10 Things Fans Should Know About WCW's Female Wrestlers

During its peak years — arguably, the late 1990s during the Monday Night Wars — the Ted Turner-backed, southern flavored World Championship Wrestlinghad a lot going for it. In addition to well-known commodities like the New World Order, the Cruiserweight division, and the phenomenon known as Goldberg, from 1996 to 1998 WCW attempted to have a women’s division.

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As a whole, the division was a bit of a bust due to booking and a lack of TV time, so the women of WCW deserve a special spotlight. Let’s take a look at what fans should know about the promotion’s female talent, which include some of the biggest names of the era.

10 Madusa Never Won The Women’s Championship

One of the biggest shots WCW took at rival WWE during the Monday Night War had Madusa — a.k.a. former WWE star Alundra Blayze — making a surprise appearance on WCW Monday Nitro and throwing the WWE Women’s Championship in the trash on live television. Despite signaling the arrival of a new women’s division, Madusa herself never held the WCW World Women’s Championship. It wasn’t for lack of trying, however — she came up short in the tournament final to crown an inaugural champion, and even failed to win the belt six months later while putting her career on the line.

9 Jacqueline’s Only WCW Matches Were Against Disco Inferno

Many of WCW’s female talent are better known for their WWE runs including Jacqueline, who ended up holding the latter’s Women’s Championship twice. In WCW, Jacqueline was mostly a manager, backing up Kevin Sullivan and later Harlem Heat. Before she left for greener pastures in 1997, Jacqueline wrestled two bouts for WCW, and they were both as part of a feud with male midcarder Disco Inferno, who was briefly fired for refusing to lose to her. Their first encounter happened at Halloween Havoc ‘97, with Jacqueline picking up the win over Disco. Days later, they had an untelevised dark match on Nitro for Disco Inferno’s TV Title, with Disco retaining.

8 Akira Hokuto Did Double Duty In The Women’s Title Tournament

The woman who defeated Madusa to become the first-ever WCW World Women’s Champion was Japanese star Akira Hokuto, one of the great wrestlers of the era, who ended up holding the title for 168 days. Unbeknownst to fans, however, Hokuto actually had two opportunities to win that tournament.

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The eight-woman tournament had Hokuto entering the tournament twice: not only as Akira Hokuto, but also under her masked gimmick Reina Jabuki, who lost ot Madusa in the first round.

7 Gorgeous George’s Gimmick Was Owned By Randy Savage

Even after the women’s division fizzled, there was no shortage for female characters in WCW, many of whom were valets that ended up stepping into the ring. One such performer was Stephanie Bellars, best remembered as Gorgeous George, Macho Man Randy Savage’s valet . Of course, there’s a much more famous Gorgeous George, a trailblazing wrestler in the 1940s and 1950s who established much of the showmanship that fans associate with the sport. The shared moniker is no coincidence, however — Randy Savage owned the rights to the Gorgeous George character, and licensed it to Bellars in WCW. The name ended up leading to a lawsuit when Bellars ventured into adult film acting.

6 Malia Hosaka Competed In Both Women’s Title Tournaments

One female competitor in WCW that fans may have forgotten is Malia Hosaka, the Killer Kowalski-trained veteran who wrestled for WWE, WCW, Impact, and even notable 21st century indies over the course of her career. In WCW, Hosaka ended up taking part in not only the tournament for the Women’s Championship, but also the following tournament to crown an inaugural Women’s World Cruiserweight Championship. Hosaka came up short in both tournaments, but did challenge Akira Hokuto for the Women’s Title on several occasions.

5 Toshie Uematsu Won The Women’s Cruiserweight Championship On A Minor Show

The aforementioned Women’s Cruiserweight Championship is one that fans may not even know existed, and that’s because WCW itself barely promoted it. With the tournament going down in the spring of 1997, only one semi-final match aired on Monday Nitro. Even worse is that the final round of the tournament aired on forgotten minor show WCW Main Event, with Toshie Uematsu beating Malia Hosaka to become the inaugural champion. From there, the title disappeared from WCW, and was only defeated in the Japanese all-female promotion GAEA Japan.

4 Luna Vachon’s WCW Run Was Brief

For many, the beloved and ultimately tragic Luna Vachon first entered wrestling fans’ radars via her 1993-1994 WWE run, while others remember her Attitude Era stint with WWE in the late 1990s. Between those two periods, however, Vachon had an all-too-brief run with WCW, which mostly involved a feud with Madusa.

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Through interference, Luna Vachon was the reason Madusa was never able to beat Akira Hokuto, and so the would-be champion feuded with Vachon instead, with their biggest match being a victory for Madusa at Slamboree ‘97.

3 Bull Nakano & Madusa Rekindled Their Rivalry In WCW

Speaking of Madusa, one of the greatest rivalries of her career was against influential Japanese star Bull Nakano, with the two feuding over the WWE World Women’s Title in not only WWE, but also All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling (AJW) across 1994 and 1995. Those yielded some classic matches, and the two renewed their rivalry once Madusa moved over to WCW in 1996. Unlike their previous bouts, which were pretty substantial, their WCW encounters were often truncated — including their pay-per-view match at Hog Wild ‘96, a five-minute match that involved the loser’s motorcycle getting destroyed.

2 Rhonda Singh Wrestled Her Final Match In WCW

Another rival of Madusa in WWE was Bertha Faye, a large woman whose look was played for laughs, but who had some real bona fides as a two-time WWWA Women’s Champion in AJW under the ring name Monster Ripper. Sadly past her prime by the year 2000, the former Faye ended up in WCW, where she worked under a variation of her real name, Rhonda Sing, as Rhonda Singh. She sadly died in mid-2001, with her final match being against Elizabeth more than a year prior on an episode of WCW Thunder.

1 Miss Elizabeth Wrestled Her First Matches Ever In WCW

By the late 1990s, Miss Elizabeth (or simply Elizabeth) was a well-known commodity to wrestling fans as the wife/manager of Macho Man Randy Savage, which figured into a number of classic storylines in WWE. In WCW, Elizabeth continued to work as a manager — sometimes unrelated to Savage, from whom she was at that point divorced. But her WCW run also had Elizabeth wrestling for the first time in her career, with her first match being an inconclusive affair where she was booked to fake monster heel Meng. From there, she took on exclusively female talent including not only Rhonda Singh, but also Daffney and Madusa.