Wendi Richter

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Place in History - When the WWF was taking off with their Rock-N-Wrestling brand in the mid-80s, the company narrow-focused on a select few talents.  One of them was Wendi Richter, who became one of the biggest female stars that pro-wrestling has ever seen.  Richter was a strong farmhand growing up who was billed as the “Dallas Cowgirl” when she finally broke into the business.  As a member of the Fabulous Moolah’s troupe, she learned from the best, worked regularly and developed very quickly.  Her rise was fast as she debuted in 1979 and was on top of the world five years later.  However, sixteen months after she defeated the Fabulous Moolah on MTV’s “Brawl to Settle It All” card, Richter was legitimately swerved out of the title and leaving the WWF.  That time period was a whirlwind of activity with Wendi being linked to Cyndi Lauper, extensive personal appearances and she was featured in all the WWF merchandising from magazines to their cartoon.  While a case could be made for Sable being a bigger star as the Attitude Era picked up steam, Wendi Richter was perhaps the most well-known lady wrestler of all-time.  Not willing to sacrifice fair paydays for the big push, Richter was assertive with Vince McMahon and it was her undoing.  The company legitimately screwed her out of the belt and she walked out on them.  Ladies wrestling would not be pushed strongly by the WWF for another decade.  Although Wendi Richter had several more years where she benefited from that unprecedented exposure, she mostly did short programs in second-tier promotions.  The list of lady wrestlers whose time on top was brief is fairly long, but in the case of Wendi Richter, she would not be taken advantage of and was sent on her way as a result.