January’s New Year’s Revolution pay per view is not a pleasant memory for WWE superstar Lita. In the midst of a hot feud with Trish Stratus, Lita was defending the Women’s championship against her foe when she leapt from the apron to the floor with a Thesz press, tearing her ACL and sidelining her for the next six months.
Lita signs autographs in Calgary. – photo by Jason Clevett
What is ironic is just weeks earlier, on the December 6th edition of RAW, Lita won the belt in a match where she attempted a tope dive and slammed face-first into the floor and walked away relatively unscathed.
“It was so hard to make it through something as crazy as the dive, people were thinking that I realistically wouldn’t be able to walk away from it, let alone continue the match. I was definitely banged up but I was thankful for how I felt knowing the worst-case scenario,” Lita told SLAM! Wrestling during a recent stop in Calgary at the World of Wheels. “To get through that, and then something as simple as jumping off the apron tweaked my leg. As the rest of the match went on, I was denying to myself that I was hurt, I was sure that my leg would start working again, but it kept buckling, there was nothing left to support it. I forgot the cameras were even on. I was really disappointed because I was enjoying what Trish and I were doing and there was so much more to do.”
It is frustrating for the WWE Diva, who was sidelined for over a year with a neck injury in 2002 and was finally getting back into her groove when she was once again sidelined.
“This injury is different from my neck because I can rehab and see improvements and walk around, but it is very upsetting,” she said.
Lita is one of the few female wrestlers that survived a recent series of cuts that saw Gail Kim, Nidia and Jazz released. Lita is now one of only four actual women wrestlers on the WWE roster, alongside Trish Stratus, Molly Holly and Victoria. It means more opportunities to make the matches important.
“There were times, even when there were more women’s wrestlers, there were a lot of tag matches and other matches for no reason. It is our responsibility, as much as we can, to make every match good and mean something and incorporate it into a storyline to make people care instead of just random wrestling moves.”
Many of the stars fans have read her book Lita: A Less Traveled R.O.A.D. – The Reality of Amy Dumas and have gotten a glimpse into the woman behind the WWE superstar. She is glad that fans haven’t forgotten her and sent out a message to her supporters.
“Right now, I would say that all I want to do, I think about my injury so much and I want to make sure I can come back even better then I was before I got hurt. I was happy with the stride I was finally getting on after not being pregnant on the show. I was finally into something good and I want to make it something better.”
Despite the setbacks, Lita can hold her head high with the knowledge that on December 6th she and Stratus proved something. The two headlined RAW and the match easily held up with any main event in recent memory. They proved the women could be more than just bra and panty matches and pretty faces.
“It was amazing, in one way, I could leave this business tomorrow and be happy that I achieved that. On the other hand, now that I know I can be in that position, it makes me want to try and be ten times better than I ever did before, and I didn’t think that was even possible,” she concluded.
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