Trish Stratus

[thebrainfollower]

Exactly. Imagine being told one week you have to wrestle Torrie Wilson in a bikini match or something like that and the next week you have to face Jazz. Oh and by the way, you have to make both look like they could beat you AND you could beat both of them? It would be like someone, as I said asking Flair to have a tuxedo match with Jim Cornette in the middle of his Steamboat series and make it look close.

 

And nobody else was ever asked to do that sort of nonsense. It comes down to my basic case which is her work environment was absolutely the most insane, terrifying stuff in terms of how the HELL do you make this work anyone's ever had in wrestling I can think of. That she produced good stuff in that is admirable for me. Maybe it shouldn't warrant a top 100 spot, but I feel we should all be allowed one sentimental pick.

 

Matt D is absolutely right though. She never really drew money or contributed to the WWE's bottom line at all. One Raw Main Event is about it.

 

And I looked at the results. She literally would go from Jazz to Terri or from Stacy to Victoria/Molly week in and week out. It was nuts.

[WingedEagle]

Don't know you and am thus not in a position to judge. I simply don't see how a worker's performance in lingerie matches contributes to their case as an all-time great professional wrestler.

[thebrainfollower]

It's kinda the same as Greg Gagne's ability to work a weasel suit match with Bobby Heenan. Does that work as an analogy? The ability to work what I see as a comedy match then switch to a serious match.

[WingedEagle]

As an analogy, yes.

[thebrainfollower]

So for me ability to work comedy really helps. For instance I'm going to put Bobby Heenan high because one thing that shocked me when he did have to be taken seriously as a wrestler (against a certain legit AWA scumbag) he was really good at it and pulled it off amazingly well and that shocked me.

 

He was able to beat Sal Bellomo in a way that felt believable in 84 as well.

[WingedEagle]

That's great. As others have noted, the best about this project is the process itself. Its been a basis for watching a lot of wrestling that I might not have moved to the top of the list and forced me to think about what I value in wrestling. At the end of the day the list that matters to each of us is our own. As long as we're all comfortable with that one and hopefully look back on it from time to time its well worth it.

[elliott]

In the CHarlotte Flair thread I asked for recommendations and 2 people immediately mentioned a match against Trish. What's the Trish comeback like now that women are treated seriously? How do people view Trish's candidacy now?

[Grimmas]

In the Charlotte match Trish proved she was on that level, just not got the opportunities to prove it until then.

Most of her comeback was tags and such, the Charlotte was the real only big singles chance she got and BOY was it great.

I love Trish, and Stacey is giving me the recs to watch. Her case is compelling and the ultimate great wrestler over greatest career candidate.

[elliott]

I watched a ton of Trish matches at Stacey's recommendation a few years ago and honestly the case is there to be made as I recall its just about taking the time to watch the matches. Queen of the 2 minute match. 

[WingedEagle]

8 hours ago, elliott said:

In the CHarlotte Flair thread I asked for recommendations and 2 people immediately mentioned a match against Trish. What's the Trish comeback like now that women are treated seriously? How do people view Trish's candidacy now?

It was a great match, but just one match.  I wish Trish had a chance to work big matches regularly over the last couple years so I could really answer your questions, as she's hamstrung by what was asked of the women during her time.

[Makai Club #1]

I wouldn't mind checking out some Trish matches. I didn't really like her growing up, but with a fresh set of eyes and a different outlook on what wrestling is could change that. It didn't work with Lita but Trish isn't Lita. 

[elliott]

I watched the Charlotte match and thought it was really good and pretty interesting. It sort of convinced me of two things, one is that I need to run through some old 3 minute Trish matches again at some point because she's really good. The other is that I don't think Charlotte will be a candidate for my list.  I'll save my CHarlotte thoughts for her thread. 

Trish is really good here. One thing that has always stood out about Trish, is that she feels like a star. She has a natural charisma that only a handful of other wrestlers from her era can match. And that comes across here effortlessly. But they don't lean into that as much as you'd think.  Charlotte gets all of the manufactured "Star moments" in the match. Trish is just over because people naturally like her. They make this a showcase for Trish the worker. She gets to do a lot of flashy armdrags and ranas. Classic babyface stuff. If you go back through her career as I recall you'll see a lot of this stuff in her older matches, but she usually would only get to do one spot per match. Nothing would get to really breathe because she would only get a couple of minutes so it would be easy to forget about that HUGE bump she took or the nifty spot. Here she gets to basically show all of her stuff and have a real match. Its awesome and I'm glad she got this opportunity. 

[Phil Schneider]

Guys this is the greatest 100 wrestlers of all time. Had a bunch good 90 second matches with Victoria on RAW can't qualify someone for something like this

[Microstatistics]

Very solid worker but an all time Top 100 seems like a bridge too far. If WWE had taken women's wrestling more seriously during the 2000s then maybe but you can't work based off of hypotheticals.

[The Man in Blak]

I feel like a candidacy for Trish is less of an argument for her resume and more of a proxy argument for how much context (or let’s say “environmental or external factors”) weighs into your ballots and how that sort of consideration carries over to other workers.

Five years is a long time to dig into the contexts of all the candidates, Trish included. I think we can make the most of that time.

[NotJayTabb]

No disrespect to Trish, but I think I could name 100 better wrestlers than her without thinking that hard. I could probably name 10 better women wrestlers currently under contract to WWE, and given that there's only one Horsewoman who I think could make my list, she's not making it. 

[Reel]

Was she better than the opportunities she got? Almost, certainly. But, what happened, happened, and what happened was mostly a whole lot of nothing.