The Four Horsewomen are not a Mount Rushmore
Look, I love The Four Horsewomen as much as the next fan who spent way too much time in the NXT Full Sail era wearing a DIY shirt. Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Bayley, and Sasha Banks basically dragged the women’s division out of the dark ages of evening gown matches and into the spotlight. But let’s pump the brakes on the revisionist history.
Charlotte Flair recently decided her own personal Mount Rushmore consisted exclusively of the Horsewomen. It is the wrestling equivalent of a basketball player saying their top four teammates are the greatest players to ever touch a court. It is cute, it is loyal, and it is completely detached from reality.
Mount Rushmore is supposed to represent the pillars of the craft. It is about the trail-blazers, the ones who fundamentally shifted how the business operates on a global scale. If you are building a monument to wrestling dominance, excluding Trish Stratus, Lita, or even the international legends like Manami Toyota is just professional malpractice.
The legacy of the division needs breathing room
Charlotte has a résumé that puts most of the locker room to shame. She carries herself like royalty because, quite frankly, she is the one who keeps getting the gold. However, equating her own generation to the entirety of women’s wrestling history ignores the women who had to cut their teeth in front of literal crowds of twelve people in high school gymnasiums.
Trish Stratus went from a valet in a leather skirt to main-eventing Raw. She changed the perception that managers couldn’t lace up boots. That is a pillar moment. When you look at the evolution of the belt, the recent shift toward bigger stars during this WrestleMania 41 build-up proves that the industry moves in cycles. You cannot have the current era without the grit of those who paved the highway.
The argument for the Horsewomen is that they transformed the presentation of the product. They brought technical credibility back to the women's division. But claiming that your own friend group occupies every single spot on the mountain shows a lack of perspective that makes my head spin.
Missing the forest for the group chat
There is a massive difference between being a cultural touchstone and being a historical pillar. Did the Four Horsewomen spark a revolution? Sure. I was there during the rise of the division, watching the clash between Seth Rollins and Gunther finally get the attention it requires, and I can tell you that the stakes are higher now because those women demanded it. But being important in 2015 does not erase the blood, sweat, and tears of the 90s.
It is genuinely frustrating when stars of this magnitude refuse to acknowledge the shoulders they are standing on. It feels like a branding exercise. Acknowledge the talent within your group, absolutely. But let’s be real for a second—if your list has zero room for someone like Aja Kong or Mildred Burke, you aren't talking about history. You are talking about a vanity project.
The booking bias is leaking into the interviews
We know how this company works. If a wrestler says something in a presser, it is usually designed to keep the brand alive. Flair is the ultimate company soldier. She knows that centering the narrative on the Horsewomen keeps the buzz alive for future nostalgia runs and potential Hall of Fame ceremonies.
But as a fan, I want better takes. I want the stars to show they actually watch the tapes from Japan or the stuff happening in the indies. When you look at the track record of booking errors, specifically the wasted potential of groups like The Nexus—who had the world in their hands for exactly 40 days before getting jobbed out to John Cena—we see how thin the line is between being a legend and being a missed opportunity.
The Horsewomen don’t need the Mount Rushmore tag to validate them. They are already cemented in the annals of the company as the women who made the division a priority. Forcing them into the top four spots is like saying the 90s Bulls starters were the only people who ever played professional basketball. It’s a bad take, it’s lazy, and I expect more from someone who has been in the main event as long as Charlotte has.
Next time a microphone is shoved in her face, I hope someone asks her about the women who came before the NXT boom. Maybe she forgets that there was a time before the Performance Center existed, where the wrestling was just as stiff and the stars were twice as desperate to be noticed. Being the queen is great, but don't act like you built the kingdom from the dirt alone.