Kairi Sane & 9 Other Women WWE Recently Misused

Women’s wrestling has come a long way, especially in World Wrestling Entertainment, a promotion that infamously turned women’s bouts into brief cooldown matches at pay-per-views before realizing in the mid-2010s that they should maybe get with the times and treat them like legitimate competitors. This being WWE, however, women are still being misused, but now in ways on par with how the company handles male talent.

One could talk about the entire history of WWE when it comes to mishandling female talent, but let’s focus on some more recent examples. These women are all great performers, but all have been misused in some way, such as being undervalued or overexposed.

10 Kairi Sane

A star in Japan’s World Wonder Ring Stardom and a standout in NXT, Kairi Sane debuted in 2016, eventually winning the Mae Young Classic tournament and becoming NXT Women’s Champion. In 2019, she moved on to the WWE main roster, becoming Asuka’s tag team partner as The Kabuki Warriors. Despite her talents, however, Kairi Sane was mostly portrayed as Asuka’s sidekick -- often the weak link of the two -- and ended her in-ring run with WWE as a damsel in distress so Asuka could lose matches by distraction.

9 Rhea Ripley

Fans paying attention to the NXT side of things saw the evolution of Rhea Ripley, who debuted in the first Mae Young Classic as a vanilla neophyte before gradually becoming a heavy metal hoss with oodles of charisma. Once she came to the main roster, WWE didn’t seem to change much about her, but Ripley didn’t get much character development, and it wasn’t clear if she was a hero or a villain. Her Raw Women’s Title run would end at the hands of Charlotte Flair and she’d be slotted into a tag team with Nikki A.S.H., which feels like a demotion even though it shouldn’t.

8 Deonna Purrazzo

Fans could be forgiven for not even remembering that Deonna Purrazzo was in WWE. After making waves in the indies and becoming part of Ring of Honor’s new Women of Honor division while also making sporadic NXT appearances, Purrazzo officially signed to WWE in 2018, wrestling only a handful of matches on NXT, NXT UK, and Raw during the pandemic era.

Purrazzo would be released in April of 2020 as part of WWE’s series of COVID-related layoffs, but she would find immediate success as a mean technical wrestler with an awesome Fujiwara armbar. Nicknamed “The Virtuosa,” Purrazzo would become the top star of the Knockouts Division, a two-time champion with an over-300-day run in her second reign.

7 Doudrop

Many fans were annoyed when WWE brought over NXT UK star Piper Niven to the main roster and not only pretended nobody had ever seen her before but also gave her the demeaning nickname of Doudrop. Fans who stick to the main roster may not know her reputation as a bigger competitor who can actually perform in the ring -- compared to oft-criticized hosses like Nia Jax -- but her presentation certainly doesn’t help, as she appears to be made up to look like mid-'90s WWE joke character Bertha Faye.

6 Lacey Evans

Lacey Evans started on in NXT as a hybrid of a vintage pin-up model and Captain America, which set the stage for a pretty good heel turn where she looked down on female competitors she considered beneath her. Upon being moved to the main roster in 2019, Evans didn’t spend months crushing jobbers and declaring them trash or whatever, but rather coming out to her entrance music, parading around, and waving at the audience. If that weren’t enough, she was immediately placed against Women’s Champion Becky Lynch in a feud that would reveal just how inexperienced Evans was in the ring.

5 Ronda Rousey

Ronda Rousey seemed like a real slam dunk for WWE. A trailblazing MMA fighter, Olympic bronze medalist in judo, and a popular celebrity, Rousey also happened to be super into pro wrestling. After an impressive debut at WrestleMania 34, Rousey squashed several established stars, won the Raw Women’s Title, and she got the Roman Reigns treatment where WWE tried too hard to make her seem cool and gave her overwritten, cheesy dialogue to spout. Soon enough, he’d be upstaged by Becky Lynch, necessitating a course correction via heel turn for Rousey.

4 Shayna Baszler

More than just Ronda’s friend, Shayna Bazler is an accomplished fighter herself and worked through the indie wrestling scene before coming to WWE. A dominant NXT Women’s Champion with MMA credentials, "The Submission Magician” was certainly doomed on the WWE main roster, which doesn’t have the same sensibilities as NXT.

Baszler’s debut on the main roster had her attacking Becky Lynch and biting her on the neck, Freddie Blassie style, but as this was something she’d never done before, fans assumed WWE was giving her a vampire gimmick. From there, a shocking ‘Mania loss to Lynch would give way to a disappointing tag team run with Nia Jax and a storyline where she’d get terrorized by Alexa Bliss and her spooky doll.

3 Nikki Cross

Initially introduced as the resident chaos demon of the failed stable SAnitY, Nikki Cross would show up on SmackDown in 2018 separated from her faction. While she could have been a Brian Pillman or Dean Ambrose character on her own -- something new for the women’s division -- her kooky persona was toned down to the point where she became some kind of sad nerd who needed a friend, tagging with Alexa Bliss and now Rhea Ripley. Eventually, she’d change her gimmick entirely, finding more success as a faux superhero named Nikki A.S.H. who'd win the WWE Raw Women's Championship. Despite losing the gold to Charlotte Flair at SummerSlam, it wouldn't be long until she held gold again, winning the WWE Women's Tag Team Titles alongside Ripley.

2 Ruby Riott

Ruby Riott had a decent run in NXT but didn’t stick around long enough to really develop a following, and her main roster run could be summed up in a few moments: the debut of the Riott Squad faction, that feud with Natalya where she put a giant sticker of Nattie’s dead dad on a table, and getting absolutely demolished by Ronda Rousey on pay-per-view.

Despite being a strong veteran talent with a unique look, Riott was mostly underutilized before getting released in 2021. Now under the moniker "Ruby Soho" in All Elite Wrestling, she’s getting stronger reactions from fans than she ever did as Ruby Riott.

1 Charlotte Flair

It might be weird to say that a 7,000-time Women’s Champion is “misused,” but familiarity does breed contempt in wrestling. Charlotte Flair is a great wrestler, a top star in the promotion, and a great heel champion, but there is such a thing as overexposing a top star. Remember that period in 2020 where she was appearing on Raw, SmackDown, and NXT despite each show having separate rosters? Or how many wrestlers’ momentum stalled once they came up against Flair? WWE so often resorts to Charlotte Flair as its solution to everything that, for many fans, it’s started to feel like a problem unto itself.