Used to be, if a woman wanted to find her way into professional wrestling, the first, and often only, route was “valet.” Which was another word for, well, let’s say distraction.
And here’s how you know wrestling has reached a truly Golden Age for women in the business: Now, they have the valets. And they show up in the main events, like Saturday at Globe Life Field for All Elite Wrestling’s biggest pay-per-view of the year: All In Texas.
Yeah, the times have changed.
“I always told my grandma and my mom, I want to be a professional wrestler,” said Mercedes Kaestner-Varnado, who wrestles in AEW as Mercedes Moné. “And they would sit down and watch it with me and say, ‘Wait, you want to have a bra and panties match? You want to have a mud fight match?’
Sports Roundup
“And I’d tell them to watch Eddie Guerrero and say that’s what I want to do. There were women that you saw – Trish Stratus, Victoria, Molly Holly – they were great, but they were only given three to five minutes to show off their skills and the rest were given to the models to show off their assets.”
Related:Wrestling’s royal family? The Rhodes have become a last name of renaissance
And, yeah, she said it cheekily.
On Saturday, Moné, who previously wrestled in rival WWE as Sasha Banks (look, we know there are a lot of names to keep up with here), will take on the champ, “Timeless” Toni Storm, for the AEW Women’s Championship at Globe Life Field. Storm, whose character is best described as a foul-mouthed, brawling 1940s movie star, has a valet. Uh, butler.
Whether this or the men’s title match between Jon Moxley and “Hangman” Adam Page is the actual main event is up to one’s perception, but the Moné-Storm storyline has been the biggest in AEW as it tries to make headway against WWE. The characters are magnetic; the skills are better.
Toni Storm (left) and Mercedes Mone will face off July 12 at “All In: Texas” in Arlington for the AEW women’s championship.
Ricky Havlik
Mercedes Toni Face to Face
El Paso, TX
AEW Dynamite
May 28, 2025
(Ricky Havlik)
And it’s that way across the landscape. In WWE, where Kaestner-Varnado/Banks/Moné was a main player and multiple champion, the women are getting every bit the billing of the men and it’s focusing more on skills and athleticism than the, um, assets. WWE, long criticized for its past treatment of women in both in the ring and out of it, has retired its “Divas” terminology in favor of this weekend’s second all-women pay-per-view, aptly named Evolution.
WWE’s matches feature the strength and power of an array of stars that have blossomed in the post-COVID Era. Rhea Ripley and Texan Raquel Rodriguez are powerhouses. Former college gymnast Tiffany Stratton, who currently holds the WWE Women’s Championship, has made her finisher, a backflip off the top rope, into the “prettiest moonsault ever.” Jade Cargill, recently arrived to WWE from AEW, played college basketball. Charlotte Flair, a former volleyball player, is no longer just known as Ric Flair’s daughter.
Flair has one other tie to her father. She was one of the Four Horsewomen of wrestling, a group that also includes Moné (as Banks), Bayley and Becky Lynch. All four will be in action this weekend in hyped events across two different companies. It was a match between Moné and Bayley a decade ago that may have actually opened WWE’s eyes that the product didn’t need more packaging. The product and the storylines were compelling on their own.
When the physical 30-minute match between the two ended, the Barclays Center crowd erupted and all four women entered the ring to celebrate a historic moment.
“When I first began when I was 18 years old, fans were still chanting at independent shows, ‘we want to see puppies,’ or ‘this is a bathroom break,’ or they would leave to go to the concession stands. And it really wasn’t until I had my match at NXT Brooklyn, where fans were legit crying, standing on her feet, giving us a standing ovation, and chanting, ‘This is women’s wrestling.’
“After that match, I felt like the whole genre shifted of what it meant to be a professional wrestler as a woman. I can’t believe how far it’s come from people legit using a woman’s match as a bathroom break to now fans are buying tickets to see the woman main event. It’s come such a long way, and to be able to say that I’ve done that, and to be part of this wrestling journey, and if you want to call it a golden era, it’s just been so phenomenal to see the growth of women’s wrestling to where it is today.”
Four years later, Lynch, Flair and former UFC champ Ronda Rousey squared off in a match that headlined the first night of Wrestlemania 35. It was the first time the women had main-evented at Wrestlemania. Two years later, Moné (as Banks) faced off against Bianca Belair, a former college track athlete, in the main event at Wrestlemania 37, the first time two women of color had headlined the event.
Moné has shown her clout in the ring and out of it. Less than a year after being in the main event, she walked out of WWE and chose her own path. That may be the biggest sign that the women in wrestling have carved out more equality than in any other aspect of sports entertainment. Moné chose her own way and didn’t lose any caché.
“Both Toni and Mercedes are in a league of their own,” said Thunder Rosa, who wrestled Garland’s Adrienne Palmer, better known as Athena, on Friday night in Arlington as part of the big weekend. “Mercedes is definitely a league of her own. Ever since she made the decision to bet on herself, she’s done a lot of stuff that she wanted to do for a long time. She spoke that to existence. And she’s been doing every single thing she said she was going to do. So I know she’s going to do even more.”
It’s hard to get Storm out of character, so much of what she says is peppered with “Darling,” and some salty language, but every once in a while, the throwback will concede the modern world might have its benefits, too.
Related:Everything fans attending ‘AEW All In: Texas’ at Globe Life Field need to know
“Women have never been more in control,” she said. “I don’t think women get told what to wear, what to do. It just does feel quite equal to the boys in many ways. It was a different world back then, but we’ve evolved, and women all over the world have been inspired to become a part of this.”
Then she said some salty stuff. The character is good. There really is no reason to ever step outside it. It’s made an unending fan girl out of Palmer (Athena).
“Those are the two women that are at the forefront of AEW right now,” she said. “They’re going to have a phenomenal match, but it’s going to be a showcase that I think people aren’t going to want to miss. … As a fan, I’m watching, and if I was home, I’d throw a big party and we’d all put money in a pot and see who gets the pot, because they’re so equally talented.”
And now, equally hyped.
For more sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News, click here.
To view subscription options for The News and SportsDay, click here.