My friends at Off The Team got into an interesting discussion this week. The topic of childhood wrestling crushes came up. Most of the usual suspects from the era most of us grew up in were mentioned. It got me thinking back to those days & the women I was attracted to as a kid approaching puberty & introducing myself to the idea of girls not having cooties.

Here are my Top 5 Childhood Wrestling Crushes!

5. Madusa

Whether she was Madusa in WCW or Alundra Blayze in the WWF, young me was a pretty big fan. Back in 1994 I had no idea that women actually wrestled, so the idea of a Women’s Championship was interesting. Unfortunately, the WWF didn’t do a whole lot with it, though Bull Nakano coming in for some matches was pretty cool.

I’m sure I didn’t make the connection right away, but I was also a fan of Madusa from her days with the Dangerous Alliance. I was also a fan of Madusa’s AWA work when I finally saw that twenty years after it happened. I don’t know how many posters they sold, but I would have liked one.

4. Miss Elizabeth

Elizabeth was sold as everything good in the world throughout her WWF run. I don’t mind telling you that I haven’t looked at love the same way since she & Randy Savage divorced a year after their SummerSlam 1991 wedding. Yes, I knew they were married before. Didn’t change my outlook. If those two couldn’t make it, what chance did I have?

Not much of one, from the way the past couple of decades have gone.

Elizabeth made her way to WCW a couple of years later, and while she didn’t have the same innocent appeal that she did in the WWF, she still had plenty of other appeal.

3. Kimberly

Before Diamond Dallas Page became one of WCW’s top stars, he was largely known for having the Diamond Dolls in his corner. Eventually the number of Dolls whittled down to one, the then-wife of DDP. Kimberly was a sweet girl with an obnoxious man by her side, something which would eventually become a trend in my life.

Kimberly went on to be leader of the Nitro Girls, who were a highlight of the show for teenage me every single week.

2. Beulah McGillicutty

Watching ECW wasn’t easy in mid-1990s Greater Cincinnati. It was carried on a low-powered UHF station. We only had one TV in the house that got it, a super-small black & white one. There was a lot of knob turning & antenna moving to pick the show up.

Beulah was worth the knob turning & antenna moving. She was a key part of the Tommy Dreamer/Raven angle & was involved in most of the controversial ECW moments that preteen me wondered how they made the air. Whenever Beulah was on my screen, good times were had by all.

Just don’t get me started on the catfight with Francine.

1. Sunny

Did anybody NOT have a thing for Sunny when she arrived in the World Wrestling Federation in 1995? The Bodydonnas gimmick with Sunny & Skip was just as dumb as the rest of the WWF’s gimmicks of the time period, but we were willing to put up with it because of Sunny.

Sunny eventually went off on her own, and while she didn’t accomplish much in the way of getting her clients over, she certainly had a knack for getting attention. Especially from 11 year old boys that were starting to figure out the whole boy-girl dynamic. The only downside about Sunny’s magazine pictorials that opened my eyes to a lot about the world was that I had to rely on my mom for money at the time. It was tougher to get her to buy a magazine with Sunny on the cover than most other wrestlers.