10 Young Women's Wrestling Prospects In 2023 That Will Be Stars
Owen Barnes
The worldwide women's wrestling scene is as exciting as ever in 2023, with a number of young stars taking shape across various promotions across the world. In 2022, we looked at a number of young prospects including the current NXT Women's Champion, Roxanne Perez, who seemed destined to breakout, with Perez taking the cake as one of the best and brightest in 2022.
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Looking ahead to the next several months in 2023, there are a number of current young wrestlers being booked across a number of promotions who seem destined to become breakout stars for their companies, if not future stars down the line.
10 Tiffany Stratton
The woman who topped the original list in 2022, Tiffany Stratton's rise to stardom was halted a bit due to injury and cosmetic surgeries that kept her out of action in WWE NXT for some time. With her recently returning to the ring 2023 could be the year of Tiffany Stratton in NXT.
With great looks on her side and extremely impressive ring work to match, Stratton is everything the WWE could want, and then some. With Roxanne Perez firmly in command of the brand's women's division at the moment, it seems the two women will likely collide over the NXT Women's Championship this year, with Stratton likely getting the belt. In the next few years, Tiffany could very well be one of the biggest names in women's wrestling.
9 Stevie Turner
Despite having one of the worst gimmicks in wrestling right now, a parody of a Twitch Streamer, Stevie Turner remains a very promising young women's wrestling prospect. Currently wrestling in NXT after breaking out in Stardom and NXT UK over the past few years, Turner has recently made quite the impact on WWE's developmental brand.
While her character does not seem like it would have legs on the main roster, Turner does have solid ring work for her age and this run in NXT could help her improve even more. For fans looking to a young, newer name to keep their eyes on, Stevie is one to watch.
8 Rina
Currently one of the youngest stars in Japan's Stardom promotion, Rina is a part of a wrestling family. Both of her sisters, Hanan and Hina are also a part of Stardom, with Hanan being one of the breakout stars for the promotion in recent years. Looking to Rina however, she resides as a member of the Oedo Tai faction, giving off major goth girl vibes.
At 17 years old, Rina has yet to find any major success in the promotion, with no championship wins under her belt. Still, it seems that she improves regularly and could very well become one of the major stars within Stardom as she continues to learn and grow up in front of the fanbase.
7 Julia Hart
The sole female member of AEW's House of Black faction, Julia Hart has totally reinvented herself after going full goth in 2022. With the group coming into AEW with loads of momentum in early 2022, things would be derailed due to Malakai Black dealing with an extended injury and requesting time off for a mental health break before later returning after Full Gear.
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With Malakai, Buddy, and Brody targeting The Elite for the AEW World Trios Titles, its time for Julia Hart to get something to sink her teeth into with the women's division. Improving her wrestling and vastly improving her character and mic work since joining the House, AEW needs to pull the trigger on the young star sometime soon.
6 Waka Tsukiyama
Another member of the Stardom roster, Waka Tsukiyama is such an interesting wrestler for fans of the promotion. After spending much of the last two years as the company's resident jobber, Waka seems to be gearing up for a major 2023. Taking part in a gauntlet match with the World of Stardom Champion, Giulia, Waka would take Giulia to a time limit draw as the final entrant of the match.
Following it, Giulia would put Waka over greatly, praising the young star's performance. It appears that Stardom could be gearing up to play out a major, long-term storyline with the rise and redemption of Waka over the next few years, with her being a young star to keep your eyes on if you are a women's wrestling fan.
5 Mariah May
After having a breakout year in 2022, Mina Shirakawa of Stardom would introduce fans to a brand new faction called Club Venus. Featuring herself, former NXT UK star Xia Brookside, and Mariah May, the group has alreaady stolen the hearts of many in Stardom. Looking towards the young Mariah May, she seems destined to be one of the breakout women's wrestling stars of the year.
Wrestling in Japan, Mariah will be able to take on some of the best women's wrestlers in the world and will likely be able to improve her already solid ring work. While it remains to be seen if she will wind up signing with Stardom full-time, Mariah is a name to keep your eyes on for the future, either inside of Japan, or making the jump to WWE or AEW.
4 Kiana James
After working her way through the North American indy scene and even wrestling a number of matches on AEW Dark, Kiana James would join NXT 2.0 as one of the younger female stars in the promotion. As the brand would transition back to NXT, Kiana would remain one of the focal points of the women's division, with her unlikely tag-team with Fallon Henley taking off.
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At NXT Vengeance Day 2023, the two women would capture the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship from Kayden Carter & Katana Chance, kickstarting their reign in the tag division. Out of the two, Kiana seems to have the more potential as a singles star, with great charisma and control over her character work within WWE NXT thus far.
3 Miu Watanabe
Making her wrestling debut in 2018, Miu Watanabe is one of the faces of Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling, one of the fastest rising promotions in the world. Owned by CyberFight, the parent company of NOAH and DDT, TJPW features a number of big names including Maki Itoh and Miyu Yamashita, but it is none other than 23 year old Miu Watanabe who appears to have the brightest future.
With a bubbly personality akin to Bayley's hugger gimmick or Smiley Kylie Rae, Miu is a captivating and compelling performer with the fanbase firmly behind her. It also helps that she is a great performer inside the squared circle, with a number of her matches being great already.
2 Sol Ruca
Signed to WWE NXT as one of the company's young new stars, Sol Ruca would make her debut without any real wrestling experience. Despite this, she already seems to be picking things up quite quickly. Showing off regularly and developing a great finisher, The Sol Snatcher, a move invented by independent wrestler Dante Leon, Sol Ruca has become one of the breakout stars of NXT in late 2022 and early 2023.
Looking ahead to the future, there are a numbe of areas where Sol Ruca needs to improve, with mic work being the first. If she can learn to cut a captivating promo while continuing to improve her overall wrestling, aside from just having a killer finisher, then Ruca could wind up being pretty great.
1 Billie Starkz
At 18 years old, Billie Starkz is one of the youngest names in the women's wrestling scene. Making her name across the North American independent scene, Starkz broke out recently thanks to some matches in AEW, notably facing off against Britt Baker in singles action. With stints in AEW, GCW, and MLW, Starkz is also headed to Japan to wrestle in TJPW in 2023, adding even more experience to her belt.
2023 seems like it could wind up being a major year for Billie, whether she signs with AEW, something a portion of the AEW fanbase seems to be behind, or if she continues to work all over the world as a freelancer. Regardless, with her being as good as she is at 18 years old, it seems likely that Billie Starkz will be one of the biggest names in women's wrestling within the next several years.