My goal here was to create a comprehensive list of inspiring plus size female wrestlers both past, and present. For many years, plus size women were seen as simply a “fad” or “sideshow” in athletics in general, but in recent times the conversation has been changing, and many of the women on this list are in some way responsible for the normalization of fat bodies in wrestling.
I’ve also built out individual pages on a few of the women here where I go into detail what they meant to me as inspiring women that showed me there was no specific type of body inherent to being “athletic.” I’ve linked to the pages in their relevant sections below.
queen kong/matilda (retired)
Billed Height: 6’3”
Billed Weight: 315lbs
Introducing the original BBW queen of G.L.O.W! Standing at an impressive 6 foot 3 and weighing over 300lbs, there’s no doubt that Queen Kong was the undisputed trailblazer for plus size wrestlers. Coming into fame in the eighties, she had all the moves to go with her size, and deserves her crown as the “original” big girl of wrestling.
nia jax
Billed Height: 6’0”
Billed Weight: 272lbs
Nia Jax, a relation to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, is perhaps the most famous plus size female wrestler who has made a name for herself in the WWE. She has been wrestling since 2014 and has become one of the top female superstars in the industry. Her larger frame allows her to deliver devastating power moves and dominate opponents in the ring.
Nia’s success is not just limited to her in-ring performances. She’s been vocal about her journey towards self-love and acceptance, and she encourages her fans to do the same. Her message is clear: you don’t have to be a certain size or shape to be successful and happy.
mary-kate duignan
Billed Height: 5’10”
Billed Weight: 315lbs
Mary-Kate Duignan went by the stage name Rosie Lottalove, and enjoyed a brief period of fame as a wrestler under TNA in 2009-10. She was trained by the Dudley boys. While her name potentially left a lot to be desired, she owned the “full figured” look well, playing into the fact she was a flamboyant, larger-than-life character, entering the ring in thigh highs and a cloak of red feathers.
There were concerns about her readiness to wrestle after she injured fellow TNA wrestler “Daffney” with a crushing butt drop that, according to forums, was not performed properly. Mary-Kate was supposed to take the brunt of her own weight by landing on her feet but failed to do so, injuring her opponent. She would not be signed permanently by TNA after this, but has enjoyed success since in Japan and on smaller American circuits.
regina rosendahl
Billed Height: 5’5”
Billed Weight: 180lbs
Lots to love about a woman who basically pioneered wrestling in her native country of Finland and refers to herself lovingly as a “satanic witch.” Regina brings the sass in more ways than one. On a recent post she called herself “the matriarch of European wrestling” – love that confidence, girl!
A slight negative is that, looking at videos of Regina, she is obviously well over 200lbs but her billed weight is 180lbs or less, depending which sources you look at. We encourage women to embrace their true measurements and bodies, though it’s unclear if Regina herself is responsible for fudging her weight, or, the more likely scenario, her promoters.
lindsay hayward (retired)
Billed Height: 6’9”
Billed Weight: 240lbs
A plus size athlete who’s been featured as an inspirational tall, plus size woman, she was famously known as either Isis the Amazon, or Aloisia (I prefer the first of those) but whatever stage name she was given, one thing was clear about Lindsay Hayward: she was an icon for tall women and showed anyone of any shape or size can compete in the ring.
Wrestling for CCW back in the late 00’s, Lindsey would go on to appear in the reality TV show My Giant Life.
queen raqui (retired)
Billed Height: 6’4”
Billed Weight: 580lbs
Though not a “professional” wrestler, Queen Raqui was an early pioneer of the body positivity movement, like, before it was even popular to be doing that…
She was a super-sized woman who dwarfs all other women on this list physically, and used her unique size and strength to offer wrestling sessions where guys would pay her to turn them into pancakes. I thought it was only fair that she made the list of plus size wrestlers, but seriously, who would want to wrestle her?!
other notable big girl wrestlers (no measurements available)
- Kaitlyn Marie (various companies)
- Sammi Chaos (Capital Championship Wrestling)
