Professional wrestling has no doubt been a profession occupied by men with a few women here and there. While luckily that has started to change in recent history, women wrestlers have not been given the spotlight as much as men have. It took thirty-five years before WWE decided to let women have the main-event match at WrestleMania. WWE hasn't been the only problem with this as promotions like WCW and ECW didn't focus much on their women's division.

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As mentioned before, it is amazing that the stigma behind women's wrestling has mostly gone away. So let's take a moment and give some credit and highlight a few names that have inspired countless performers to come after them. Here are the most influential women wrestlers of all time.

10 Cora Livingston

Cora Livingston is a name that isn't sadly brought up by many people anymore, but without her women's wrestling might not exist let alone be where it is today. She is recognized as the first-ever Women's World Champion in 1910 and held that title until her retirement.

Livingston was inducted into the Women's Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2023 for her amazing twenty to thirty years of work (her retirement is unknown from 1925-1935).

9 Bianca Belair

While Bianca Belair is one of the newest performers here, her level of inspiration is already taken hold. Fans might not notice it with current talent because of her age, but little girls around the world get to watch matches like her WrestleMania main event against Sasha Banks and become inspired to do what she is doing.

On top of that, the amount of press and outside promotion that she does for the WWE as a whole is unbelievable. Belair ranks this low purely because the people she inspires haven't started their careers just yet, but when they do, she can easily rank much higher.

8 Bull Nakano

Bull Nakano would make her name known to fans in Japan and the United States with her performances in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling and the WWE. Girls that didn't fit the stereotypical mold of a wrestler could find inspiration in someone like Nakano as she was a monster compared to fellow wrestlers like Alundra Blayze and Manami Toyota.

Nakano would retire in 1997 and ever since the number of wrestlers from around the world that have cited her work as an inspiration and a tool to teach wrestlers how to do what they do is insane.

7 Mercedes Mone

Mercedes Mone, F.K.A. Sasha Banks, much like Bianca Belair is going to be a name that fans hear from wrestlers as an inspiration. Her work in WWE, capturing multiple World Championships, main-eventing WrestleMania, and countless amazing matches with the likes of Asuka, Charlotte Flair, and Becky Lynch could put her here alone.

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Since leaving WWE and becoming a draw outside her home country and her television and movie work have now put her at a whole other level compared to some other stars.

6 AJ Lee

AJ Lee fit a style of wrestler that wasn't super common before her minus a big exception from the 90s and 2000s. The current crop of talent making their names on the indies and even WWE's own NXT brand has cited Lee as a huge influence as to why they started wrestling and their style.

Roxanne Perez and Cora Jade both have been vocal about their love for Lee and even had the chance to interact with her a few times since starting their wrestling journey. With those two big names and countless more that fans will see over time, AJ Lee takes a spot as an influential wrestler.

5 Jacqueline

Jacqueline made history on multiple occasions as the WWE pretty much killed their Women's division once Alundra Blayze left in 1995. Once the title was re-created Jacqueline would become the first ever black WWE Women's Champion when she won the belt in 1998.

Adults and kids around the world were able to finally see a champion of color on television and due to her work in WWE and Impact Wrestling, black wrestlers have someone to look up to and inspire them. Plus her time with the Cruiserweight Championship was similar to other women wrestlers that were able to hold a predominately men's title...

4 Chyna

...Like Chyna. Her work was groundbreaking as she was a woman that never was really vying for the Women's Championship. Chyna was entering into Royal Rumbles and capturing the Intercontinental Championship long before she ever challenged for the Women's belt.

After having a falling out with the WWE in 2001, Chyna would be pretty much blacklisted from the company for her work outside of wrestling, She finally got a small amount of the credit she should have after her untimely passing when she was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame alongside D-Generation-X.

3 Manami Toyota

Manami Toyota's career ranges from 1987 to her retirement in 2017. During that span of time, she etched her name as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, not just in women's wrestling either. Toyota has held countless titles all across Japan and was voted as Readers' Favorite Wrestler for the Wrestling Observer Newsletter in 1995 beating out names like Rey Mysterio and Kenta Kobashi.

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Almost any Joshi wrestler that performed after Toyota, would claim that she is a huge inspiration and a figurehead in the sport. Her work made women's wrestling as popular as it is in Japan.

2 Trish Stratus

Trish Stratus made waves with her WWE career because when she came in she wasn't someone training to become a superstar but instead was a life-long fan that went to modeling instead. Her work caught the eye of the WWE, and she started grasping the sport insanely fast.

Starting off she would be more of a valet but over time she became one of the greatest women wrestlers. Her career would be topped off with achievements like winning the WWE Women's Championship seven times and being one of the most prolific women wrestlers in history.

1 Lita

Lita was to AJ Lee what Lee is to current names coming up in WWE. Lita was the wrestler that didn't look like many wrestlers before her but that made her stand out and in turn, capture audiences as she does. She had such a reaction from the crowd as either a face or heel that most of the men at the time couldn't get if they wanted to.

Due to her insane fast-paced style, Lita sadly had to leave wrestling way too soon but would be able to come back and perform on occasion in matches like the Royal Rumble. Much like her rival, Trish Stratus, Lita had a career filled with titles and main-event matches but really should have achieved more and was held back due to the time period she was wrestling in.