Trish Stratus

[thebrainfollower]

Trish Stratus

 

I want to do this to present my case as her being at the very least the WWF Women’s GOAT.

 

Instead of using just her best stuff my goal is to cover every opponent she ever wrestled and I’m going to start with lesser opponents and not so great matches. One point I want to illustrate is that Trish was a very smart worker, particularly as a heel.

 

Trish Stratus vs. Stacy Keibler, Raw October 2004 championship match

 

Lita was injured again and the division was thin, so they noticed Stacy getting good reactions and gave her a little mini push. She got the pin against Trish’s team in 2 tag matches then pinned Molly to set this up. Smart booking as she had not (and never did) pin Trish. Today the champ would have lost 3 non title matches first.

 

One thing I like about heel Trish 04-05 is that in wrestling she wore practical dark clothes and rarely sexed it up. You can’t say the same thing about Sable, Torrie, Stacy, or any of the other divas presented as sex symbols at the time. Shows respect for being a heel. Is Stacy wearing the colors of a local soccer team?

 

The story overall here is Stacy is way over her head and should have no chance. But she has two things going for her. Her height and her long legs which are played up as her best weapon.

 

Anyway they do a little chain wrestling and Stacy gets her slow mo cartwheel to frustrate Trish who ends up in the corner. Trish gets kicked and Stacy does her Nash boot choke. Watch the way Trish sells this. Rather than stand there she is lifted up off her feet and bucks and kicks like she is truly being choked. It gets over STACY KEIBLER as having a great offensive weapon and is one of those little things I love about Trish.

 

Okayish sunset flip gets 2 and Trish bails to avoid the spinning kick, Stacy’s finish at the time. Trish grabs the leg from the floor and posts it well then does this funny heel bit where she folds her arms on the apron and talks smack to Stacy. She was great at playing a very cruel woman. Trish works the leg in the corner, again watch her facials here for the effort she puts into heeling it up then locks in a decent half crab, a new move for her more or less that works the leg. Lawler actually stops drooling to sell the game plan, take out Stacy’s best weapon.

 

More leg work and choking on the ropes. Trish goes for her great corner naked choke but gets slammed off in a really good nasty looking bump. To her credit Stacy sells this, being unable to follow up as her knee is bothering her badly. This sort of selling is actually better than in most WWE matches of this time and Russo stuff for sure for a 4 minute match.

 

Stacy shoves Trish away when she goes for the bulldog so Trish says F this nonsense and viciously kicks her knee out. She then hits the chick kick……….on the shoulder for the pin. NO idea what went wrong there as Stacy was not going down fast. But given that Trish NEVER botched this before or since I will assume it was either an injury on Stacy’s part or the booking. It is a problem though.

 

A 2 star match. Trish wrestled smarter than WWF Flair, giving a weak challenger as much as she should (and that Stacy COULD do) and working a gameplan that negated her opponent’s only hope while being a nasty vicious heel all the way. Good stuff. Remind me of late heel Andre in making each little move and facial expression matter.

 

[Grimmas]

Trish was way better than she should had been. If she came into AJW she maybe could had become a worker that could put out those 4 star matches.

 

However, the handicap and quality of opposition was there and she never got to that level.

[thebrainfollower]

Never said she was the equal in ring of the Japanese women.

 

Trish Stratus vs Torrie Wilson - Raw September 2005

 

This is a bad match. As in one of the lesser matches of her career and certainly one of the worst in this run. But there isn't a good Torrie-Trish singles match out there, nor many tags as opponents. I have heard neither woman cared for the other and I've never heard that about anyone else as it relates to Trish and her opponents. But there's not a single Heel Trish vs. face Torrie around.

 

Story here is Trish came to the rescue of Ashley against Torrie/Candice/Victoria. They never really explained this and it was a weak face turn by far IMO. There's a very contrived spot to allow Ashley to double clothesline Candice and Victoria and basic forearms, punches and chops. Trish does a great job selling Torrie's lousy kicks but that's it. Torrie has no moves she can use to bump Trish and isn't taking any either herself. Ends in a heel miscommunication rollup. I blame Torrie for this to be honest but it was lousy and they only hand one other singles match in 2001 and that's not much better as Trish was still learning then.

 

1 star for Trish's selling Torrie's weak strikes.

[C.S.]

Great thread, and an awesome defense of Trish.

 

Was there ever anyone in wrestling more useless than Torrie Wilson? She was a 10 - until she opened her mouth. Then she dropped down to a 1 in my eyes. Total fucking airhead with nothing going on between the ears. At least that's how she always came across to me, whether in WCW or WWE. I can't comment about her personality in real life, obviously. At least Stacy Keibler seemed nice and perky - someone who might be fun to spend time with. You can certainly understand why Clooney dated her.

[thebrainfollower]

If there's a good Torrie Wilson match out there that's not a tag I am unaware of it.

 

Trish Stratus vs. Gail Kim - Raw August 2003

 

Story here is Gail just lost the title to Molly. Gail was about to turn heel and was a tweener. Trish is a face. The biggest problem with Gail going into this is that she has NO offense other than headscissors and hurricanranas. It got so bad Scott Keith made a gag out of it. Match runs about 5 minutes and has a finish issue but BOY do they fix the Gail offensive issue. The majority of the match is based on submissions and one of the best chinlock spots the company had for the whole darn decade. Seriously check this spot and then use the "Trish could not work mat wrestling or subs argument again".

 

Gail starts off attacking Trish from behind as she makes her way to the ring, cementing a budding heel turn. The bump Trish takes to the floor looks pretty serious and Gail stomps away and chokes her out with her coat. Sliding dropkick gets two and Gail then counters a sunset flip with a NASTY knee to the back of the head. Gail then locks in a chinlock and here is where both but particularly Trish, not known for mat wrestling according to a GOAT 100 argument, really really shines. Trish uses the flip herself out counter really well and Gail keeps the hold locked in, tightening it as Trish sells it even better. Trish tries to whip Gail into the ropes that's blocked so Trish reverts to the back suplex in an increasingly desperation counter, but Gail keeps the hold locked in even after that. Good stuff. Trish's facials and selling she is going out are first rate here. Trish powers up and flips Gail over head to finally break the hold to a decent pop especially for matwork in a 5 minute divas match.

 

A Trish charge eats boot and Gail goes RIGHT back to the sleeper/chinlock (looks a bit like both) to finish. Trish rams her back into the corner and even that BARELY works, taking several attempts as Trish is selling Gail's hold like death here. And even then Gail just locks in another hold a dragon sleeper but Trish uses her feet to climb the ropes and flip out, countering with a reverse DDT on the way down. Awesome stuff. And to the commentary screw Jim Ross for not selling the heck out of what was just one of the best minutes of a chinlock and related stuff I've seen on WWE that decade. Trish fights back with forearms, countered with a knee and Gail runs off the ropes into Trish's spinebuster (Trish kept her head down before the move a second too long IMO). And it's a really high and impactful one as well. Trish chops away (not her best stuff) and ducks a clothesline into her Chick Kick for 2. Gail kicks away and goes for an irish whip blocked into the stratusfaction for 3.

 

Didn't like the finish that much as the chinlock seemed to be forgotten and that was the bulk of the match but that's true of virtually every WWE bout that decade so I let it slide in context. But seriously it's a barely 5 minute match with a 90 second chinlock spot and both girls work it so hard it ends up becoming a really good 5 minute match and the best Gail had in WWE at that point. Now Gail has an offense and a gimmick, submission expert, one she'd keep for the rest of this tenure.

 

2 and 3/4 stars for the most effort in a chinlock WWE had that year. Seriously watch this sequence if you think Trish can't do holds.

[thebrainfollower]

Trish Stratus vs. Christy Hemme - WM 21

 

The other "match" they had was the rematch the night after this, which is actually quite funny as Trish simply KO's Christy with one kick before the bell (To a pretty good pop as Heel Trish was starting to get cheers). Anyway the original idea here was the first ever divas ladder match between Trish and Lita to settle this feud once and for all. But Lita got hurt at NYR 2005 and was out of wrestling for ANOTHER 18 months (Lita actually spent more time on DL than active during her WWE career). With Trish having wrestled the likes of Victoria and Molly to death they decided to go with Christy Hemme due to the playboy cover. Story was Trish was jealous of the attention and basically started bullying Christy until Lita began to train her. This was Christy's 2nd televised match ever at this point. Also Trish was badly injured, working only one tag after this and then taking 5 months off to recover. In a strange and poor decision she wasn't even beaten or stripped of the title, she just vanished off TV and returned 5 months later still the champion.

 

Christy is with Lita. Trish comes out dressed in this bizarre German peasant girl/business suit hybrid. Not sure what she was going for at all there. Video package sets this up and does a pretty good job. With Trish hurt I assumed Christy was getting the Rocky miracle here at the time.

 

Trish starts by laying down and offering Christy a free pin, establishing the theme, Trish sees this as a total joke. Her character was incredibly cocky as a heel and this is the height of that. Trish shoves her down and easily sidesteps a charge, being more concerned with adjusting her hair. A contemptuous kick sends Christy flying to the floor in a heap. Trish rams her into the steps with Christy taking it badly. Trish stomps and chops away as the announcers debate Trish taking this seriously at all and Trish's body language is indeed completely relaxed. Trish mocks and skips Christy's pose to a huge pop. There's a general problem here in that no one really seems to be pulling for Christy as she's not a good babyface and Trish is "one of us" and not a playboy model to the crowd. Lita's popularity was NOT transferable it seems.

 

Trish goes for the chick kick lazily and it get blocked. Christy grabs the leg and lands a low blow while Lita distracts the referee to insane overselling from Trish. That does NOT get the crowd on their side. Christy grabs the legs and Trish pulls herself up on the ropes to be slammed down. Christy stomps and tries a bridge, doing a lousy job of that too. Trish goes as if Christy is going to irish whip her and Christy just forgets what to do so Trish chops away instead. Terrible. Trish lays some in pretty good too, doing better chops than in the Gail match 2 years earlier and mocks Lita. Trish does a corner charge into a rollup but Christy's timing is so bad Trish has to just stand there for a few seconds without moving for it to work.

 

Trish counters a charge with a spear (too hurt to even do a spinebuster or lift her). Trish beats her up a bit more on the floor then rams Lita into the guardrail. This is as good as a hurt Trish wrestling a near literal broomstick could be but it's not good at all. Christy comes back with a rollup and some really lousy kicks to the knee that get small boos. They do the turnbuckle ram spot and a hairpull from Christy. Christy hits her twist of fate for 2.

 

Trish's selling of all this has to be commended as she looks confused, scared and realizing she's way underestimated her opponent. She's doing her best to get this terrible offense over as a threat. They do a slow rollup sequence and Trish powers out then hits the chick kick for the pin to a mixed pop.

 

A one star match and that's ALL due to Trish. Given the circumstances of Trish being too injured to take most bumps and her opponent being terribly inexperienced and barely trained (Brie Bella is the best Japanese women's wrestler in history x2 compared to Christy here) this was the best possible thing they could have done.

 

Trish had one more tag and then got much needed shoulder surgery. Sadly this is the LAST singles match she ever worked as a heel in her career.

[WingedEagle]

This is the participation medal of microscope threads.

[Sidebottom]

This is the participation medal of microscope threads.

 

For Trish and her efforts with Stacy on some random Raw or for the poster trying to make it work? Either way...

 

[thebrainfollower]

It's a tribute to Trish how much she put into a random match on Raw with Stacy Keibler IMO. I really hope some of you actually try and give this stuff a watch and argue my points before just dismissing her out of hand entirely.

 

 

Trish Stratus vs. Nidia - Heat May 2004

 

 

I'm getting to the good stuff eventually lol. Story here between the two is there isn't any. Nidia is a rookie on the way up at the time and Trish has just started wrapping up the "Christian's girlfriend" thing and becoming a full time wrestler again. Other than 2 short Raw matches with Lita that were more angle this is her first match as a heel since actually learning how to wrestle. So it's really important to see what her style will be.

And it's such a total 180 to everything she did in 02-03 and such total commitment to being a heel and not eye candy that I just love it even if it's not that great a match. It's also a TEXTBOOK example of how much to give a weaker face opponent, proving just how smart a worker Trish was. Trish is in all black and with Tyson Tomko as her enforcer/problem solver here.

 

I'm almost tempted to give Trish extra points for one of the best "you losers are beneath me" arrogant walks to the ring, something she excelled at. NIdia looks nervous at both Trish and Tyson here. Coach and Al Snow..........not so good on commentary.

 

Nice hard side headlock takedown from Trish to start, good facials at working the hold. Trish kicks, forearms and smashes away, taking her time, measuring the blows and showing real viciousness. Good forearms to the upper chest get some real sounds of pain. Trish converts an attempted Irish whip into a sort of half clothesline/half hair takedown from behind to Nidia. Odd move, looks okay though but she never tried it again. Really nasty hair pull from behind to a bending Nidia gets a good sympathy pop. Nasty soccer kick follows. Trish then viciously stomps Nidia's fingers in a nice heel move. Nidia covers that hand so Trish stomps the other one just as hard. Nidia is sitting up so Trish stands over and just start berating and mocking her with sneering contempt so Nidia slaps her, sold very well by Trish.

 

Nidia comes back with a few strikes but Tyson casually grabs Trish's leg to pull her out to bail. This is almost a bit too much IMO in terms of what to overcome. It's like Diesel helping Shawn Michaels out against Virgil in 93 but the idea is get Trish heel heat and establish her new character so it makes sense. Snow actually calls his involvement "A bunch of crap". Baseball slide into Trish sends her flying for a loop and well sold and Nidia then bails away to avoid Tyson, with him not fast enough to catch her. Decent idea. Nidia throws Trish back in and Trish begs off, not being afraid to be a cowardly heel at all. Nidia charges in so Trish suckers her with a nice drop toehold into an armbar combo. Trish adds a leghook in a double submission move she probably should have done as a regular move as a heel. Coach mentions he's had a dream with Trish like this, very classy Coach.

 

Trish converts to a wristlock again look at the effort she puts into the hold, she's certainly not just doing a dull WWE chinlock spot at all. And then comes said chinlock but again both girls actually try here. Trish adds this nasty little touch to the hold as well. Very mild Nidia chant as Nidia powers up. Nidia does the elbows and tries the irish whip escape but Trish pulls her tights in and forearms her down. Cute. Stomp and Trish slides to the floor so she can grab Nidia's hair, pull them face to face and slap her viciously. Seriously heel Trish is awesome you can see why crowds wanted Lita to kick her ass.

 

Suplex is countered with a small package and then Trish errs by being too obvious going for a backslide set up. Definite mistake on her part. Camera work could have easily fixed that as it is a second long. Nidia hits some weak clotheslines but watch Trish go above and beyond selling them with great back bumps each time. Backdrop and Trish sells it Rick Rude style, landing right on her butt and screaming in pain. Northern lights gets 2 and Nidia runs the ropes right into the chick kick. Trish does a nice fall against the ropes, stunned her opponent had that much in her for a brief second, then covers for the pin., but makes sure to hook the tights as well just cause. All heels should be proud.

 

This is exactly how much to give a rookie who's being built up as something someday but not ready yet to hang. It's probably Nidia's best singles match in WWE.

 

2 and a quarter star, deducted one quarter for Trish's feeding of the backslide. They had one other singles on Raw fought over some orange soda. Yes I'm serious.

[thebrainfollower]

Trish Stratus vs. Melina - Survivor Series 2005

 

This is Raw vs. Smackdown with Melina beating Christy to get the shot. This is less than 5 singles matches in Melina's WWE run too (not sure about OVW). MNM kidnapped Trish to taunt and threaten her to establish Melina's a psycho and give Trish a reason to care. This is early on into the Mickie James thing with her being Trish's willing sidekick at this point.

 

Trish is obviously mad at the humiliation and charges right into, doing the Austin Thesz press to Melina. Melina bails and confers with MNM so Trish leaps to the top rope and flattens all 3 with a huge cross body block to the floor. Not sure about a 130lb women flattening the tag team champions to be honest but it's an amazing looking spot and she does a great job with it. Trish dodges their retribution as Joey Styles gets over the angle and her boys being Melina's only shot at commentary. Commentary here has JS pro Raw and Tazz pro Smackdown so it's VERY contentious and annoying as a result.

 

Trish grabs Melina and gives her a nasty hair pull sold well but Melina's high pitched scream after every thing is really irritating. Handstand into a headscissors by Trish. Nice forearms by Trish and an Irish whip reversal spot with Trish going head first to the corner then leaping up. She goes for another scissors but Melina is too early so Trish converts it into a mule kick. That WOULD save the spot but Melina totally no sells it and forearms Trish to take control. The problems with Melina are showing right away actually in small ways.

 

Melina with a nice forearm and some choking but Tazz is just insufferable on commentary here. Corner choke and then boot choke follows as choking and kicking was Melina's offense at this point. Trish's sympathy selling is first rate. Trish returns the favor and compare Trish's awesome selling to Melina's unless she is in close up. Melina rakes and hits a really good looking high kick. Melina attacks Mickie to distract the ref so MNN can hit the snapshot on Trish. Hate the idea of men beating up women like this. Fortunately ref catches it and ejects them.

 

Melina hits a huge spear and punches away, Melina hits a good clothesline. Good surfboard from Melina and Trish's selling of the pain is just first rate.

 

Trish comes back with some forearms and kicks but the bulldog is countered into Melina's hairpull facebuster, her finish at the time but that gets 2. Trish goes for the matrish to duck a clothesline but gets hit in the abs. The story here seems to be Melina is just flat out better as a wrestler and a huge new star. Kudos to Trish for putting a new rival over this big.

 

Trish comes back with forearms and a great stratusphere, well sold except for that terrible shrieking. Spinebuster gets 2, really well done, Melina ducks the chick kick but gets hit with a martial arts kick to the chest. Another attempt at the bulldog is countered by lifting Trish up and putting her on the apron. Melina charges, Mickie moves Trish and Trish kicks Melina's head hard then hits a top tope bulldog for the pin. See Trish and Melina have to work around Dunn's camera obsession here lol.

 

Great match overall. See how Trish worked 4 different "overmatched" opponents and got 4 different stories out of them. Trish must have really liked Melina as she put her over as a vicious nasty heel, let her take most of the match and sort of needed Mickie's help to win. Ironic given Melina's complaining about Trish taking "her spot" years later helped cost her and Morrison their jobs.

 

3 star match that's really good and Melina's coming out party. Trish doesn't have a selfish bone in her body in ring.

[WingedEagle]

It's a tribute to Trish how much she put into a random match on Raw with Stacy Keibler IMO. I really hope some of you actually try and give this stuff a watch and argue my points before just dismissing her out of hand entirely.

 

 

 

I'm open to it but arguing that she pulled a one star match out of Stacy Keibler isn't much of a testament to anything other than one's stamina to sit through something that's not very good.

[thebrainfollower]

If you like something it's not hard to sit through. And I like Trish matches except the Chyna ones.

[thebrainfollower]

And just to get it out of the way.

Trish Stratus vs. Chyna - Raw April 2001

 

Trish was given this match as punishment by Vince for slapping him. The week prior she actually beat Ivory clean in her first ever match as a face and the whole storyline was supposed to be Trish is getting much better and can now hang with the top girls even if not actually beat them.

 

Chyna goes for a powerbomb but Trish rolls behind but Chyina casually press slams and powerbombs her for three then cuts a promo on how nothing the other girls are. Lita counters but Chyna squashed her (not nearly as bad) on the next PPV and Vince fired her.

 

0 star match (I don't give negs). Totally worthless but that's due to Chyna completely. She hated Trish for her "Fake body" badly and made sure to make her look terrible. In 2000 it made sense here it's just unprofessional. And it looks like she gave Trish a neck injury that forced her to take 6 weeks off to boot.

[Zenjo]

Great thread, and an awesome defense of Trish.

 

Was there ever anyone in wrestling more useless than Torrie Wilson? She was a 10 - until she opened her mouth. Then she dropped down to a 1 in my eyes. Total fucking airhead with nothing going on between the ears. At least that's how she always came across to me, whether in WCW or WWE. I can't comment about her personality in real life, obviously. At least Stacy Keibler seemed nice and perky - someone who might be fun to spend time with. You can certainly understand why Clooney dated her.

As crazy as it sounds Torrie Wilson has wrestled on PPV more years than any other woman in the history of wrestling. From what I recall year 10 wasn't much of an improvement on year 1.

[Zenjo]

Totally worthless but that's due to Chyna completely. She hated Trish for her "Fake body" badly and made sure to make her look terrible.

Boobs.

Nose.

Chin.

 

Trish obviously hadn't had enough operations yet in Chyna's eyes.

[thebrainfollower]

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.

[Jingus]

It only counts as "ten years" due to technicalities; Torrie's first match was in 1999, and her last match was in 2009. But that last match was a cameo Mania comeback a year and a half after she took time off for a back injury and never returned to the full-time roster. Also, there was almost a year's gap in between her getting released by WCW and hired by the WWF.

[Strummer]

I always found it strange that Trish based her 2004 heel character on a Nicole Sullivan Mad TV character. Same cadence, mannerisms, etc. "Ch ya know what". I guess she realized no one watched or cared about Mad TV to bring it to attention

[thebrainfollower]

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.

[thebrainfollower]

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.

[thebrainfollower]

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.

[thebrainfollower]

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.

[Jimmy Redman]

Ashley was God awful. Her match with Mickie at the Rumble is...something.

 

Candice improved a hell of a lot in 2007, but that's obviously after Trish would have had to face her.

[thebrainfollower]

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.

[thebrainfollower]

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.