’s “hos” among other acts, Victoria impressed and was boosted up the card quickly to have great matches with the likes of Trish Stratus and Lita. She retired as a two-time WWE Women’s Champion and a five-time TNA Knockouts Championship winner.
A.J. Lee
The diminutive—she stands 5-foot-1 on a good day—AJ Lee was perfectly cast in her role as the anti-Diva, both because of her looks and the fact that she is a lifelong fan of the business. She had been interested in wrestling from an early age and was inspired especially by the career of Lita. She paid $1,500 to attend a WWE tryout in 2009 where she was offered a contract and assigned to developmental.
Lee made her main roster debut in 2011 and immediately connected with fans. Whether playing a sweet baby face or a crazy and manipulative heel, she always felt like a main event level player even before her relationship with CM Punk, to whom she’s married since 2014. Lee retired (far too early) as a three-time WWE Divas Championship winner.
Lilian Garcia
A mainstay of WWE programming for over a decade and the first Diva to stick with the company for that length of time, Lilian Garcia is best known to WWE fans as a ring announcer. She held this position for some of the most popular years in the history of the company, beginning in 1999 and staying in that role full-time until 2008.
Garcia is also an outstanding singer and is once was given the honor of singing the National Anthem at Wrestlemania. She’s credited as the highlight of her time with the company, given that the anthem spot is usually given to a top-selling music artist and never kept in-house.
Natalya
Canadian grappler Natalya is part of one of the First Families of WWE as she is the daughter of Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart and part of the famous Hart dynasty of wrestlers that came out of the Hart Dungeon in Calgary, Canada. Nattie is one of the best technical wrestlers in the women’s division and she is one of the longest-tenured women’s wrestlers with the company as she has been there since 2007.
Often put in storylines that have been criticized by the internet wrestling community as being below her level of talent, Natalya is a wrestler that can put on a good match with anyone and who is often used to working with the greener members of the roster.
Dakota Kai
New Zealander Dakota Kai kicked around the ring from 2007 to 2016 after making her professional debut with Impact Pro Wrestling in her native Auckland. She then worked both in the US (Shimmer and Shine) along with wrestling in Japan (Pro Wrestling Zero1 and Stardom) before her break in the WWE where she was signed and placed in developmental to work in the inaugural Mae Young Classic.
Kai has been an NXT mainstay since the classic in 2017. She may have been bumped to the main roster already were it not for a serious ACL tear in 2019 that she worked back from in time to turn on her partner Tegan Nox in the first-ever Women’s WarGames match.
Beth Phoenix
Beth Phoenix is a WWE star who was a successful amateur high school wrestler in her home state of New York. She was the first female varsity wrestler in school history and she transitioned her power and knowledge of holds into her work on the independent circuit and then into WWE. Phoenix was a mainstay of the program from the late 2000s until the mid-2010s and she retired as a one-time WEE Divas Champion and a three-time WWE Women’s Champion.
Beth Phoenix has remained visible within the company since her departure as an active wrestler. As of 2020, the 2017 WWE Hall of Famer is working as a color commentator on NXT.
Summer Rae
Summer Rae is one of those Divas with a familiar bio until you read that she was a former football player with the Chicago Bliss of the Lingerie Football League. Rae, who also worked as a model and actress, was the quarterback of the Bliss from 2008 until 2011. It was in 2011 that scouts saw Rae and she was quickly signed to a contract and placed in developmental.
Rae worked to get over in NXT before debuting on the main roster as the dance partner of Fandango. A talented competitor, she was bogged down by some terrible storylines before leaving the company, including one with Rusev, Dolph Ziggler, and Lana.
Kairi Sane
The master of the flying elbow (Macho Man would be proud) Kairi Sane has a background in yachting, perhaps not something that would seem to lend itself to professional wrestling. After graduating with a degree in Japanese literature, she performed as a professional wrestling villain in a theatre production that was seen by the general manager of the women’s wrestling Stardom promotion in Japan.
Sane quickly fell in love with the combination of acting and sport that wrestling provided. She was with the WWE from 2017 to 2020 before returning to Japan to be with her husband. She was a one-time NXT Women’s Champion and a one-time WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion with Asuka.
Melina
A wrestler and model, Melina was trained at the School of Hard Knocks run by Jesse Hernandez. She worked between 2001 and 2004, eventually signing with WWE after initially failing to progress through the reality show Tough Enough III.
Perez entered the main roster as part of the highly successful MNM tag team that featured Johnny Nitro and Joey Mercury. They had three tag team title reigns under her guidance, while Melina is a three-time WWE Women’s Champion and a two-time WWE Divas Champion in her own right. She was also once described by Bret Hart as “one of the best wrestlers in the world”, words more important than any championship belt.
Bayley
Bayley came out of nowhere to become one of the Four Horsewomen of NXT and the easiest to root for baby face on the brand in her run in the developmental territory from 2012 to 2016. Bayley had attended shows put on by Big Time Wrestling in her home state of California since she was 11 and began training at the age of 18 to be a professional wrestler. She wrestled for Shimmer and Shine before WWE came calling.
Bayley was the first WWE Women’s Triple Crown Champion and the first WWE Women’s Grand Slam Champion. That she has been able to transition from the happy and peppy character she portrayed in NXT to the evil villainess on the main roster says everything about her talent and knowledge of the business.
Charlotte Flair
The Queen is WWE royalty through and through. The daughter of the legendary Ric Flair, Charlotte wouldn’t even need to be as good as she obviously is to have made waves in the company. This Four Horse Woman of NXT was a two-time champion on that brand and she was also named the PWI Rookie of the Year in 2014.
Flair has gone from strength to strength as a competitor with her ability to play a face well, but her knowledge of how to be a great heel. She has double-figure title wins in the company including holding the Raw Women’s Championship and Smackdown Women’s Championship each on multiple occasions.
Kaitlyn
Kaitlyn was a body fitness model before joining the WWE and you could tell from the beginning of her career in the company that she was going to use her strength and power to become a Diva not to be messed with in the squared circle. In 2007, she won numerous bodybuilding awards and came fifth at the Arnold Classic, the biggest event for body fitness models on the planet.
One-time WWE Divas Champion, Kaitlyn turned to wrestling in 2010 when she signed a developmental deal, winning season 3 of NXT when it was a reality show and not a development brand.
Renee Young
Renee Young was a talent that the top brass at WWE never seemed to know exactly what to do with. Far more than a basic interviewer, Young has a charm and charisma that made her the perfect host of talk show format pieces such as the PPV lead-ins and Talking Smack.
It was Talking Smack in particular and her chemistry with Daniel Bryan that made the show must-see TV every week, even above and beyond the actual wrestling product. Young left WWE in 2020 as she felt she had accomplished everything she could within the company, especially after the cancellation of WWE Backstage.
Io Sharai
Io Shirai was already a multi-time champion before ever setting foot in a WWE ring. She is a former two-time Wonder of Stardom Champion, a former six-time Artist of Stardom Champion, and a two-time World of Stardom Champion. She was recognized as the undisputed ace of the promotion, the highest honor that can be given to a worker in Japan.
Shirai debuted in the second Mae Young Classic where she lost to Toni Storm in the final. She has gone on to become an integral part of NXT throughout 2019 and 2020 where she is guaranteed to put on a good match against anyone she is pitted against.
Rosa Mendes
Rosa Mendes is a Vancouver, Canada native of Czech and Costa Rican descent who started a career path in business at the University of British Columbia before dropping out to pursue a modeling career.
Mendes was a contestant in the 2006 WWE Diva Search where she made the final eight, winning a dance competition along the way before dropping out. She was signed to a deal shortly thereafter. She was never an active in-ring talent, but she was an effective manager for the likes of Zack Ryder and Primo & Epico.
Emma
Australian wrestler Emma was training to be a wrestler at the age of just 13. This was after she was introduced to the business by her brother when she was just eight years old. After wrestling for minor promotions in both Australia and Canada, Emma was signed by the WWE to Florida Championship Wrestling in 2011.
After starring in NXT, Emma was promoted to the main roster for a time before returning to NXT where her brand of wrestling—skill, and work rate—worked better than on RAW or Smackdown. Emma also had a famous repack where she was christened by Emmalina, making numerous appearances in vignettes before the gimmick was dropped with no payoff.
Alexa Bliss
Little Miss Bliss is a Diva that has it all when it comes to what the WWE wants. She can play the plucky babyface with the colorful look and the underdog size just as well as she can add a little extra eye makeup and slip into the role of a manipulative and egotistical heel. It makes here perfect for what the modern WWE production is looking for.
Bliss, who is very open about how fitness competitions saved her from a life-threatening eating disorder, is a multiple-time winner of both the WWE Raw Women’s Championship, the WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship, and the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship.
Zelina Vega
Zelina Vega is a manager, valet, and wrestler of Puerto Rican descent hailing from Queens, New York. Vega was a pro wrestling fan throughout her childhood and she began to train in the craft under T.J. Perkins, Azrieal, and Javi-Air at the age of 17. She worked on the indys and for TNA, along with ROH and CMLL in Mexico before hitting the WWE full-time in 2017.
Her act with Andrade in NXT and on the main roster reminded wrestling fans what an athletic and skilled manager can do for their client. Vega is also married to fellow wrestler Aleister Black, an association that has added to her already fun offensive move set.
Layla El
A product of the ‘legendary’ 2006 WWE Diva Search, Layla won the overall contest for a contract and $250,000. A cruise line dancer and performer for the Miami Heat before her jump to wrestling, it is fair to say that not much was expected of Layla for anything other than management roles of performers and backstage skits.
Layla worked her way through the ranks to team with Michelle McCool a member of LayCool. She used that platform to become the first British woman to home the title in 2009 when she and McCool defeated Beth Phoenix in a match for the Women’s Championship on an episode of Smackdown.
Peyton Royce
Peyton Royce began her wrestling love at the age of nine and grew up as a huge fan of – and heavily influenced by – Eddie Guerrero. Royce was also a dancer growing up in both Sydney and Melbourne before she moved to Calgary, Alberta, Canada to train with Lance Storm and hone her craft. Royce attended the same high school as future tag team partner Billie Kay and she worked the indys until her WWE break in 2015.
Royce will likely be best known for her time as one-half of The IIconics with Kay, both as a pairing on NXT and on the main roster.
Maria Kanellis
Yet another Diva who got her start in the 2004 Diva Search, Maria Kanellis finished fifth in the contest and was hired by the WWE and was quickly trained as a valet in Ohio Valley Wrestling. Her initial main roster position was as a ditzy interviewer, but over time she developed her skills in the ring to become a performer that was trusted in the ring.
Maria, often alongside husband Mike Bennett, has had a successful career outside WWE. She has appeared in promotions such as Ring of Honor, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and TNA, the latter of which she held the Knockouts Championship on one occasion.
Sasha Banks
One of the Four Horsewomen of NXT, Sasha Banks made her name in Chaotic Wrestling from 2010 to 2012 before joining WWE. Banks has worked some of the key matches in the history of the women’s division in WWE, with her Iron Woman matches against Bayley at NXT TakeOver: Respect being the first women’s match to ever headline a TakeOver event and the longest women’s match in company history at that time.
Banks also became the first woman to headline a WWE PPV event and the first to compete in a Hell in a Cell match when she took on Charlotte at the Hell in a Cell PPV in October 2016.
Billie Kay
Billie Kay is an Australia Diva from Sydney who began watching wrestling at the age of 10 with her brother. A basketball star in high school, the same high school where she would meet long-time tag team partner Peyton Royce, Kay debuted as a professional wrestler in 2007 for the Pro Wrestling Alliance promotion in Australia.
Kay was signed for the WWE in 2015 after working for Shimmer and Shine in the US. Her IIconics duo with Royce saw her pick up a WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship reign and provided comic relief on either Raw or Smackdown whenever the duo appeared.
Mickie James
Mickie James is a Diva who got her start outside of the WWE on the independent circuit and in TNA before being bought into the fold at Titan Towers. After working as a valet in her early years, James was thrust into a main event-level storyline in the WEE upon her debut when she was cast as a stalker of Trish Stratus.
This led to a memorable run for James where she is a five-time WWE Women’s Champion and a one-time WWE Divas Championship winner. Perhaps James’ greatest claim to fame is the work she has done outside of the McMahon empire. She has won titles all around the world and was the Pro Wrestling Illustrated Woman of the Year in both 2009 and 2011.
Eve Torres
Eve Torres earned her head WWE contract when she won the 2007 Diva Search. A former model and dancer with a stint dancing for the NBA’s LA Clippers in her background, Torres quickly took to life in front of the camera on WWE programming. She made her initial splash in the company as an interviewer, a role many contestants from the various searches play. B ut she developed her skills to become a full-time wrestler in 2009.
Torres won the WWE Divas Championship in April 2020 when she defeated Maryse for the strap. She went on to win the title twice more and was the first Diva to hold that particular belt on three occasions
Brie Bella
The Bella Twins were a mainstay of WWE programming for around a decade after signing with the company in 2007. Brie – the younger twin by 16 minutes – took part in the 2006 WWE Diva search with Nikki but failed to progress far into the competition. A model and actress, Brie – owner of some of the worst theme music in the history of the company – worked hard to hone her ring craft and she was voted the No. 11 women wrestler in the world by PWI in 2015.
Brie retired as a one-time Divas Championship winner and she is married to Daniel Bryan. She has also been a huge part of the success of the Total Divas reality show.
Paige
Paige is a wrestler who has been involved in the business from the moment she could talk. She made her debut in the ring at the age of 13 in 2005 as part of her family’s promotion to the World Association of Wrestling back in Norwich, England. Paige was soon a big name on the European indy circuit where promoters and fans couldn’t get enough of her unique look and talented in-ring style.
Paige signed a WWE contract in 2011 and became the first NXT Women’s Champion by winning a tournament in 2012. Blessed with innate charisma and star power, Paige was always destined for the main roster and she became the youngest-ever winner of the WWE Divas Championship when she defeated AJ Lee on the Raw after Wrestlemania XXX in 2014.
Maryse
Maryse is another successful product of the WWE Diva Search. She was hired by the promotion in 2006 before spending time honing her skills in the WWE developmental territories in Ohio and Florida. Maryse, a natural performer, was able to use her French Canadian roots to develop a snobbish character that fans found easy to dislike.
She combined this with rapid improvement in the ring to become a two-time WWE Divas Championship winner and to rank in the top 10 female performers per the PWI list in both 2009 and 2010. Maryse still appears occasionally on WWE TV, most often alongside their real-life husband Mike “The Miz” Mizanin.
Lana
The Ravishing Russian, despite actually being from Gainesville, Florida, and spent some of her childhood in Latvia where he father was a missionary, Lana was a model and actress before finding her way to WWE.
Paired with Rusev almost from the beginning of her career there, a pairing that would eventually lead to a real-life relationship and marriage, Lana was the valet and manager for her man for most of his spell with the company before Rusev left for AEW. Lana is also a main cast member of Total Divas where she is often portrayed as something of a pot stirrer within the group.
Nikki Bella
The older Bella twin, Nikki is the sister that became the more well-known in-ring performer. She made her main roster debut in November 2008 on an episode of Smackdown, and retired from the company as a two-time WWE Divas Champion, with one of those reigns being the longest in history.
Nikki held the title for 301 days after beating AJ Lee at Survivor Series 2014 and holding the belt until losing to Charlotte at Night of Champions in 2015. With a little help from Brie and the ‘Twin Magic’ gimmick, she worked effectively as a heel during most of her run. She was also instrumental in the popularity of Total Divas, in large part due to her relationship with John Cena.
Ashley Massaro
The winner of the WWE Diva Search in 2005, Ashley Massaro was instantly different from the other Divas because of her more edgy look and personality. She debuted in the company alongside Trish Stratus against Vince’s Devils, before going on to feud with Mickie James when she debuted in an angle involving Stratus.
After being drafted to Smackdown, Massaro worked as a valet for Paul London and Brian Kendrick before leaving the company in 2008. She was unfortunately found unresponsive in her home in New York and passed just 10 days before her 40th birthday.