Lita: The Queen of Extreme is now a Hall of Famer

More than 24 hours ago Lita was announced as the newest inductee. It is apt and well deserved by one of pioneers of female wrestling in the WWE. Every year, the WWE tries to top its Hall Of Fame Class from its previous installments. This year, it surely looks like it’s going to be successful in that attempt. In the beginning of her career she was as loved as she was hated towards the end of her career. No diva can boast of getting such polar opposite reactions in their entire career.

Before Lita divas like Chyna, Sable and Sunny were insanely popular with the WWE audience. Sable and Sunny were undoubtedly the eye candies snd known for their hypersexualized image than their mediocre wrestling skills.

Chyna, on the other hand, was more muscular. Due to her having this unique appearance she was officially allowed to battle men in physical fights or matches. Chyna, towards the twilight of her stint in the WWE, did win the Women’s championship and never lost it.

She dominated the division but there was one diva that made her go into damage control mode.

Lita was fast becoming the most popular woman due to her affiliation with the Hardy Boyz and her high flying maneuvers unlike any other woman in the WWE. Her match with Chyna at Judgement Day proved that she wasn’t one of the other dandy, fragile divas. She could actually give a fight. Her appearance was not only an antithesis to the doll like features of other divas, she actually took the risk of falling through tables and ladders and doing the moonsault and hurricarana.

Come 2001, Lita had become the most over female performer. The reaction she got was in sync with other most popular superstars of the Attitude Era. But as is the case with any beloved superstar in the WWE, a brutal neck injury sidelined her for more than a year. In her absence Trish Stratus improved leaps and bounds as a wrestler and became the next force to be reckoned with.

Team Xtreme-(Lita and the Hardy Boyz)

Lita and Trish’s rivalry is legendry and the best example that revitalized the divas division. Their rivalry and friendship from 2000 till 2006 is considered to be a huge milestone in getting attention to female wrestling in the WWE. Both of them started out as valets with Lita becoming very popular with the audience in 2000 and 2001 for her high flying moves which no other diva had performed before in the WWE. Trish was a model who could barely wrestle but slowly her in-ring talent improved and her wrestling skills strengthened and she went on to win the women‘s championship a record seven times throughout her tenure in the WWE. If Sunny set a benchmark for the sexual image of a woman in WWE then Trish Stratus set the benchmark, which the WWE still tries to rekindle, of a hypersexualised woman who could do what the men do, i.e. wrestle.

And if Trish Stratus got inducted last year, could Lita have been far behind?

The queen of Extreme not only tried extreme moves in the ring but she also elicited extreme reactions of love and hatred from the crowd in the beginning and the end of her career respectively. Her storyline with Edge and Matt Hardy not only became the top feud of the year, it also became the breakout year of Edge as a main even superstar. Lita played a gargantuan role in making Edge the ‘Rated RSuperstar’.

Lita and Victoria in the one and only Women’s Steel Cage Match

Everything she’s done in her career is quite unforgettable whether it was her cage math with Victoria, marriage to Kane, storyline with Edge, alliance with the Hardys, feuds with Trish or falling off ladders and going through tables- everything worked for the business.

Such a presence deserves to be a Hall of Famer.