WWE Raw: Trish Stratus Vs. Lita Main Event In 2004 Received Heavy “Push Back”

Trish Stratus had blazed the trail for the current generation of female wrestlers who are conquering the WWE. Back when the legendary name was in her heyday in the business, they could have barely expected to do anything more than just look in an eye-candy manner on WWE TV. For a change, WWE once considered her to be in a marquee capacity.

In a historic main event match of the December 6, 2004, episode of Monday Night Raw, two women got to lock horns with the Women’s Championship on the line. The then WWE Women’s Champion Trish Stratus defended her title against Lita in the headliner. This was the first women’s match to have closed out a Raw episode taping.

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Trish Stratus vs. Lita main event didn’t come that easy

On Twitter, AEW Commentator Jim Ross (then WWE’s Head of Talent Relations) explained that there had been pushback from the male locker room against the idea of Trish Stratus vs. Lita closing the show. The WWE Hall of Famer who also called the match with Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler also mentioned how both these women deserved the spot in the main event,

“You wouldn’t believe the push back from male wrestlers that I received when they found out that @trishstratuscom and @AmyDumas were going to close Raw. They deserved the opportunity and I’m happy that we did it.”

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Lita was able to dethrone her biggest rival cum buddy to win her second Women’s Championship in that match. However, her reign ended abruptly the following month due to an injury that she suffered in that match, itself.

WWE previously held women’s matches to be the final match of the show but that Trish Stratus vs. Lita match in 2004 marked the first women’s match to have happened in the final segment of an episode of Raw. In the 2012 DVD counting the top 100 moments of Monday Night Raw, this match took the 55th spot.

The importance of this match from 2004 is huge for women’s wrestling back in that day as well as at the time as the two Hall of Famers first showed that they’re capable of producing gems if given a proper chance. No wonder why the likes of Bayley, Mandy Rose, and Zelina Vega confessed having Trish Stratus and Lita be the inspiration behind getting into the pro-wrestling business.