Over the last few years, we’ve seen the incredible rise of women in WWE. We all know the story of how the women went from being the “bathroom break” matches, the bra and panties matches and the whole Divas fiasco to reaching where they are today. It took WWE quite some time to catch up, but over the last few years, there’s no denying that they have done a pretty stellar job of elevating them to where they are today.
Perhaps the pinnacle of the entire process has been the women main eventing WrestleMania in 2019. While many did expect women to headline the show of shows at some point of time, nobody would have expected them to headline the event as quickly as they did. But during this rise, there was a big debate that sparked up – Who was truly responsible for starting the Women’s Evolution? And who played the biggest role along the way?
Was it Chyna? Or even Lita and Trish Stratus who led the way with other women? Do The Bella Twins and other divas deserve the same credit? Or was it AJ Lee, Paige, and then the Four Horsewomen? While there’s no denying that each person had their own individual roles to play in setting things up the way they are now, the truth is that the real rise began in the early 2010s. Sara Amato, a wrestler who went by the name “Sara Del Ray” throughout her career, was hired as the first-ever female trainee in 2012. Fans who followed her work throughout her career were a bit surprised with the signing because she wasn’t cut from the same cloth that women in WWE were at the time.
Her experiences were completely different. She was a real wrestler, and while there was some relief that she wasn’t going to perform for the company, nobody knew the exact kind of impact that she would have on the company and the women’s division.
As a wrestler, there were few who had the work ethic that she did. All Pro Wrestling Boot Camp was where she got her beginnings and their new trainer at the time would be one that people are all too familiar with – a man named Bryan Danielson, or as we know him better, Daniel Bryan.
In an interview with WWE.com, Daniel Bryan said about Amato:
The person who was giving them to her collapsed underneath her, and when she landed, she separated her shoulder. She rolled out of the ring, popped her shoulder back in and rolled into the ring.
He praised her work ethic and her growth as a performer, saying:
They’d say, ‘Oh, she’s good for a girl.’ And Sara wasn’t good for a girl. She was good.
Over her career, her work ethic and love for wrestling culture made her a natural locker room leader in places such as Shimmer Women’s Athletes. She even became a staple in Chikara Pro and Ring of Honor, where she wrestled men and even teamed alongside Cesaro, who was full of praise in his own right.
Daniel Bryan, no stranger to traveling the world and making sacrifices for wrestling, praised Amato for doing the same, stating that she would make sacrifices that many men wouldn’t take
She lived in Japan for nine months and slept on dojo floors. She went and lived in Mexico in some scary places to go live by yourself if you’re a woman. She was going places that most guys wouldn’t to become a better wrestler.
With WWE deciding to take an entirely new direction with women, Amato was naturally delighted. Her hiring by WWE was actually a perfect fit, because she was always in love with the training aspect of wrestling, and the fact that there were (and are) so many young women who are hungry to learn and succeed in the business made her the right fit, as she has a lot of knowledge to impart.
Her career may not be well known or as celebrated, but she’s had wars with some of the greatest female wrestlers of all time, such as Aja Kong, Bull Nakano, Manami Toyota, Awesome Kong, etc. and put on some incredible matches in her own right. With the direction of pushing women, WWE hired an extremely impressive crop of female signees, all hungry to succeed and prove that they could very much hang alongside and even surpass the men in the ring.
Without Sara Amato guiding them, it’s very unlikely that they would have found the same success that they did. She inspired them with her own career, her own attitude, her own work ethic and never once asked for credit. While WWE and many women and coaches have praised Amato for her role as the driving force for the women’s rise in WWE, she’s not yet been widely acknowledged for the impact she’s had.
While she may never step in the ring to compete for WWE, she’s done something so much more important, and she’ll always be remembred for that.
