Two of the biggest names in women’s wrestling in the late 1990s and early 2000s were Lita and Chyna. Of course, there were other household names, but these two become revolutionary and are celebrated still for their contributions. The two met at the Judgement Day pay-per-view in 2001 with the WWF Women’s Championship on the line.
Heading into the match, Chyna was the champion in her first and only reign when she defeated Ivory at WrestleMania X-Seven. Lita was going for her second reign. Chyna was able to defeat Lita and this in fact became her last match with the company as she exited later in that year. From that, the championship was vacated and Trish Stratus won it in a six-pack challenge.
Lita spoke with Corey Graves on his podcast, After the Bell, and discussed many topics. Of that came the discussion that Lita was supposed to have a series of pay-per-view matches with Chyna. This never came to see the light of day as Chyna exited the company.
“When Chyna was transitioning from working with only men and then to women, she went through Ivory and Right To Censor and then into a program with me. We had one pay-per-view match together and it was supposed to be a three pay-per-view program. So, intentionally, the first match we had was solid. It was okay, but we wanted to give the people just enough for them to go, ‘There’s something here. We want to see more.’ We held back knowing, thinking, that we were going to have two more matches, but she ended up not working there. That was the end of her time with WWE and we didn’t have that program.”
Lita stated that she and Chyna held back from that match as they expected more time to shine and show what they could do together. From this experience, Lita learned to take every opportunity
“I have been told this advice before. Any opportunity you have, make the most of it, act like it’s your last match every night, and if I had done that, we would have had a much more memorable match.”
What do you think of this? Would you have liked to see more high profile matches between Chyna and Lita? Let us know in the comment section below.
Transcription credit goes to Fightful and credit for the podcast to After the Bell with Corey Graves.
