Trish Stratus On Iconic Feud With Lita, WrestleMania And If Vince McMahon Has A Mustache

Trish Stratus and Lita were teammates just as much as they were opponents.

This Sunday’s WWE Rivals broadcast will chronicle the iconic rivalry between Trish Stratus and Lita, who anchored a new era of women’s wrestling that would ultimately set the stage for WWE’s women’s revolution. Stratus and Lita share a close bond outside of the ring. Stratus even named Lita as the godmother of her son, Maximus.

Wrestling locker rooms are notorious for being cutthroat and filled with paranoia, jealousy and rage. Trish and Lita, however, had to put an entire women’s division ahead of their egos. Due to the perception, or lack thereof, of women’s wrestling, Trish and Lita could not afford to have a backstage feud. As the prototypes for a new era in women’s wrestling (and its only hope at the time), Trish Stratus and Lita’s stated goal—above all else—was to prove that women belonged in main event matches.

Unlike their male contemporary top stars, in Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, Trish and Lita did not have the luxury to only worry about being the best wrestler. They had to fight to prove that women could be top stars before even thinking about their own legacies. Trish and Lita feuded on camera so that Becky and Charlotte could have the right to feud backstage.

Just like the men.

Today, Stratus is encouraged by the progress made by women in wrestling. As a lifelong fan of pro wrestling, who’d often appear on Canadian wrestling talk show Off the Record to give her takes on wrestling, Stratus feels WWE is headed in the right direction to attract more women viewers.

“I think what they’re doing now [to attract women viewers] is exactly right,” said Stratus in an exclusive interview.

“We’re giving the women more visibility, and it’s not about just a women’s match now, it’s Match 5. In other words, it doesn’t matter what gender is doing this match.”

“Back in the day, when Lita and I got the main event of Raw, that was a huge thing. It was history-making. It was unprecedented. Now, it’s very common. The women are main-eventing all the time. Not only Raw, but they’re main-eventing pay-per-views, WrestleMania etc. The things they’re doing right now, they’re taking the right strides to become better represented and not make it such a male-dominated world.”

“Coming back 20 years later, I’m seeing the difference. I’m seeing the opportunity. I’m seeing the same attention is given to us as the males, whereas back in the day, it wasn’t quite like that. It was definitely an uphill battle back in the day, and it’s a nice environment right now. It’s a really good time for women that we finally had a voice, and I’m proud to know that Lita and I had a hand in it.”

Stratus and Lita will have more than just a hand in WrestleMania 39, as each will be returning to team up alongside Becky Lynch against Damage CTRL (Bayley, Dakota Kai and Iyo Sky).

“It’s really special,” said Stratus about her forthcoming WrestleMania match. “Think about our match: you have the past with me and Lita, you have the present with Becky and Bayley and you have the future in Iyo and Dakota.”

“I’m inspired by Becky and Bayley’s current work. They were inspired from the very beginning by our work, so to see that all come together, it would be so interesting to see how it plays out.”

Stratus’ return may not just be a one-off. After wrestling what was believed to be a retirement match against Charlotte Flair at SummerSlam in 2019, Stratus now personifies a phrase as old as time in the wrestling business: Never say never.

During the March 6 broadcast of WWE Raw, Stratus made her WrestleMania challenge by telling Damage CTRL “I warned you that I could, real quick, go from I am retired to I was retired.” Stratus teased that she could exercise that option even after her WrestleMania return.

“All of them,” Stratus said when asked whom she’d like to have a singles match with. I’ll have a little something-something with each of them. Maybe I’ll go dip into a singles match if they make it unbroken out of this match (laughs).”

“I’m a fan of all their work,” said Stratus of Damage CTRL. “Because Bayley—we had a little rivalry going once she was at a live event here in Toronto that I did. It’s fun to go back and to dip into these characters that you never thought you’d interact with on that level. And seeing someone like an Iyo Sky, and seeing her work in the past in Japan, it’s a different style. So how would that play out? I’m excited.”

Stratus remains in peak physical condition due to the benefits of Yoga, which became a passion of hers after her 2006 retirement. Stratus retired at the tender age of 30 while atop the women’s division. She even won the WWE Women’s Championship in her retirement match.

Against Lita, of course.

Stratus was content with her decision to hang up her boots at the time, having conquered the women’s division many times over. More importantly, Stratus wanted to dedicate more time to her mother, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at the time. But Stratus admits she may have hung around longer had the women’s division been as deep as it is today. Her response to whether or not she would have stuck around is telling.

“I think so,” said Stratus. “I felt very fulfilled at that stage of my career, but I had to also go ‘let’s look at what I’ve done so far.’ I had the most amount of championships won at the time. I had worked all the women that were available and were working in our company. I had robust storylines with each of them, almost, I felt I had a robust storyline with just about every woman: Jazz, Molly, Victoria, Lita, Mickie you name it; We had our day. I just felt good. I felt really good at that point.”

“But now, you can just keep going on and on. ‘I haven’t worked her, I haven’t worked her, there’s her,’ and then there’s the tag titles. There’s this championship and there’s that championship. The world is your oyster if you’re a woman in wrestling today.”

A proud Canadian athlete, Stratus has become one of the most recognizable stars amid a rich lineage of Canadian wrestling. Bret Hart, Roddy Piper, Edge and Chris Jericho are just a few legendary Canadian wrestlers on the short list of all-time greats of any nation. Stratus carried on that tradition in the Attitude Era, while the piping-hot Sami Zayn continues to do so in present day. Zayn, who continues to create memorable moments during his feud with The Bloodline, recently suffered a polarizing loss to Roman Reigns at WWE Elimination Chamber in his home country of Montreal.

“My whole country sighed,” lamented Stratus.

“That’s what happened. We all sighed together.”

“It was such an exciting, invested moment. I remember when I saw him (backstage), it was a joke where I said ‘oh my god. Congrats, man, on everything. And Kevin Owens was beside him and he goes ‘you know he lost, right?’ I said ‘yeah’ (laughs).”

“The moment was so special, knowing Kevin Owens and [Sami] came up together just being Montreal boys. And knowing where they are in this business and having Sami have his moment? Amazing, how special. I remember I was at the Leafs game the night before, and they were playing the national anthem and I tweeted it and I said ‘this is for Sami, all of Canada’s got your back!’ Luckily, people have their hometowns, but we have our own hometown across the country. We as Canadians are so excited, and so proud.”

Stratus once again shared a backstage environment with Zayn and Owens, who were also featured last Monday on WWE Raw. But no presence made more waves than a reported visit from Vince McMahon. McMahon was recently reinstated as WWE Chairman after retiring/resigning from the company in July. Amid rumors/fears of the Chairman returning to WWE creative, reports of McMahon “visiting” backstage at Raw is the latest plot twist in a developing story.

Trish Stratus, however, noted that while she did not see McMahon backstage, she has heard the rumors, right down to his alleged mustache.

“I’m reading the same things you’re reading. I did not see him. He was, so I hear, he was back there. And so I’ve heard—I did not see—I hear there was a mustache. I don’t know. Can you find out? Let me know, because I’ll look into it and let you know. Let’s further look into this.”

WWE Rivals, featuring Trish Stratus and Lita, premieres March 19, 2023 at 10 pm ET/PT on the A&E Network.