"It could’ve been a lot worse" - When a disastrous botch almost broke Trish Stratus' face on WWE TV
During her early days in WWE, Trish Stratus managed Test and Albert. During one of their matches against The Hardy Boyz in 2000, The Diva of the Decade had a spot with Lita that almost ended in disaster after The Extreme Diva botched a leg drop and landed on Stratus' face.
Lita detailed the incident in her book, "Lita: A Less Traveled R.O.A.D.--The Reality of Amy Dumas."
"Michael Hayes—our agent for the match —told me that they wanted me to do something to Trish. Since things were running late, there wasn't time for us to practice doing a moonsault on her, so Michael suggested, 'How about a leg drop?' I'd never done a leg drop before, but I'd seen Matt do it a thousand times. As usual, I thought, Why not? I can do that. The Hardyz and T&A had the match, I did my run in and as I stood on the second rope to drop the leg on Trish, I realized, 'I don't know how to do this,'" she said.
Despite not knowing how to perform the move, Lita felt it was too late to turn back. Hence, she decided to go on with it. Nevertheless, she botched it badly.
"I jumped off and WHAM! landed my a** right onto Trish's face. Oh shit! (...) Fortunately, my a** hitting her in the face didn't do any damage—I didn't break her nose or even bruise her up. It could've been a lot worse. Trish was totally cool about it— she understood that she was the new girl and that she had a bunch of dings and knocks coming to her," Lita added.
Lita and Stratus later became two of the greatest female competitors in WWE history. While The Extreme Diva captured four WWE Women's Championships during her 7-year run in the Stamford-based company, The Diva of the Decade won the title seven times between 2000 and 2006.
Stratus officially retired from in-ring competition in 2006 after defeating Lita to capture her seventh Women's Championship at Unforgiven. About two months later, Lita also hung up her boots.
🤣 #SmackDownReplayTEAM EXTREME IS BORN!!!! In Lita's book she laughed about this being the first and last time she used The Hardy Boyz diving leg drop as she accidently fell on Trish's face. 😩😬🤣 #SmackDownReplay https://t.co/eGtdSRbXwN
Trish Stratus recently revisited an iconic match on its 20th anniversary. Check out her comments here.
WWE Hall of Famers Trish Stratus and Lita are best friends in real life
Trish Stratus and Lita had one of the greatest rivalries in WWE history. However, the two Hall of Famers are best friends in real life. The 4-time Women's Champion is even Stratus' son's godmother.
In an interview with Oral Sessions, The Diva of the Decade opened up about her close relationship with Lita, disclosing that they talk almost daily.
"We were riding together, we were on this journey together. To share that is super special obviously and yeah, we just kept in touch. She became my son's godmother, I made her Max's godmother just to say, 'You're really part of the family.' There was a point, especially when I had Max, I had to bring him on our Team Bestie tour. And we would bring him on the tour, so she got to know him. So, then it was like that's making her part of the family. We talk pretty much every day I'd say," Stratus said. (H/T 411Mania)
Trish Stratus is one of five WWE Superstars who recently suffered from health issues. Check out the list here.