5. Lita vs Victoria Steel Cage Match
Monday Night RAW 11/24/2003
Lita and Victoria were two of the biggest names in the WWE during their tenure in the early 2000’s. Although they have had their run in’s with each other, this particular match was more of a punishment for Lita then anything else. After returning from a career threatening neck injury and having had a tumultuous 2003, Lita found herself stuck, in a cage. Thanks to Eric Bischoff who was running rampant as General Manager of RAW, he booked a match between Lita and Victoria that night. Bischoff and then Women’s Champion, Molly Holly, recently had an intergender match just the week before against Lita and then boyfriend Matt Hardy. If Lita won that match she would get a title match, but if she lost, then she would be “fired.” Lita was on the losing end of that match, and not only was she “fired”, but this drove a wedge between Hardy and Lita. Christian, who was good friends with Lita at the time, would invoke his Survivor Series favor and had Bischoff “reinstate” her.
Back to the current task at hand we had a night of RAW Roulette. Bischoff elected Holly to spin the wheel that listed various stipulations for the matches of that night and it landed on a steel cage match. Bischoff reveled in the fact that Lita, who was just “rehired,” would have to face Victoria in the first ever steel cage match between two women on RAW. Victoria, who was the heel at the time, seemed unphased by the cage as she made her way down the ramp. Her gimmick was that of someone who was “unstable” mentally, so she fit right in to this type of match. Lita wasted little time to start the match as she did not wait for her opponent to fully step into the ring through the cage door. She attempted to gain the upper hand early by throwing Victoria head first into two different sides of the cage.
Victoria did not stay down for long as both women continue the beating on each other. Victoria was the first woman to try to escape and attempted to head out through the cage door with no avail as Lita stopped her in her tracks. After a head scissor, drop toe hold combination that takes down Victoria, Lita attempts to climb the cage to escape. After having her body half way over the top of the cage, Victoria was able to get her opponent down and slam her to the mat thus pinning her for a two count. For the next couple minutes of the match, both women attempt to climb out of the cage but neither of them are able to succeed. The match culminates with Lita attempted to exit through the cage door and Matt Hardy appears just in time to slam the door in Lita’s face. This gave Victoria the win as she crawls her way out of the door unto the floor.
