Former Diva Jacqueline Will Be Inducted Into The WWE Hall of Fame

WWE announced that former WCW performer and WWE Diva Jacqueline will be the next member of the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2016. The Texas native will be inducted alongside the already announced Sting, Big Boss Man, the Fabulous Freebirds, and The Godfather.

WWE touting the former WWE Diva as “barrier-breaking” when they themselves are the ones who really enforced those barriers is pretty cringe-worthy, but you can’t say that Jacqueline didn’t do the best with what she was given.

Before making it to WWE, Jacqueline Moore got her start as the only female trainee in Skandor Akbar’s wrestling school in Dallas. From there, she went on to wrestle in WCCW, USWA, as well as in Japan’s FMW promotion alongside joshi legends like Combat Toyoda and Megumi Kudo.

She eventually made her way to WCW as a manager for Kevin Sullivan, where she was known to throw down with anyone who got in her way, male or female. She later squared off one-on-one against Disco Inferno in an intergender match at Halloween Havoc in 1997.

After not being able to compete due to injury the first time she tried to make a go of it in WWE, Jacqueline returned as the girlfriend of Marc Mero, who had just gone through an on-screen breakup with Diva Sable. Jacqueline was Sable’s opponent for the infamous Bikini Match wherein Sable was disqualified for not wearing a bikini, but rather two painted handprints over her lady Sables.

Jacqueline would go on to become the first black female to hold the WWF Women’s Championship after defeating Sable in a slightly more clothed match shortly thereafter. She would hold the title for two months before losing it to Sable at SummerSlam ’98.

Jacqueline was part of the Pretty Mean Sisters (PMS, because WWE in the ’90s) for a pretty depressing ten-month run. In 2000, she would get that women’s title back, defeating Harvey Wippleman, who had won the title in drag as “Hervina” in a “Lumberjill Snowbunny Match” that took place in a pool, which is somehow even more reductive than it sounds.

Jacqueline would return to her intergender calling card in 2004 when she became the third woman to hold the WWE Cruiserweight Title after Madusa and Daffney before her, and would hold the title for 12 days before losing it back to Chavo Guerrero.

She would also go on to be featured as a trainer on the debuting season of WWE Tough Enough, and a TNA run that I don’t think WWE wants us to talk about.

Though looking back at her career unfortunately highlights some of the worst periods of time for women in wrestling, her positive contributions can’t be denied. She helped normalize the idea that tough, athletic women belonged center stage as much as anyone else, even if contextually the odds were stacked against her. She got intergender matches on TV, even if most of them are shining examples of the absolute worst way to book them. It sucks that we have to frame some of the most talented women of her era as people who did the best they could with what they were given, but hey, at least she’s getting some form of accolade after the fact. Congrats to Jacqueline, a more than deserving nominee.