There’s been so many changes in women’s wrestling and LGBTQ+ representation in wrestling over your career. For all the talk this list has been doing about how WWE in particular is horrible at handling lesbian issues with any sort of class, there’s also the feud between Trish Stratus and Mickie James.

Sable was the first female wrestler to make that move, and wrestling logic means she would always be jealous about anyone replicating her accomplishment. The excitement in her voice perfectly matched with the joy on her face is both a landmark and an image that no one with knowledge of any mainstream pro wrestling programming from 1995 onward ever thought they would see.

Her signing made her the first out lesbian pro wrestler to sign with the company in its 70-plus-year history. AEW markets itself as being a wrestling promotion “for everyone,” yet manages the superficial tokensism that can so often come alongside diversity campaigns. That said, the fact many of these companies operate in the Southern United States could be a small obstacle, which Taeler Hendrix knew when accepting a lesbian stalker angle while working for Ohio Valley Wrestling, which despite the misleading name, is actually based in Kentucky.

Believe it or not, the wrestling industry actually has a rich lesbian history even if the women who paved the way were not able to come out during their careers. Some use their presence in the ring to shed light on other organizations that actively kept lesbian women obscured. It worked in that famous feud this list will cover later, but when James randomly planted a kiss on Melina before pinning her at Survivor Series 2007.Eventually, just as had happened with Mendes and Natalya Neidhart, this included a moment where Mendes drunkenly came on to Paige with a passionate kiss on Total Divas. There’s no way Paul Heyman’s notoriously violent and intentionally offensive company could possibly hand the sensitive subject with class, right? What was it like for you coming up and cutting your teeth in an era when women’s wrestling was so sexualized?