Johnnie Mae Young (March 12, 1923 – January 14, 2014) was an American professional wrestler, trainer and promoter. She wrestled throughout the United States and Canada and won multiple titles in the National Wrestling Alliance. Young is considered one of the pioneers in women's wrestling as she helped to increase the popularity of the sport throughout the 1940s and during World War II. In 1954, she and Mildred Burke were among the first female competitors to tour post-war Japan.

Beginning in 1999, Young had renewed success in her career after joining World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). Young was part of a recurring comedic duo with best friend The Fabulous Moolah in appearances on WWE televised events. Young is also remembered for taking bumps well past the age of 80 on televised programming. In 2004, she was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum as part of their "Lady Wrestler" category. On March 29, 2008, Young was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

In 2017, an all-female professional wrestling tournament was introduced by WWE and was named Mae Young Classic as a tribute to her memory. Its purpose was to showcase the new female wrestlers that had signed with the company and were in development, as well as independent circuit veterans from around the world. The winner received a contract with WWE and a trophy for their achievement. After the second tournament in 2018, the tournament was discontinued.

Johnnie Mae Young was born in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, on March 12, 1923. She was the youngest of eight children (one died at birth). Her mother Lilly Mae Young was a single mother (her partner left to find work and never returned) living during the Great Depression. Young's oldest sister Inie was severely disabled by whooping cough at a very young age. Young was an amateur wrestler on her high school's boys' wrestling team at the age of fifteen. Her brothers Fred, Eugen, Lawarence, and Everett taught her to wrestle and helped her join the team. Young also played softball with Tulsa's national championship team.

I learned to wrestle amateur in Sand Springs so I never heard of women professional wrestlers but one day I heard in tulsa paper there was going to be a women's world championship match come to town of Oklahoma so I immediately got at home with my brother and I shout hey let's you and I go over cause I am going to challenge that champion named Mildred Burke, so I went and there was a promoter (Billy Wolfe) at that time and I told him I want to challenge the world's champion Mildred Burke, he said you can't do that cause you never wrestle a wrestling match, I said yeah but I beat her, I can beat her so the only one who was Burke's adversary at the time, he broke over that there was only two other girl wrestlers in the whole world that was Gladys Gillem and a girl with the name of Elvira Snodgrass so I asked the wrestling coach in Sand Springs and I said I want to try out to be a professional wrestler so it brought Kill'em Guillem over and he put me in one corner Gladys in another so he snailed the bell and I run over her taking her down like a bull and beat her in just seconds, then Billy put me against Elvira Snodgrass and I also beat her in seconds, so then Billy says to me well he says I think I may make a girl wrestler of you.

While still in high school, Young went to a professional wrestling show and challenged then-champion Mildred Burke when she visited Tulsa to wrestle Gladys Gillem. Because the promoters told her she could not wrestle the champion, she wrestled Gillem in a shoot fight, beating her within seconds. After the fight, promoter Billy Wolfe wanted Young to become a professional wrestler. She left home two years later to wrestle professionally. Young later traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina, where she met and trained with The Fabulous Moolah and also met Ed "Strangler" Lewis who told her "I don't like girl wrestlers, women should be in the kitchen, but after seeing you, you was born to be a wrestler."

There have been conflicting reports as to the year in which Young began her career. Young claimed her first match was August 20, 1939, while WWE said she "started her professional career" this year. However, Young also once said her first match was March 22, 1940. According to Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer, historians have been unable to find any records that she began in 1939 and that her first match was most likely in 1941. Meltzer wrote, "In reality, Young is believed to have competed in seven decades, matching the record held by Lou Thesz. ... You really couldn't call [her] 2010 match anything resembling a pro wrestling match, even giving as much leeway as possible. While she always claimed to have started in 1939, at 16, historians researching have been unable to find any records of her wrestling prior to 1941, when she turned 18 and went on tour with Billy Wolfe's troupe."

In 1941, Young, along with Mildred Burke, opened up Canada for female wrestling. In Canada, they worked for Stu Hart. She was wrestling in Memphis, Tennessee, on December 7, 1941, the day that Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese, which led to the United States entering World War II. During the war, Young helped women take advantage of the fact that the men were fighting overseas by expanding their role in the sport.