Women’s Revolution: Rain’s Story
In 2025, WWE produced its second women’s-only pay-per-view, Evolution. A quarter of a century earlier, things were very, very different. Bonnie Maxson AKA Rain was beginning her journey in the world of professional wrestling; breaking into the business at a time when women’s wrestling was often given no more than five minutes per week on major wrestling TV shows.
A Man’s World
At the age of eighteen, she came into the business blind without any connections or assistance. She was given an opportunity to manage and envisaged becoming the next Miss Elizabeth, but her heart harboured a desire to wrestle. An unnamed promoter told her: “Girls don’t wrestle. They hold up cards, do the ring girl stuff and manage and valet.” Attitudes were very different back then.
“Most of the guys were okay with me,” the twenty-five year veteran told me. “There’s just some men in the business that think you aren’t shit.”
She accepted bookings on the independent scene, paying her dues and taking some lumps and bumps. Quite literally.
“A dude was so mean to me, like literally kicked me in the vagina as hard as he possibly could where my whole body bruised afterwards, for weeks.”
She had her foot broken once. CM Punk, noticing her struggling to move freely, asked if she was okay. She responded: “No, but don’t ask me that because I’ll cry.” He looked at her, told her to toughen up, and walked away. That’s how it had to be. You needed to be mentally and physically strong.
Lacey and Rain travelled home, one with a broken foot, the other with concussion for a fourteen hour drive because they couldn’t budget for a hotel from their $40 pay day.
She sometimes had to change in janitor’s closets and small toilet blocks away from the males in the main locker rooms for her bookings across the midwest and beyond. That’s just how it was.
“There’s more of an H.R.(ish), even if there’s not an actual H.R. to go to,” she said with a laugh, insinuating politics and backstage discrimination are less frequent. “It wasn’t that way for us. We just took our lickings and kept going. We took our broken bones and we shut our mouths and didn’t cry until we got in the car.”
There were just a handful of females in each area of the United States. Rain recalled almost all of them to me, such was the scant amount during her early days.
“It was not easy to break in. During my era there wasn’t many girls.”
“That’s why Lacey and I wrestled each other all the time. Because there were just no girls,” she continued.
“I’m sure you walk in now and there’s a locker room full of girls. There’s at least four girls (matches) per card.”
Changing Times
Most promotions simply couldn’t afford to fly in girls from all over the U.S. and Canada due to the costs, but Ring of Honor and Shimmer bucked the trend and put their weight into supporting the women’s game.
Former NWA world chamion, Lexi Fyfe told me in an interview for Pro Wrestling Stories that WWE and TNA took notice of Shimmer’s talent, bridging the gap between independent shows and the major leagues.
“We always had things promised to us back then, but Dave (Prazak, the brains behind Shimmer) really did pull through,” Rain revealed. “I think he really made a big carve into women’s wrestling more than they think the actual women did because he opened the door. Him and Gabe Sapolosky pushed for women to be on the shows.”
The likes of Jimmy Jacobs, Austin Aries and Seth Rollins were all at Shimmer Volume 1 to support the ladies. It worked, as apparently Shimmer 1 on DVD sold more copies than Samoa Joe vs. Kobashi when each was first released.
Around this time women’s wrestling was mostly but not totally a sideshow on WWE television. TNA, on the other hand was building its Knockouts division.
“Girls were getting time on TV,” she said. “They were getting chances to work. There was more than one match that was a female match.”
Rain signed with TNA in 2007 and did the best with her time there despite it being mostly her managing rather than wrestling. She went through the motions and let her deal expire in 2008. A spell with AAA in Mexico followed. She even worked and booked the infamous Wrestilicious TV tapings in 2009.
Champion
It was in 2013 that Shine, a promotion with similarities to Shimmer being female-only, bestowed its inaugural championship belt on Rain. But possessing gold wasn’t her top priority.
“I’ve always been comfortable making everybody else look good,” she divulged. “I’m a very selfless person in wrestling. I do not care about wins and losses.”
She helped develop talent on the Shine cards and was able to be a successful champion, working with Angelina Love, Amazing Kong (who is her son’s Godmother), and Mia Yim.
By 2018, Rain started UCE Wrestling with her husband Aleki Lee. After wrestling, managing, and booking, it was time to begin promoting. Covid hit the company hard under the area’s strict rules for nearly two years. They run mostly student shows nowadays with occasional bookings of bigger names. In addition, she’s a fitness and nutrition expert for those looking to better themselves, at bmaxfitness.com.
She prefers to stay outside of the ropes now, having paid her dues and given a lot to the business, but loved (almost) every minute of it.
“You have a bump card and your neck or back can go at anytime from any bump. I’ve done a lot of stupid shit over the years. I’ve broken enough things wrestling.”
“I’d definitely speak up a tonne more,” she reflected when asked if she had any regrets. “I just felt like since we’re girls and this isn’t our place and that’s the way we’re made to feel; we had to keep our heads down.”
Fortunately, for today’s talent, they don’t have to suffer the same fate those of the last era did.
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