Lita will go down in history as one of the most popular female superstars to ever step foot in a WWE ring. During the Attitude and Ruthless Aggression eras, she was a permanent fixture on WWE television and a stalwart of the women’s division. She’s widely considered to be a key figure in breaking barriers for women’s wrestling in the company, but according to the Hall of Famer, she was always worried about enjoying her success because of backstage politics.
As quoted by WrestlingNews.co , the former superstar appeared on the latest edition of Busted Open Radio and opened up about her experience during her early days in the company, when she formed an alliance with The Hardy Boyz and became a huge fan favorite. According to Lita, Sable and Chyna had just experienced meteoric success, which caused backstage officials to worry.
Lita also revealed that she was warned to never think that she was bigger than the wrestling business, which is why she never celebrated her achievements.
“I did really feel that I couldn’t enjoy my success. Because, and I couldn’t feel like when people are like ‘wow that was a really great match.’ I never felt like I was able to say ‘thank you.’ I felt like I went ‘well yeah you know the ref was really great. He gave us all our cues’ and you know ‘our agent you like really put it together really great’ and then ‘the storyline was built well.’ I felt like I had to just include everyone to be like ‘no, don’t worry.”
The former Team Xtreme member said that she’d been “conditioned” by the WWE system, which didn’t allow female superstars to get too ahead of themselves. This was years before WWE launched its revolution of women’s wrestling and allowed female performers to headline pay-per-views. However, even in the modern age, it appears as if the company still values men more .
HALL OF FAME BACKUP for @trishstratuscom on #RAW in the form of the one and only @AmyDumas ! #LITA #WWEEvolution pic.twitter.com/IgiQZNI3pT
— WWE (@WWE) October 9, 2018
Lita did make history by being in the first all-female match to headline an episode of Monday Night Raw , which did play a big part in women’s wrestling being given a proper spotlight by the company. However, her words suggest that she felt restricted during her time in WWE.
During the Busted Open interview, Lita also promoted Kayfabe , an upcoming drama series about the wrestling industry that she’s launching with Gail Kim, Christy Hemme, and some other known names from the business. At the time of this writing, the show is still in the crowdfunding stages, and they hope to raise enough money to produce a pilot episode.