Trish Stratus On Turning Down Torrie Wilson Kissing Angle, Lita's WWE Departure, Women's Mt Rushmore
On episode 153 of The Ross Report, 'Good Ol' J.R.' Jim Ross spoke with seven-time WWE Women's Champion Trish Stratus. Among other things, Stratus talked about protecting her character during her time with WWE, Lita's recent WWE departure, and Stratus' personal Mount Rushmore of women's professional wrestling.
According to Stratus, it was important for her to protect her character and that is why it stayed intact throughout her decorated professional wrestling career.
"Honestly, I'm great with what I've done. I'd do it all over again and even try to make it better, but could I? Because, as you know, I had a reputation for being like, 'I'm going to be vocal about it.' And I was really good about having conversations and working closely with the writers and with Vince [McMahon]. And if I really had a problem with something, I learned right away never to go, 'no'. You never say, 'no'. Say, 'no, but' and my way was saying, 'how about we try it like this? Can we try it like this? Here's another outcome. I know what you're trying to achieve, if we could achieve it this way, like, lets go around this way to get there.' And so, I feel like every storyline was really thoroughly thought out by myself as well as the people I was working with. And yeah, I'm so happy with everything I look back on."
Stratus admitted that the one situation she was not happy about over her WWE run involved her rejecting a story involving kissing Torrie Wilson. 'The Queen Of Queens' apparently got out of doing the spot by saying she did not think her character would do it.
"There was one moment that I wasn't happy about. It didn't air. Like, something for SmackDown, they wanted me and Tori to do a kiss and I was like, 'I can honestly say that famous line, 'my character would not do that'. It just didn't feel like it fit for me. And so, I suggested another way and their way of saying, 'your way wasn't that great' [was] it didn't air and I think Stacy [Keibler] doing the same spot. They said, 'we'll do it with someone else then' was kind of how I got out of that one. But I was pretty vocal about saying, 'I just don't feel comfortable with that way. Can we try it this way?' My way didn't quite achieve the same affect on TV. So, but yeah, it was important to me to protective over my character and I feel that's why the integrity of Trish Stratus stayed intact pretty much my entire career, especially after the big turn at WrestleMania 17."
On the subject of Lita's recent WWE departure, Stratus said that her friend and career-defining rival is fine and that while she enjoyed her recent stint with WWE, it ran its course.
"She's doing great, yeah. I think it just came to a time when she was ready to move on too. I mean, this was something that came to her, it was a neat opportunity that happened after Tough Enough. Like a great opportunity for her was Tough Enough. And then, it was the natural transition for her to sort of try on some different hats and see what would work back there and it kind of ran its course and that's that. But she enjoyed it. She got to try a few different things. Doing the producing was fun. And then, she got to do the onscreen announcing, like the panel there and she really enjoyed it."
When asked who is on her personal Mt. Rushmore of women's pro wrestling, Stratus named some of her greatest adversaries, Stephanie McMahon, Mickie James, Victoria, and Lita.
"Hey, have you been reading TrishStratus.com? We actually did that! Yep, we revealed Mount Rushmore. We had Stephanie McMahon. We had Mickie, Victoria, and Lita. That was my women's Mount Rushmore."
To listen to the podcast, click here. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit The Ross Report with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: The Ross Report