With 2017 coming to a close, it is time to look back on a year of WWE. Overall, women’s wrestling in WWE has been steadily improving with great rosters on every show and the inaugural Mae Young Classic. Now, we take a look at the top ten female WWE Superstars of the year, including Raw, SmackDown, and NXT.
10. Becky Lynch
Becky Lynch is one of the most technically gifted and charming women’s wrestlers WWE has to offer. However, 2017 was not a great year for the Lass Kicker. The former SmackDown Women’s Champion had trouble becoming the featured woman on any episode of SmackDown Live. Her highlight of the year was defeating James Ellsworth in WWE’s only intergender match in years.
9. Alicia Fox
During her surprisingly long WWE tenure, Alicia Fox has always struggled to find a prominent spot on whatever show she is on. She has yet to reach the same level as some of her contemporaries, but 2017 helped rejuvenate the in-ring career of Fox.
The year started off with Fox taking months of time away from the ring to play the role of Noam Dar’s girlfriend after breaking up with Cedric Alexander. Once Dar broke up with her, she transitioned back into an in-ring competitor and showed how good she is at the “crazy” character. Her best moment of the year was leading Team Raw to victory at Survivor Series.
8. Sasha Banks
Ever since the “women’s evolution” started, it has been obvious that Sasha Banks is one of the best female wrestlers in the world. However, 2017 wasn’t nearly as kind to The Boss as 2016 was. For the first half of the year, Banks feuded with Nia Jax while being “Bayley’s best friend” and not finding much success of her own.
At SummerSlam, Banks captured her only championship of the year when she defeated Alexa Bliss to become a four-time Raw Women’s Champion. However, Banks lost the title in their rematch and has been floating about ever since.
7. Kairi Sane
This year, women’s wrestling saw the inaugural Mae Young Classic, pitting 32 of the best female wrestlers from NXT and elsewhere to compete in a historic single-elimination tournament. With an insane amount of hype surrounding her, Kairi Sane did not disappoint as she put on a series of fantastic bouts to become the tournament’s first and only winner.
After the Mae Young Classic, Sane made her debut for NXT. She has already competed in an NXT Women’s Championship match, but 2018 seems to have her feuding with her MYC finals opponent, Shayna Baszler.
6. Nikki Bella
Undoubtedly, Nikki Bella would be higher on this list if she didn’t have to take a leave of absence after WrestleMania. However, her three months of work that she did have this year were too good not to mention.
Most notably, Bella partnered up with her now-fiance, John Cena, to take on the Miz and Maryse in a very personal rivalry. This story stood out as one of the best of the year and perhaps the best build heading into WrestleMania 33. Before this rivalry all started, however, she did compete in a physical set of matches with Natalya.
5. Carmella
2017 was the year where Carmella really came into her own. She has grown as a heel, improved in the ring, and is one of the best talkers in the SmackDown Live women’s division. She used James Ellsworth to her advantage, finding success against the likes of Naomi and Charlotte Flair.
Of course, Carmella’s greatest achievement of 2017 was winning the first (and second) Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match and as of this writing, she still holds the briefcase. Carmella will most certainly be successful in 2018 cashing in to become the next SmackDown Women’s Champion, but it is only a matter of when.
4. Charlotte Flair
On both Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live, Charlotte Flair has been at the top of the women’s division. Flair started the year as the Raw Women’s Champion and she held onto the title until March, where she saw her first Pay-Per-View loss against Bayley after a 16-win streak.
After WrestleMania, Flair was moved to SmackDown Live where she had a slow start at finding her groove. After some time away with her father suffering from medical troubles, she returned and captured the SmackDown Women’s Championship from Natalya, making her only the second woman to have held the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Championships. She entered the year with Raw’s title and leaves it holding SmackDown’s.
3. Naomi
2017 was very well the year of glow. In February, Naomi captured her first championship in WWE when she defeated Alexa Bliss for the SmackDown Women’s Championship. After having to relinquish the title due to an injury, Naomi returned to her hometown of Orlando to capture the vacant championship at WrestleMania 33.
Naomi held onto the SmackDown Women’s Championship until SummerSlam, ending her reign at 140 days. She is one of two women to have held the title twice and so far, she has the longest SmackDown Women’s Championship reign ever.
2. Asuka
Two years after debuting in NXT, Asuka is still undefeated. The Empress of Tomorrow held onto the NXT Women’s Championship until August 24, where she vacated the title to end a reign of 510 days. She has put on incredible matches with Nikki Cross, Ember Moon, and more, and has the longest undefeated streak in WWE history. She also holds the longest title reign in modern WWE history.
After leaving NXT, Asuka moved up to the main roster to continue her undefeated streak. She has not pursued a championship yet, but she was the sole survivor at Survivor Series this year.
1. Alexa Bliss
Alexa Bliss calls herself the Goddess for a reason and with how successful she has been, that very well may be true. Bliss is the inverse of Charlotte Flair in terms of championships: she started 2017 as the SmackDown Women’s Champion and is ending the year as the Raw Women’s Champion.
Outside of Naomi, Bliss has successfully defeated every woman in her way this year. She retained her Raw Women’s Championship numerous times against Mickie James, who helped her retain the SmackDown Women’s Championship in the beginning of the year. She has toppled Bayley and Sasha Banks and she has aligned herself with the dominant Nia Jax.
In 13 days, Alexa Bliss will hold the record for most days as Raw Women’s Champion (combining her two reigns), while her current reign is already the longest single run as champion at over 122 days.
