Tomorrow night, Raw goes retro, celebrating its past by bringing back some of the ‘old school’ stars from various eras. Right now, we know that Mae Young is set for this special three-hour Raw and while its unlikely that any other women will be brought back, we thought we’d still have some fun in suggesting a few women we’d love to see back!
And just to make things even more interesting, we’re going to avoid the ‘go to’ answers i.e. Trish and Lita. Read our five Divas we’d love to see on this special episode below…
CHYNA
They say ‘never say never’ when it comes to wrestling, however it’s been nearly a decade since Chyna left the WWE and she has not looked back since. Leaving on rather murky terms, it seems a comeback for Chyna — while it would be great to see — is rather unlikely. Still, way back in 1998-99, Chyna could make even non-wrestling fans stop the channel on Monday Night Raw during a channel-surfing spree. Her incredible physique and penchant for stepping toe-to-toe with the big, burly male wrestlers made her unlike any woman we’d seen in the WWE before.
An original member of perhaps the most popular stable in WWE history, DX, Chyna was an icon in her own right — hence why she was referred to as the ‘9th Wonder of the World’. Chyna broke barriers as a woman: competing in the Royal Rumble and King of the Ring tournaments. Eventually, she’d go onto become a multi-time Intercontinental Champion, embarking in classic feuds with Jeff Jarrett and Chris Jericho.
To see her music hit one more time on Raw would perhaps be the female equivalent to when Bret Hart returned on January 4th this year. And for that, she takes our number one spot (even though this isn’t a countdown).
LILIAN GARCIA
For an entire decade, Lilian Garcia has been stepping into the ring and entertaining the WWE Universe… and she’s not even a wrestler. Making her debut in 1999, Lilian has announced some of biggest matches in WWE history, not to mention singing the national anthem before almost every show.
In addition to her announcing, Lilian has also been involved in a few storylines of her own. Who could ever forget her proposal to Viscera, or when she proclaimed she wanted The Rock’s strudel? How about that time Christy Hemme laid a big kiss on her in the middle of the ring? The list goes on.
In any case, it’d give this retro Raw a touch of authenticity to have Lilian back behind the mic and announcing the matches once again. However, it seems WWE is going even more old school with reports suggesting Howard Finkel will take up the announcer duties.
WENDI RICHTER
Though she, too, left WWE on murky terms (the original screw job), Wendi and WWE have buried the hatchet it seems as she is now one of the select few female wrestlers to be inducted into WWE’s Hall of Fame. Five words will forever be equated with Wendi’s career: Girls just wanna have fun. It was during the Rock ‘N Wrestling era that Wendi was paired with Cyndi Lauper, who guided her to her very first WWE Women’s Championship reign. Wendi would then go onto win her second Women’s Championship at the first ever WrestleMania in 1985.
Earlier this year, Wendi Richter gave a classy and beautiful speech at the Hall of Fame ceremony when she was inducted into the Class of 2010. A true role model for the women of today, Wendi showed in that speech, that was everything that a Diva should be: classy, elegant and kick-ass!
MOLLY HOLLY
Whenever the ‘Golden Era’ of Divas is mentioned, Divas like Lita, Trish and Victoria spring to mind, but Molly Holly is one Diva who has provided entertaining moments inside and outside of the ring. While she was mostly known for her exceptional wrestling prowess, people often overlook some of the whackier personas she has had during her WWE careers. Starting off as the happy-go-lucky cousin of Hardcore and Crash Holly, Molly soon parted way with her ways with her ‘cousins’ and became the superhero sidekick of Hurricane. The pair became an entertaining duo, but Molly turned her back on her partner and took his Hardcore Championship in the process, become one of only women in WWE history to hold a male belt.
After leaving Hurricane, Molly adopted her most well known character. The pure and wholesome Molly Holly constantly berated her peers about using their… assets to get ahead. It was during this period that Molly captured both her Women’s Championship wins and had one of the most memorable Divas WrestleMania bouts of all-time: the Hair vs. Title match against Victoria match at WrestleMania 20.
While it would great to see Molly show up at old school Raw as one of her zanier personalities, I think it would make our year to see her step into that ring one more time and put on a five star match, like she used to.
SUNNY
The self proclaimed ‘original Diva’ (I’d give that honor to Sable), Sunny was one of the original bombshells in WWE, long before the likes of Trish or Kelly Kelly. Though she wasn’t considered a wrestler, Sunny’s beauty was the perfect accompaniment to the wrestlers she managed including the Smoking Gunns. As one of the original women who kicked off Monday Night Raw, Sunny would be a good fit in celebrating the show’s roots and WWE’s Diva history.
In the past few years, Sunny has been welcomed back into the WWE fold — she appeared at the 15th anniversary of Raw three years ago and at last year’s Miss WrestleMania battle royal. Why not bring her back for this old school episode of Raw?
So, you’ve seen our suggestions. Who would you bring back for ‘Old School’ Raw?
— Additional reporting by Steven.
