Large, Intimidating Women and The Marks That Love Them

Look is obviously a huge factor in how a wrestler gets over, and size in

particular has always been beneficial for male wrestlers as it relates to

believability of offense. None of us are buying that Marko Stunt can

(kayfabe) KO Brock for a second, even if Joey Styles beat the brakes off

JBL that one time at the airport.

However, I don't think I've ever seen that criticism levelled toward

women's wrestlers until very recently (particularly some knocks on Riho

and Leyla Hirsch, and those knocks being entirely based on size rather

than the wrestler not looking jacked/athletic/tough).

I think we could all agree that North American women's wrestling from

roughly 2010-forward has become increasingly physical and pulled in

attention from legit MMA fighters, amateur wrestlers, and traditional

athletes as opposed to models/80s Southern carny's-daughter types. As we

see more and more physically imposing/athletic women like Jade Cargill,

Anriel Howard, and Raquel Gonzalez begin to be pushed, is size going to

become more of a factor? Will 4'8″ women wrestlers be banished to the

jobber zone from day 1, or is the cat already out of the bag in this all

being a work anyhow?