Soon-to-be WWE Hall of Famer Lita recently took part in two podcasts interviews: WWE’s 30 Years of WrestleMania and Jim Ross‘s The Ross Report. She touched on her WWE career, her Hall of Fame plans and her future.
On the 30 Years of WrestleMania podcast, she spoke to Renee Young about WrestleMania-centric topics.
Could we see Divas get more involved in more high-risk moments?: “I think that we could. The thing is with the WWE, you just never know the direction of things or how they’re going to evolve, so I just feel like it’s one of those really small moments that could just be a moment in TV or it expands all the way into the storylines, which is how my relationship with Kane came about. I was going to be just one of the many girls that was scared of Kane when he does his fire and stands over you because it’s this great visual for TV…From there, it became a six month storyline. So I do think that it would be possible, it just that right moment organically happening and then growing from that.”
Finding a wedding dress for her on-screen wedding to Edge: “So I don’t want to walk into a store and be like, ‘I’m a big star! I’m on television!’ So they say, ‘Well, what are you looking for?’…I remember taking the second dress, taking just my top off, so I still have my workout shoes and sweatpants on, and I just have the dress pulled up and she hasn’t zipped up all the way and being like, ‘Yeah yeah yeah, this is fine.'”
Being sidelined for WrestleMania 21: “I tore everything in my knee, so that kind of changed the direction for everything for a while. I was the champion at the time. Not being able to stand, I did not leave that match the champion. I kind of had to redirect and rehab and make due with the variables that we had. Christy Hemme had just won the Diva competition, so they decided to thrust her out there and see what happens. It was a challenging spot to be in, especially with not having full mobility. It was tough, but I still got to be part of the event…Personally [Christy] is someone that I clicked with as a human, so I wasn’t like, ‘Oh no, I’m helping this girl who I think sucks.’ But absolutely I would have rather been out there…I remember sitting at home when my neck was broken and that was when Trish Stratus really started stepping up her wrestling game and emerging and solidifying herself more as a wrestler and not just a valet. And while I was like, ‘Wow, this is interesting to watch.’ I was kind of like, ‘Man, I should be out there doing that stuff.’ It’s hard to not feel like that because you can’t be there and there’s nothing you can do to be doing it at that time.”
Her dream WrestleMania match: “I would love to do myself and Stone Cold versus The Rock and Trish.”
Advice to Divas wrestling in their first WrestleMania: “I would say, ‘If you’ve been chosen for a match at WrestleMania, you’ve already done the work. So just go out there and do your thing.'”
Lita then called up Trish, who she asked to induct her in the Hall of Fame. Trish is shocked, but accepts. Trish says she would be honored to induct her into the Hall of Fame. The two have a lengthy conversation to close the podcast.
On Jim Ross‘s Ross Report, Lita delved into more personal topics.
Discovering pro wrestling: “As soon as I watched it, I was a fan, but a fan in a way that was like, ‘Wow, that’s a really cool job.’ I’d sit and watch it, but I’d watch it almost as if I was looking from their perspective…My friend were cheering, and I was going, ‘That’s interesting how that played out.’ That’s what lead to me on my quest to becoming a wrestler from the first place. It was almost kind of like a student from day one as opposed to a fan.”
Was participating in the Matt Hardy/Edge storyline difficult?: “Absolutely it was. It was very hard to come to work every day. It was probably the darkest period of my life, absolutely…I remember the girls in the locker room going, ‘You look so great! You’re so skinny!’ And I’m like, ‘I have an ulcer. I don’t eat.’ I was miserable…I would be walking my dog on my day off and someone would open their window and scream, ‘You screwed Matt.’ There was no escaping it anywhere. It was pretty awful.”
Did she have second thoughts about the “live sex celebration”?: “I had 8,000 thoughts, but they weren’t going to mean anything because once Vince has his mind set on something, there was no option there. Other than leaving the building, there was no option.”
Dating fellow wrestlers: “I do feel to an extent it could be unavoidable, because you’re inside this bubble and you have people around you are also inside this bubble and it’s hard to get outside of it. You’re on the road 300 days a year, you’re living this really crazy life, which can be hard for a normal person to relate to or identify with. So I absolutely understand how it happens, but it usually ends a little messy.”
Intergender matches: “Those were definitely some of my favorite matches I’ve ever done. There’s just so many elements you can do: sexual elements, comedy elements, and you can also be a real bad ass interacting with the dudes on a level that you normally don’t get to interact.”
What’s better – being a babyface or a heel?:“They’re both different. I really loved being a babyface, but it was fun for me at the end of my career to be a heel, because you’re leading the match and dictating the pace and you’re in control of what’s happening.”
Would she wrestle one more match?: “If it was the right deal and the right time, I could. I feel great physically. I’d want it to be something that I’d be able to have fun doing…For something big, I’d go for one more match.”
You can listen to the full 30 Years of WrestleMania interview by clicking here, and the full Ross Report interview by clicking here.
