[2004-12-06-WWE-Raw] Trish Stratus vs Lita

[SmartMark15]

For the time, they were given this was a wonderful sprint of just great action and even some good storytelling here. Some missed timing aside, I find that Trish and Lita really brought a lot of impact and crispness to their action here. One of the main problems that some womens matches have is that there's just not enough weight behind the moves they're pulling. That was no such problem here. Everything was snug and impactful. The finishing stretch was fiery hot with a lot of decent nearfalls and a great pay off for what is really a very strong womens match.

 

***3/4

[thebrainfollower]

My thoughts on this match back during my Trish microscope thread.

 

There's an absurdly complex amount of backstory to this but it basically amounts to this, Trish has been making Lita's life a living hell for months. Lita attempted revenge at Survivor Series but was so out of control she was DQ'D almost right away. She did break Trish's nose, necessitating a face mask. This was pretty much booked as Lita's last title shot and Trish had run through every other opponent at this point. It was also the first time the women main evented a Raw. And it wasn't an average main event either they built it up with video packages tracking the 4 and a half year rivalry/friendship the two women had.

In ring storyline has always been that Lita is just a better wrestler but Trish being a nasty vicious sneaky heel who's turning borderline sociopath (and gets worse after this result) will DO anything to win and Lita's not been able to find a way to truly counter this and defeat her in the most personal way possible, taking away her championship. This almost reminds me of a women's version of Savage-Steamboat to be honest, but the finish is booked smarter IMO.

Lita clearly wants to take Trish's head off but has cooled off enough to get that the title is the best way for revenge, you can see in the looks they exchange pre match. Yup WM III. Lockup and the hate is so great they actually tumble to the floor together rather than give an inch. Trish attacks to start and Lita goes for the turnbuckle smash, blocked by Trish who returns the favor, being a methodical striker at this point. Trish with the chop and backdrop but Lita kicks to counter. Clothesline is countered by the Ma Trish and Lita looks at it and simply kicks the leg away to cover for 2. Building the theme Lita is better and smarter when she is focused. Nice Russian leg sweep from Lita for 2 but Trish rakes the eyes.

Trish charges but gets backdropped right to the floor. she broke her fall just a tiny bit or that would have been serious. Lita with an absolutely sweet running suicide dive through the ropes to nail Trish. That one bit her a month later. The way Lita landed on the replay looks like she hit Trish square in the face. And as a hurt LIta crawls back into the ring Trish removes her face mask and grins pointing to it, revealing the injury was a work designed to take out one of Lita's best offensive weapons. Her taunting and look of just pure evil as she does this is awesome. A star for that alone given it had a month buildup. Then when Lita comes over Trish drops her with it beyond the ref's view. This is great great heel stuff. Trish pats herself on the back as she enters and then has Lita struggle to crawl up her body to get up with Trish just looking down in total contempt.

Trish hammers away and NOW her punches look good, showing hatred with each blow. Trish pounds her and uses her corner hangman's choke. LOOK at Trish's face. This is an all time top ten look of pure hatred from a heel in wrestling history. Lita snapmares Trish off with a nasty back bump off the top and goes for the sleeper but Trish rams her back into the corner. Trish snapmares and locks in a full nelson. Lita escapes and hammer back whipping Trish into the corner. Trish goes for the handspring to counter so Lita tosses her to the apron where Trish lands and they brawl some more. Lita gets the better of that and hits a top rope superplex for a huge pop and kudos to both for doing that at all, let alone so well. That gets 2.

Lita goes for a clothesline as they stand, Trish ducks and hits a vicious chick kick for 2. Half the people in the front row are standing. Piss break match indeed. Trish hammers away with force and goes for the ten punches in the corner countered with a powebomb from Lita for 2. Moonsault is countered with a shot to the back, Trish puts Lita on her shoulders, Lita counters with a victory roll for 2 And darn close. They get up and Lita goes for her snap DDT which was her finish then but Trish holds the ropes to block and Lita eats mat. Trish puts her feet on the ropes to try and get a cheap win but Lita powers out.

Trish hammers away fast and goes for the stratusfaction but Lita toss her back. Disoriented Trish is easy prey to Lita's twist of fate. Exhausted Lita climbs to the top rope and hits her moonsault for a 3 count. She had literally nothing left there storyline wise but the last move worked.

This wasn't as technically complex as say Savage-Steamboat (to name a match I THINK influenced it) but it was amazing and told a great story. Lita won by using absolutely everything she had and was totally spent at the victory. She overcame the most nasty cheating heel she had ever faced and beat her clean with her best moves. For some odd reason this reminds me of the best Memphis matches in its heat. Lita's victory pop is just amazing too.

One of the best 8 minute matches I have ever seen, if not THE best. 4 stars all the way.

[Microstatistics]

Had reviewed this in the Top 100 matches of all time thread. Cross-posting it here.

 

 

Very good stuff. Hard fought and they managed to generate quite a bit of drama. Lita was good as the babyface challenger and Trish was great as the desperate heel champion. *** 1/2

[Kadaveri]

Really exciting heated match from start to finish. I'm not sure whether it was even intended but that spot where Lita hits a DDT on no one because Trish grabbed hold of the ropes was really unique and looked so cool.

 

**** Their best match.