thebrainfollower

Well I deliberately started off with her lesser stuff against lesser opponents. I've covered only the Molly series in any detail and that's probably her 4th or 5th best feud in terms of quality. Given how unaware most of you are of her, I probably should have started off with the best stuff first and that's my bad.

Re-tell yes. Analyze no

Your dad beats my dad then.

As a real historian and teacher I generally feel like the 60's are as far back as you can go and really analyze what happened and what its impact is. I think we have just reached a point where you can really talk about what Watergate meant and did. Whether that's Hornbaker's thoughts I cannot say.

I both do and don't agree with you on that Johnny.

Looking at my list today I may have a HUGE North American bias as that is my favorite style and what I grew up with. Of my list only 25 people are Japanese and Mexican wrestlers (not counting Rey and Eddie and a few others who did as much if not more in the US to make my case for them than they did Japan or Mexico). That might help explain this to you. Or it might not.

A top heel that never loses and emasculates the talent is the worst kind of heat. Regardless of her mic skills Stephanie has been one of the worst things to happen to pro wrestling.

I never saw a single 1980's SNME around when they happened. We got a Betamax in 1987 and my dad said he would tape them for me. Every time I asked and every time he said it "didn't work". Years later he told me could never figure out how to tape while away or when watching another show so after one try he never tried again and just lied. However it was the clips shown on Superstars that sold to me better than Superstars itself did how awesome watching WWF was to a young boy. I did catch the Main Events and the last few on Fox.

I don't feel there's anything new here I haven't responded to. Trish gets about a 24 from me on Parv's system. That ain't changing. I don't see why it bothers some people that a few people are gonna put her on and more are considering her to be honest the amount it seems to but whatever, it's no big deal.

And Bobby is top 50. If this list were PERFORMERS who did wrestling in any capacity he'd be #1. My name has a meaning behind it.

What's her best match Jimmy in your view?

I think she hit 4 stars twice and will go into why on the microscope when I get there.

Trish Stratus vs. Victoria vs. Jazz - WM XIX Story here is Trish is screwed. She feuded with Victoria for six months prior to this. Victoria was bigger and stronger and more vicious and used that to beat her at Survivor Series for the title. In the rematch Victoria debuted the Widow's Peak, played up as an instant death killer move and won that too. Then Steven Richards become Victoria's sidekick and helped her beat Trish in a great Chicago street fight to make it 3 straight in singles match between the two. Right after that match Jazz returned (to a huge look of fear from Trish, kudos to her showing that for a rival) and destroyed her, knocking her out of action for 6 weeks. Trish returned with a real fire and wanted payback. Her chances of getting it though are slim. This is like Sting vs. Champion Vader with Harley Race AND returning Lex Luger. It's basically a 3 on 1 with Trish fighting the two top women heels and their manager all at once. And one of those managers is a wrestler twice her size btw. Jazz with a vicious forearm from behind to Trish to start and then she dumps Victoria. Great standing dropkick from Jazz to Trish gets 2. Nasty nasty forearms to the side of the face and Jazz locks in a modified STF. Jazz releases to knock Victoria out of the ring but Trish attacks with a Thesz press and punches. Best she's done that move and it's still not that great to be honest. Trish hammers away and makes Jazz eat boot on a charge but when she climbs outside to go to the top rope Victoria pulls her down. And in breakneck speed Trish crashes to the apron face first and to the floor in a heap in another WTF is a 120 lb woman doing taking these bumps in "piss break matches" (to quote a critic). Victoria then dumps Jazz and Trish hammers her till Victoria saves with a forearm from behind. Flip over the ropes legdrop from Victoria to Trish and Jazz saves. Sweet Jazz legdrop on Trish gets 2 till Victoria saves. It's the theme of all triple threats, the underdog has a chance because the other two wrestlers EACH wanna win. Nothing new but done well. Jazz and Victoria tease issues but instead attack Trish hitting a weird looking flipping double shoulderbreaker. See it yourself, it did look nasty for Trish at the end. Jazz attacks Victoria who counters with a nice off the ropes powerslam. This is just the divas version of bomb throwing but it's done well and they have less than 10 minutes again so bomb throwing makes sense esp given the feuds this was blowing off over a year. Victoria hammers Jazz in the corner but Trish counters with a rollup into a full bridge that's really really well done esp given how smaller she is to Victoria. It gets a nice pop from the crowd too. Victoria clotheslines Trish who does an oversell that almost goes into a flip but instead is just a very good back bump. Irish whip and Trish hits a martial arts kick to reverse, best she's ever done that move too and a SOLID vicious looking clothesline esp given her size to come back. Jazz clobbers Trish from behind and hits a really nice running powerslam into a driver for 2. The heels go nuts on each other (Jazz - What the hell are you doing LOUDLY lol) and attack in the corner. Trish rams them into other and then does a double noggin knocker to a nice pop as the crowd gets the idea, Trish finally getting revenge for a year of all the stuff both have done to her. Trish hammers both with forearms until Victoria holds her for Jazz to finish her off. Spin kick nails Victoria instead and Trish rolls Jazz up for 2. Good fast victory roll from Trish gets another 2. Chick kick (with Jazz putting her hands up to protect the hit, I mean come on how much can Trish do in real life lol) to Jazz gets 2. Nasty knee from Victoria but Trish counters a top rope move with the stratusphere. Against face Trish going to the top rope is as risky as powerbombing Kidman lol Trish nails Jazz with a clothesline and chops away on Victoria. Victoria is knocked to the floor but Jazz blocks the chick kick and locks in her half boston crab, one of her finishers back then. Again Trish can sell submissions with great sympathy. Trish almost makes the ropes so Jazz converts to the STF bending Trish's body in what looks like it legit hurt somewhat. Richards saves by dumping Jazz so his GF doesn't lose her title. Victoria rolls Trish in, rolls her up with the tights and Trish uses the same reverse and roll of the tights (with both women pulling each other's shorts/pants down a bit) to show Trish STILL has ideas to work that simple spot in her matches a different way each time. Jazz clotheslines Victoria down and puts Trish in her lifting double chicken wing then slams her from high above face first with Trish selling a nose injury. Victoria hits a NASTY superkick on Jazz that Jazz sells as a legit KO. GORGEOUS top rope moonsault from Victoria misses. Victoria manages to dump Jazz to the floor soon after and Richards attacks Trish with a chair who ducks and Richards clobbers himself. The announcers sell what an idiot he is. Trish then hits HIM with her stratusfaction bulldog with Richards selling like a total pro, they easily get 10 feet in the air for the most insane one ever done (inc Kidman's) to a HUGE pop that brings the crowd to its feet and Trish taunts him like she's finally gotten payback for months of grief. Widows peak looks to finish but Trish is finally able to counter, sliding down Victoria's back. Victoria kicks and whips Trish in but Trish hits a killer chick kick square to the chest which Victoria sells like a KO and an exhausted Trish, with nothing left in her, covers for the win and regains her title to a good pop. If the match has a flaw it's that nothing was done to Jazz to warrant her being out on the floor for the last minute. I SO want to give this 4 stars as it's the one of the best face overcoming insane odds stories I've seen from WWE as Trish's win is both inspiring, gets a reaction and makes sense at least in how it resolves stuff with Victoria AND keeps everyone strong. But despite that insane stratusfaction and incredibly stiff shots and good bombs throughout it's not QUITE there so I'm giving it 3 and 3 quarters stars. Only better matches that night were Angle-Lesnar and Michaels-Jericho.

Okay now your metric has me lost. Do you consider Giant Gonzalez a 0 in terms of in ring work? She's certainly a heck of a lot better than him. If you mean 0 as the worst for the people ON this list and 10 for the best then I give her a 2. Ah you meant STYLES and not roles. Okay in ability to work styles I'd give her a 3. Those are two totally different things to me. She also worked REALLY nice hardcore matches against Victoria. And No I guess she's not as good as Hulk Hogan and the rest at character work/intangibles. If they are a 10 she's a 7. And a solid seven at that for much of her career which is nothing to be ashamed of. Again six and a half year career is the norm for women's wrestlers in North America. It's longer than either Magnum TA or the Rock's careers minus one match comebacks. She was THE top star of her division for 2/3 of her career. You can't realistically ask more than that. Are you seriously suggesting WWE would have a 120 lb 5'4 woman be their top star and world champion? No matter how good Trish was that was not and could not happen. So I guess it's a sort of affirmative action where I take all those negatives, look at how she overcame them and include her. To most of you being a WWE women's wrestler is an automatic DQ for inclusion on this list. It's NOT for me and she's on mine. And I've rewatched the matches recently for the little things like was done for late Andre and Demolition. I doubt anyone else here has to be honest. I guess I'm more willing to overlook a bad environment and MORE willing to credit someone who overcomes that than most of you. I have no problem with that or your willingness not to. Reworking your numbers now that I understand them Jerry she gets a 24 for me.

Jerry she didn't have 20 MEMORABLE opponents. She had 19 singles opponents PERIOD in her career. I don't hold that against her as that was all she was allowed to wrestle and she got something good out of half of them and decent ones out of some who weren't even wrestlers for cripes sakes If we add men however she had memorable and good exchanges with Vince McMahon, Jericho, Christian, the Rock, Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero (who actually sold her bulldog when Chyna refused to do so pre match, I kid you not). As for your other metrics Jerry....... I would argue she had four great matches in her career. In a career of about 30 PPV matches and less than 100 TV ones that's not too bad actually. As to peak...........she had a 6 and a half year career. She was THE top star of the women's division, booked and treated totally differently than the men's for 4 and a half of those years. Take into account you DO have to adjust for North American women having bodies that force shorter careers. Even Sherri Martel never worked full time as a wrestler as long as Trish. Gail Kim seems to be the max at 12 years and I'd argue she's very overrated. Trish had a longer career than Magnum TA though. But I get she wasn't a top 30 worker in those years compared to all the men worldwide. I'm more willing to rate her higher based on none of that being her fault or even possible given where she chose to work at that time. Before you knock her on that, she grew up on WWF and that was really all she knew, so wanting to be the top there as opposed to Japan is understandable at least. Ability to work different roles? She gets a high score easily there Jerry. Watch her work wimpy cowardly heel in 2000, up and coming babyface in 2001, top champ in 02 and 03 completely reinvent herself in 2004 as a vicious nasty psychopath heel and mega bully and then AGAIN when turning face. You could plug her into ANY role within her size to do (you couldn't book Ric Flair as a giant either) and she hit it out of the park. Watch all the matches I am reviewing to see how she could adjust her role. On your system she gets Basic Skills - 4 - sold well did almost everything she tried really well and had a good logical varied moveset that often worked into the psych of the match. Length of Peak - 4 - Adjusting for length of women's careers. Like adjusting for race in college I am willing to do this. Intangibles - Promo, look, work ethic, overcoming impossible deck stacked, yeah I give her a 10. Also she did the fitness model thing to pay for medical school and based her body on 80's and 90's comic book women, because she was a huge fan of those superheroines. Never (at least that anyone's reported) used sex or had an affair with a wrestler. Instead stayed with her high school sweetheart (not a great looking guy just an average joe) her whole life and left her career behind at her peak to marry him because she felt he waited long enough and now just posts on FB about her great her son is. I don't give her points for that stuff but in a business filled with scumbags and heroes who have let so many of us down, maybe I SHOULD. Variety - 6. Had really good stuff with 40% of her opponents. Had a good match with EVERY trained wrestler who was not just a model trying to wrestle she ever faced. That wasn't that many people but that's the numbers of her division working against her IMO. Great Matches - 2 - Had 4 matches I'd call great out of about 100 I've seen. Ability to work different roles - measly wimp you wanna see get hers (Fully Loaded 2000), up and coming model trying to learn to wrestle, Sting role as the person using passion and moves to compete with the best, women's best wrestler and babyface star, nasty vicious heel, smarter as heck heel women's champ and finally the Cena role for her last year. Check at excelling at all of those. Give her an 8 here. Using your score I rate her a 34. Where would that put her on your list?

Yeah that is definitely it. Trish did have a few great matches given the limitations of WWE (keep in mind she was never allowed to have a singles matches over 12 minutes in her career) and worked hard night in and night out to make things that should have been a disaster work. Given the sexism, the insane announcing, the fact that she was initially seen as a fitness model who had nothing to offer but huge tits, the way divas matches were treated and dealt with back than and the fact that she basically worked 8 opponents who knew what they were doing and 12 people who would barely qualify as wrestlers, the fact that's she's 5'4 120bs and once she became a wrestler dropped even her fitness model muscle to protect her body, the fact that she had to lobby and beg Vince for a whole year to get that 2004 heel turn, being eaten up by Chyna (Lita and Jazz def did this to her too at times but not on purpose) I mean come on. If this list were North American workers who overcame insane handicaps to produce night in and night out decent quality work she wouldn't be ON my list she'd be top 10.

Trish Stratus vs. Molly vs. Victoria - Raw September 2002 The night after. Transitioning Trish from Molly to Victoria. Victoria had beaten Trish in her debut then lost to her in a rematch but this was before they really had a feud. Trish's celebration title pose as she is announced is great, shows real joy and you can see how much having the division being built around her means to her. Trish should be toast here given this is basically a handicap match. Trish and Victoria start to brawl as Molly makes her entrance. Molly sends Trish flying with the hair pull, she really should have cut her hair given this happens twice a match from Molly lol. Trish is whipped to the corner but Molly catches an elbow and Trish tosses Victoria to the apron but Victoria lands on it and decks Trish. Bodyslam from Molly to a flipping legdrop from the apron from Victoria. Good spot. Molly holds Trish but Victoria's kick hits Molly and Trish rolls up Victoria for 2. Nice backslide from Victoria but Molly kicks her off. They argue and Trish charges but they double elbow her down easily and go back to work on her. The hammer away and Molly hits the elbow as the crowd chants loudly for something. Victoria follows up with a shoulder to the corner as Trish sells this double team beating well. They take turns slapping her to good sympathy and are doing nice heel work here. Trish ducks the double clothesline and drops them both with a flying one that gets a nice pop. Forearms and Trish hits her swank neckbreaker on Victoria then decks Molly with the chick kick. Whip on Victoria to the corner is countered with an elbow and Victoria goes up top only to get hit with the stratusphere. It's like trying to powerbomb Kidman. Trish goes for the stratusfaction bulldog to win but Molly lift and tosses her over the top rope and straight to the floor. Holy jeez. That's a 120 lb woman taking that bump. Trish is gutsy. Victoria gets 2 on Molly. Replay shows Trish landed RIGHT on her hip, how did that not injure her? Standing suplex on Molly and Victoria whiffs on the top rope moonsault. That was taken out of her arsenal fast as it was Lita's move but VIctoria did it better not always landing her opponent's knees. Both women stagger up, Trish comes in and goes for the same rollup as the KOTR match. Again Molly goes for the tights but Trish was expecting that and kicks Molly off into Victoria knocking her down and letting Trish roll Molly up for the 3. See the way 3/4 of the matches are worked around the move used to end the first one. That's smart wrestling, WWE Women in this time COULD do that too. 2 and three quarters stars. This is the best women's triple threat under 5 minutes you could have possibly had. Trish took a just insane bump here, crowd was into everything and the women all worked their tails off. Should have gotten 10 more easily on a PPV. Trish and Molly had a few more singles the next year and a really good heel vs heel on Heat in early 2005 but as far as a real feud goes this was it.

Trish Stratus vs. Molly Holly - Unforgiven 2002 Molly won a rematch and they feuded for a few months, involving Regal and the Dudleys among others. This is right after HHH-RVD and this crowd is DEAD as a result. Trish is more cautious, having learned from the last title match. Trish with a full nelson and hammerlock and Molly with her usual good nasty hair pull. Molly with a wristlock standing while Trish is grounded, again watch Trish's first rate in pain selling. Trish kips up and goes for a hammerlock, reversed into a fast fireman's carry for 2 but Trish counters that with a rollup for 2 herself. Trish with a nice armdrag and a swank Japanese armdrag to follow up then a decent dropkick as Lawler puts over how much better Trish has gotten as a wrestler. It's about time. Swinging neckbreaker gets 2. Odd screw up from Molly as Trish lifts her with Molly supposed to deck her to take over. She takes too long though and Trish holds her there for 2 seconds too long. Trish was by no means perfect and couldn't always improvise off a mistake, esp at this point. Trish kicks Molly out of the corner but whiffs on the elbowdrop for Molly to take over. Nice snap suplex from Molly. Molly tosses Trish to the floor and Trish takes it really well getting a legit sympathy OOH from the crowd. Molly rams her into the steel steps with Trish using her elbow to create a legit good sound effect for more sympathy. Whip into the guardrail and Trish tries to fight back only to get hair pulled down to the floor again. Molly wraps Trish's arms around her own neck and chokes her out for the submission spot of this match. It runs about 45 seconds and is well done but should NOT have been done with this dead crowd. Girls should have just gone all out throwing fast moves for 6 minutes to try and wake the fans up. Trish with a judo throw to escape. Nice dropkick to Trish's face as she tries to get up. Trish with a cradle and a rollup that she doesn't do too well and Molly counters with the tripping Trish into the bottom rope throat first they always do. Whip to the corner but Trish flips out of a backbreaker into the bulldog for 2. Good spot. Molly hammers but misses a clothesline and Trish hits the chick kick for 2. Trish charges the corner but Molly kicks her hard square in the chest to send Trish flying. Trish counter the Molly Go Round with a crotch drop and goes for the stratusphere but Molly has learned and counters that by grabbing one leg and hanging Trish upside down in the corner. See how one match builds on the next........like real wrestling should. Molly hits her handspring into the corner, butt instead of elbow to sort of pay off the fat butt story. That gets a near 2. Trish look done and Molly whips her into the ropes and grabs her waist for something but Trish counters that into a high bulldog for the pin. I got what they were going for, with Trish out of it again but this time busting out a new variation of her finisher to win but it kinda fell flat. Both women tried but were noticeably off and the DEAD DEAD crowd did not help. Then again Trish had to work after HHH matches a lot. 2 and a quarter stars. The KOTR match was much better, both were off for this one.

Trish Stratus vs. Molly Holly - KOTR 2002 Trish regained the title from Jazz in a tag match due to Jazz having a knee injury. Molly started attacking Trish with brass knuckles and Trish then mocked her large rear. Always found this a bit offensive but Trish maintained Molly didn't mind and they did comedy spots at house shows built around mocking her and then Molly knocking her silly with it for a bit of comeuppance for the face bully. Trish runs in showing rage and fire for the cheating and sneak attacks Molly has done, tossing her hat at her and having to be restrained by the referee. Story here is Trish has lost her cool and Molly is inside her head. Using the ref and Trish taking her belt off, Molly attacks to start. Bodyslam and elbow get 1 and JR sells it was too early for a win. Trish counters a backdrop with a martial arts kick. Trish with her usual sharp forearms but Molly uses a backdrop to counter which Trish takes well for her size. Nasty hair pull gets 2 but Trish counters the turnbuckle smash with one of her own. Trish goes in but countered to a good looking armbar takedown from Molly. Trish's sympathy selling is amazing, never saw a US woman sell holds better than her. Sadly the announcers spend half the match talking about Molly in a thong then JR in a thong. Trish with a crucifix to counter for 2 but Molly hammers and kicks away, showing anger and frustration. Molly with an Irish whip that Trish somehow counters into a victory roll that is pretty great to see. Crowd gives it a nice OOOH too. There's usually a point in Trish matches in this run where she finds SOME way to stop the puppies chanting. Good for her. Trish counters a clothesline with a great snap neckbreaker, same as HHH. Only Trish does it like 3 times better easily lol. Trish with another complicated great rollup for 2. Molly with a drop toehold to the ropes and choking to follow up on the neck. Dropkick that looks like it caught her legit on the chin sends Trish to the floor and Molly slams her head to the apron. Trish's selling is just quality stuff, the feeling of being overwhelmed is so obvious in her facials. Molly then whips Trish into the guardrail with Trish flying over it and landing at the fans. Again keep in mind this is a 120 lb woman trained WWF style trying this stuff. Molly throws her over the fans section to the floor in another solid spot. Molly tosses Trish back in and stops to taunt the fans. Trish uses the chick kick to knock Molly off the apron to the floor. Molly's bumps are good, Trish's are better. King asks if JR would play naked Twister with Molly as I just want to slap him for being such a sexist pig who couldn't give the women any credit. Molly hits a kick and goes for the Molly go Round but Trish drops her crotch first on the top rope, looking uber angry as she forearms away. Trish goes for the superplex but Molly knocks her off so Trish busts out the stratusphere headscissors which I believe was the first time she used that move to a good pop. Trish chops well the first time, less on the second and more on the third. She ducks Molly's attempt to return in kind and does some more then reverses an Irish Whip with a flying clothesline. Trish with a dropkick, Molly counters with a jawbreaker then Trish counters that with her chick kick. Molly doesn't really sell it well, going to her knees instead of being knocked down but they tried really hard. Trish goes for her bulldog but Molly shoves her into the ropes and hits a German suplex for 2. Trish is clearly playing semi knocked out from the move and is pickings to a hair pull slam. Molly Go Round looks to finish but Trish ducks and Molly splats. This time Trish goes for the same rollup but Molly counters with her own and pulls the tights to win the title. Good way to link to the earlier match. Next time Trish comes out and basically says she proved how good she was to herself in losing, that she could hang with Molly and will get her next time. 3 stars. Quiet crowd aside both women worked really hard. I still feel Trish worked a bit harder here especially in facial expressions and selling and Molly brought more moves. Sort of Rey vs. Dean as a debate almost. Definitely the best match of Trish's career at this point as I consider the Stephanie one an extended squash as Stephanie gave Trish next to nothing in their match. And this was still very early on for Trish. Meltzer gave this one and 3 quarters which I feel is underrating it a lot. In general he didn't care for Trish until her retirement match it would seem looking at his star ratings for her.

Trish vs. Molly Holly - Raw April 2002 - #1 Contender's Match Molly was definitely Trish's best opponent in her rookie year. They feuded in the fall of 2000 with Trish actually doing moves and looking like a competent wrestler for the first time. Also wrestled a bit in 2001 as Trish showed vast improvement after returning from an injury in October. Here Molly had turned heel on Trish and they needed someone to face Jazz while Lita filmed Dark Angel. During that Lita hurt her neck and was out for a year and half. As a result Trish stepped into her spot as the top babyface in the division. Molly lands a quick armdrag, well sold by Trish who lands on her side. Bodyslam and again, against a good opponent Trish sells every move like it means and hurt a lot. The moves don't often connect with the finish but that's WWE for you to be honest. Molly with an armbar to a wristlock and Trish reverses. The crowd chants for puppies. Trish had her work cut out for her. Nasty hair pull from Molly to escape. Molly with a sitting wristlock and Trish kips ups to a forearm that gets a little ooh from the crowd. Molly ducks a clothesline and bails. Trish is frustrated so she baseball slides Molly and slams her head into the announcer's table as well then tosses her back in. Kicks and forearms but Trish puts her head down and gets her head slammed into the mat in return for Molly to take over. Molly with a nasty kick and an equally nasty hair toss. Her moves are good but she shows little emotion in there. Trish is a much much better personality and heel than her. Weird spot as Molly sets for a backbreaker, called as such but never really extends the knee so she just throws Trish off, but Trish sells it like a backbreaker. Could have been the camera angle. Molly splats on a missed Molly Go Round and Trish takes over. Trish sells the comeback well, struggling with each move due to her back hurting. Trish with an early chick kick that Molly sells really really well put over by Jim Ross. Trish whiff on a second kick and Molly rolls her up with the tights but Trish reverses that. Trish ALMOST goes to put her hands on Molly's tights in return but realizes that would be cheating and sort of does and doesn't (though it's called that by JR). Keep that finish in mind as they use it very creatively throughout this whole feud. 2 and a quarter stars. Technically better than the Stacy match and passion shown from Trish but nothing more than solid stuff here either way.

Trish Stratus vs. Ashley - Raw 2006 Night after NYR vs. Mickie James, a great match. Lockup and then do some basic and not terribly acted or worked chain wrestling. Trish's selling is decent the gentle slo mo way she throws an elbow puts Ashley into the non workers who couldn't wrestle category clearly. I don't really recall her at all to be honest. Fireman's carry gets 2 but Ashley forgets to kick out so Trish just lifts herself up before 3. Eva Marie had a sister I see in Ashley. More mat wrestling and Trish does do a good headlock takedown I will say. Trish goes for a corner spring headscissors and Ashley drops her face first with Trish doing all the work. Flair's broomsticks have nothing on some of Trish's opponents. Ashley goes for the cover so Mickie attacks. And that's that. half star match. This was the worst I have seen so far. Trish was NOT capable of getting much out of models who could not wrestle. Then again I don't hold that against her as nobody else could either. I will say this of those types Stacy actually WAS better than Torrie, Ashley, Christy, Candice or Terri by a long shot in ring too. Gonna start covering some actual good Trish Stratus matches tonight. Might do her two PPV matches with Molly from 2002.

Trish Stratus vs. Terri - Lingerie Match Raw May 2002 No feud to set this up. Trish was feuding with Molly who had knocked her out with brass knuckles the week before. Trish's attire is nice. Sign at ringside asks for Trish's number. Lawler is so bad here it's unbearable. I never even got the internal logic of this. These sorts of matches were meant to appeal to teenage boys. Did WWE really think having a 45 year old man drooling like an idiot over the same women these teen boys were supposed to be into would help? I dunno. Terri dodges a Trish charge.....not too badly. Terri ducks a clothesline and drops Trish with a hair pull. Some absolutely cringe inducing head slams to the turnbuckle and I have to blame Trish for those. Odd because she let Jazz beat the hell out of her that year with no problem and Victoria too later. Bodyslam and a decent top rope cross body from Terri (for a 5 foot tall 110 lb woman in lingerie) follow. Trish fights back with kicks, forearms, a snapmare and a snap suplex. None of this is TERRIBLY done but it's done well done at all either. I don't know if it is the attire, opponent or both. Trish eats boot but goes for a powerbomb out of the corner for a gratuitous shot but Terri rolls up for 2 to counter. Trish counters a charge with a boot and bulldogs Terri for the pin. Molly tries to attack with the nuks but Trish blocks with the belt and KO's Molly then shoves her panties into Molly's mouth. Well that was classy. 1 star match and I am being generous. Grading on a curve as it was designed to showcase women's bodies rather than have anything to do with wrestling. If you liked ogling Trish as a teenager this was hot, as wrestling it was absolutely awful and Trish's worst match that year bar one (yes THAT one). And it was STILL the best singles match she had with Terri. Only two models who could barely wrestle from here on out. To the earlier point about Trish having 20 different opponents.......of those only nine were full time wrestlers and not the likes of Terri, Stacy and Torrie. Well Candice became okayish but not at this point.

Trish Stratus vs. Candice Michelle - Raw March 2006 I'll get to Trish's quality matches I promise. But of her 20 opponents it's even more telling many weren't even really wrestlers. Candice eventually became okay if incredibly injury prone but this is early on. Story here is Candice beat Mickie with Victoria's help and gets a title shot. Trish is still with Mickie and Torrie is still with Candice so I might be a month off with the date. Candice's sexuality is so over the top as to be almost an operatic like parody of what WWE wanted from its divas. It's amusing for that. Candice attacks with the magic wand to the ribs and Trish sells that. Candice hammers away and does the corner choke, same basic selling we saw for Stacy but not as much fire. Then again selling a few measly shots from Candice at the start of the match was probably overselling. Okay knees and a pretty good high kick from Candice follow. Candice does her twirling pose and goes for a kick and Trish catches her leg, giving her some verbal berating to the effect of "you had your fun now it's serious". Joey Styles sells the idea that Candice is an airhead for even thinking she can with this match. Trish takes Candice down and hammers away. Her punches show why she was better off sticking with forearms to be honest. Ma Trish to duck a clothesline and Trish hits a decent standing dropkick with Candice leaping UP into it so she can take it..........in the stomach. Well that's just strange. Trish hammers away and returns the favor with a boot choke of her own until Candice trips her into the ropes throat first. Meanwhile Lawler talks about how hot it would be for Candice to walk around nude except for the belt. Yes he actually said that. Joey is trying to call this and Coach is halfway between them. Candice slams Trish's face into the mat, but her acting skills do not show anywhere near the cocky heelishness requires for any of this to work. Her face is basically a robot here. Sunset flip is blocked by Torrie cheating which the ref catches and that allows Trish to finish it for the pin. This was not much better than the Torrie match. Again Candice can't do a single move requiring Trish to take a bump and can barely take one herself at this point. A year later............she was much better. Here not so much. Mickie celebrates afterwards by getting on her knees and rubbing her face into.......yeah that happened. You can probably figure it out. It's not hard to understand given the fanbase why Trish got booed out of the building at WM that year but anyone who thinks Attitude era ended in 02 should consider some of this storyline. 1 and quarter star match and that's because it is a hair better than the Torrie one. Keep in mind the match was BARELY 3 minutes long. I'd LIKE to say the bad opponents are done but we still have Terri Runnels and those were even earlier in Trish's career.

We find strange things to help us as performers some times. Which character? I never watched Mad TV but maybe there's a clip online or something so I can compare.

It was THAT long? I wouldn't exactly call anything she did in WCW "wrestling" but I guess it technically is. She retired in 2007 right? Cannot recall any good matches from her to be honest and I know she worked with Victoria many times.