WWE Divas: Who Should Eventually Follow Trish Stratus into the Hall of Fame?

When Trish Stratus is inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on WrestleMania weekend, it will mark the 6^th time a woman has entered the hallowed halls. Given the achievements of those who went before her, which Divas should follow her into the Hall of Fame?

The other women in the Hall—Fabulous Moolah, Sensational Sherri, Mae Young, Wendi Richter and Sunny—all had huge influences on the sport.

Moolah spent nearly 28 years as champion. Sherri not only captured the WWF Women’s title but also redefined the role of the female manager and valet. Young started wrestling in 1939, helped to popularize women’s wrestling during World War II and trained many other performers including Ric Dresin and Moolah herself. 

Richter dethroned Moolah in 1984 and held the title for a year and a half during the height of the Rock ‘n Wrestling Era. Sunny changed the role of women in the WWE, becoming the first Diva in the process. 

With the addition of seven-time WWE Women’s Champion Stratus, the Hall is filling up with worthy female stars.

But who should follow Stratus in the years to come? The following four women all had a changing influence on the WWE and deserve to be included one day.

There is no official ranking in this list. But to keep things simple, only women who actually appeared in the WWE, not WCW or ECW despite those organizations being owned by Vince McMahon. Additionally, no celebrities have been included either.

Lita

The Hall of Fame would not be complete without Lita.

The four-time WWE Women’s champion was an all-together different WWE Diva. With numerous tattoos covering her skin, Lita was never afraid to use her body as a weapon. At ECW’s One Night Stand pay-per-view, she competed in an intergender Extreme Rules tag team match with Edge and Mick Foley.

Her training in Mexico influenced her style in the ring. Traveling there in 1998, she was trained by several different legends, including Ricky Santana and Miguel Perez.

Lita’s success in the ring was almost overshadowed by the real-life love triangle between herself, Matt Hardy and Edge. While dating Hardy, she began a romantic relationship with Edge. The situation became public and turned into a nasty episode for all three parties.

Lita’s inclusion in the Hall is a must. At times one of the most popular women in the WWE, she too helped to transform what women could do in the ring. Along with Stratus, she helped to elevate the women’s division to the same playing field as the men. 

Miss Elizabeth

One couldn’t watch the WWE in the ‘80s without knowing who Miss Elizabeth was. The startling beautiful and demure valet/wife of “Macho Man” Randy Savage was a step above the other women in wrestling at the time.

She never wrestled in a WWE ring, but she didn’t need to. Elizabeth was classy. The way she carried herself showed how much she respected herself. She was insanely loyal to Savage, in both the WWE and WCW, but she never stooped to underhanded tactics. Her patience and kindness made her radiate to the fans, who loved her right back. 

As a manger, she guided Savage to his first WWF World championship at WrestleMania IV. She also brought together, and kept together, the team of Savage and Hulk Hogan.

Elizabeth brought class to WWE rings and showed how by speaking nary a word, she spoke volumes.

Luna Vachon

With her half-shaved head, gravely voice and strange face paint, Luna Vachon doesn’t exactly conjure the image of a WWE Diva. But that’s exactly the point. In a time when the women in the WWE were beginning to become the cookie-cutter Divas we all know today, Vachon never tried to fit the mold.

Instead, she broke it.

As the adopted daughter of Paul “Butcher” Vachon and niece to Maurice “Mad Dog” Vachon, she took to the ring at an early age.  According to an article on Slam Sports, “Butcher” Vachon wrote in his autobiography about her, saying:

"

She was 13, 14 years old and she used to come to the wrestling matches. I was working for the World Wrestling Federation when Vince Sr. was running it. We were living in Connecticut…We'd go early and get there late afternoon, the building would be open and the ring was up and no people in the place. We'd get up in the ring and I'd show her a few moves. Then some of the guys would start coming in and they'd help me start putting her through some paces…She could have done anything. She was a beautiful girl and very intelligent, smart, good looking, of course, like her dad. All she ever wanted to do [was wrestle]. 

"

Although she never won the WWF Women’s title, Vachon always went against the norm. During her second stint in the WWE, she formed The Oddities, a group of wrestlers who were all different from the others. In the process, she found a popularity she hadn’t known beforehand.

Even before Lita did, Vachon challenged the idea of how a Diva should act and look. In the process, she helped to define it too.

Alundra Blayze

When Alundra Blayze came to the WWE in 1993, she became the cornerstone of the revamped women’s division, which had been dormant since 1990. She won a six-woman tournament in 1993 to claim the newly reactivated women’s title.

Not only did she become the rock that the division was built around, she also changed to way the WWE looked at the women. Blayze stood apart from the other women of the era where, as WWE.com puts it, the women “weren't particularly athletic or beautiful.”

She was tanned, fit, sexy and smart, much to the ire of the older generation of wrestlers.

Blayze was also athletically gifted. During her two years with the company, where she won three women’s titles, she battled an array of larger and stronger wrestlers. Among her opponents were Bull Nakano, Aja Kong and Bertha Faye.

Her inclusion in the Hall of Fame is a must. Blayze paved the way for women who could wrestle, entertain the crowd with more than just sex appeal and have the drawing power to perform on major pay-per-views.