WWE Diva In Halloween Costume

1996–2000
The first modern day Diva in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) was Sunny, who debuted as the manager for the bodybuilder-themed duo The Bodydonnas and went on to manage several other tag teams and singles wrestlers. Although the notion a female manager had been popular throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Sunny's character was significantly sexualized, where as prior female managers were depicted as being involved in either platonic or romantic storylines.
Between 1996 and 1997, Marlena, Sable and Chyna, joined Sunny as prominent female on-air talent in the promotion. Marlena and Sable were as equally sexualized as Sunny, with Marlena suggestively smoking cigars at ringside during matches and Sable coming to the ring in form fitting leather catsuits. Chyna was fered as an antithesis to the rest the Divas, a masculine bodybuilder whose sexual identity was the subject early storylines. Sunny, Sable, and Marlena were further marketed as sex symbols through WWF's Raw Magazine, which featured monthly spreads the women in suggestive poses while either wearing provocative clothing or semi-nude. In 1998, Debra debuted and shortly thereafter was featured in a Raw Magazine spread in which she shed a series business suits to reveal lingerie.
Marlena was the manager Goldust, her then real-life husband, and Sable was manager for her then real-life husband, wrestler Marc Mero. Sable quickly eclipsed her husband in popularity. Her popularity lead to the reinstatement the WWF Women's Championship, as well as the hiring more female wrestlers by the promotion. Sable became the first WWF female to proclaim herself as a 'Diva' during the April 19 edition Raw in 1999; the term proved popular and shortly thereafter became the ficial title for WWF's female performers, be they managers or wrestlers. In February 1999, the WWF also debuted another veteran female wrestler Ivory.