Being a professional wrestler is undoubtedly a difficult career path. The physical and mental toll it takes on one’s body is rivaled by few professions. This is even truer for the women that step inside the squared circle. They face most, if not all, of the same challenges as the men in the industry while also having those unique to women. For most of the history of professional wrestling women were seen as one of two things; either an attraction trotted out once in a while, or, quite frankly, titillation to keep the young male audience tuned in. For as long as most fans can remember, women’s wrestling was almost exclusively models throwing each other around by the hair in as little clothing as possible. While there were always women that were great wrestlers and attempted to have their portion of the industry taken seriously, it wasn’t until recent years that women’s wrestling as a whole was treated as equal to its male counterpart. For the first 34 years of Wrestlemania every single main event featured men. In the past 6 years a women’s match has main evented just twice. It appears to many that the days of women’s wrestling matches being “popcorn breaks” are over and the women who step inside the ring are just as important to the show as male competitors. Join us this Sunday at 6pm on “Issues With Wrestling”  as a panel of some of the Midwest’s brightest female wrestlers discuss the past, present and future of women’s wrestling. 
Image Credit: All Elite Wrestling