AWA – American Wrestling Association. Broken away from the NWA in the 1960s, the American Wrestling Association (AWA) was by no means a women-only promotion. Under the leadership of Wally Karbo and Verne Gagne though, it was the trend-setting promotion well into the 80s when it got sidetracked by the emerging WWF.

The AWA lasted till 1991, and it played host to some of professional wrestling’s most impressive talent pool. We here at women-wrestling.org focus only on female competitors though, and in that respect, we’ll feature Magnificent Mimi, Susan Sexton, Lori Lynn (Colonel Ninotchka from GLOW), Candi Devine, Wendi Richter and the queen of the ring, Madusa Micelli.

I think it’ll be quite obvious from the videos below that Magnificent Mimi – who is one of my favorite female wrestlers – was in the best shape of her life in her AWA days, although Madusa Micelli was quite a sight for sore eyes herself.