I have no doubt that new names like Gozzie, Micha, Kamile Hansen and Spice Speigal will be on this list in the future. Those awaiting their return from injury like Reiza Clarke and Sophie King will surely leave their marks as well. Miss Lynn Sexpot played by Britney Spears vs. Miss Kenedy Tightass played by Cori Nadine Story by ??????? The significance of that role isn’t lost on Deville, as her push for authentic LGBTQ representation and visibility within WWE remains a goal seven years after her first appearance on WWE programming. In a revealing and heartfelt Facebook post titled “ Here Goes Nothing,” Cage detailed how he kept the information from going public for so long because he feared rejection. Effy also wrestles for Fest Wrestling, Freelance Wrestling, Livewire Wrestling, and many more. I’d love to see him get national exposure, as long as it’s with a company that will let him continue to be his big weird queer self. It’s clear that he wouldn’t be satisfied with anything less, and neither would his fans.

From deathmatch to lucha libre, comedy to catch, tekkers to all-out hoss brawls, every single aspect or style of pro wrestling built its rainbow family. Established stars reached new peaks, and rookies who drew inspiration from those spreading the message of pride started their own journeys. If you blinked in 2006, you may have missed this buxom beauty’s run in the WWE under the ECW banner. Shelly Martinez was signed by WWE in mid-2006 to be a valet for wrestler Kevin Thorn, a failed short-lived character who was previously another failed and short-lived character, Mordecai. Thorn was an odd vampire character and Shelly was his gothic, witch-like manager named Ariel.With Lucrezia and Venere in such leopard print thonged one-piece suits, even the warm-up becomes a show in the show. After arm-wrestling, everything is ready for the match.

If last year’s list of 100 proved that closing your eyes to what is happening isn’t acceptable anymore, 2021 represented a towering force that forced eyes open, focusing their gaze on a cultural revolution within an industry long overdue for it.I originally intended to watch The Lion King but someone swapped the tape out for Royal Rumble 2000,” Kinney revealed on the Outsports podcast LGBT In The Ring. “Instead of watching the story of Simba, I watched Taz beat up Kurt Angle.” She suspects it was her brother that caused this bit of serendipity, but Kinney was hooked regardless. But she also impacts people on a grounded, personal level as well, even in the form of a goofy, lovely slice of the internet. The image of Deville running through a Pride celebration on Total Divas exclaiming “I’m gay” is a GIF that plays on repeat in the minds of many (including me). 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. Last year’s introduction to the Queer Wrestling Index 100 ended with the point that LGBTQ pro wrestling had grown as a movement and community to the point where “ignoring their presence isn’t an option anymore.”

Some use their presence in the ring to shed light on other organizations that actively kept lesbian women obscured. The Great Bambina’s in-ring presentation is partially a radical response to the lesbian erasure perpetrated by the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, whose history was dramatized in the film A League of Their Own, Most people didn’t know Nyla Rose before she signed with All Elite Wrestling. She’d worked with promotions like Covey Pro, Warriors of Wrestling, and Sendai Girls, but she didn’t really have any national exposure in the US. That changed all at once with AEW signing and her debut at Double Or Nothing, where she faced Kylie Rae, Britt Baker, and Awesome Kong in a Fatal Fourway. As a member of the AEW roster, Nyla is the first transgender wrestler to sign with a major promotion, and this fall she’ll presumably be the first trans wrestler to appear regularly on TV.This isn’t about one generation. It’s about every single voice - past, present and future - stating that we belong and we are here, from the ring to the very last eyeball taking it all in.

I’m just happy that I can be a voice for people that might be going through that part of their journey right now, or a different experience that might be difficult. I was always looking for that representation to kind of reassure me that it was OK to be who I was, and there wasn’t much of it when I was growing up. Especially in my small hometown. It just wasn’t that prominent to be open and out.That being said, composing this list was still really hard. Once again, the best problem to have in the world is whittling down the list from a pool of far more than 200 who all deserve highlighting. It felt like nearly every day brought new additions to the family, more events celebrating LGBTQ identities and sections of the LGBTQ community raising their voices to speak directly to the faces of pro wrestling power structures.