| La Luchadora | |
| First: | SmackDown Live (December 20, 2016) |
| Last: | SmackDown Live (February 20, 2017) |
| Creator: | WWE |
| Portrayer: | Various |
La Luchadora is a professional wrestling character who appeared in WWE between December 2016 and January 2017. It is based on a Mexican female luchador. Originally portrayed by professional wrestler Becky Lynch, La Luchadora was portrayed by three other wrestlers, Alexa Bliss, Mickie James, and Deonna Purrazzo.
On the December 20, 2016, episode of SmackDown Live, the La Luchadora character was introduced during a match against the SmackDown Women's Champion Alexa Bliss in which Bliss was defeated.[1] After the match, it was revealed that Becky Lynch was under La Luchadora persona.[2] On the December 27 episode of SmackDown Live, La Luchadora, this time being portrayed by independent wrestler Deonna Purrazzo, turned heel during a match for the SmackDown Women's Championship between Bliss and Lynch, distracting and attacking Lynch and subsequently costing her the match.[3]
On the January 3, 2017 episode of SmackDown Live, Lynch defeated La Luchadora in a singles match.[4] Following the match, the character was unmasked and it was revealed that Bliss portrayed the character during the match before the evil Deonna Purrazzo appeared as a second Luchadora and attacked Lynch with help of Alexa.[5] [6] On the January 17, 2017 episode of SmackDown Live, the evil La Luchadora returned during a steel cage match for the SmackDown Women's Championship between Bliss and Lynch, where she once again distracted and attacked Lynch, leading to Bliss retaining.[7] After the match it was revealed that the returning Mickie James was under La Luchadora persona and officially allied with Bliss, making it the last appearance for the La Luchadora gimmick.[8] [9]