Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Her completely random out-of-nowhere appearance on an episode of Raw in 2010. Apparently she is a huge Pee-Wee Herman fan.
Character Rerailment: Due to the real-life affair scandal in 2005, Lita turned heel to capitalise on the genuine heat she was getting from fans; where she acted more like a valet and rarely wrestled. Although she did hold the Women's Championship two more times, it was as a transitional champion to put Trish Stratus over in her retirement match and then to put Mickie James over in her own. In the 2010s, she started making more regular returns now as her old face character, and being treated as a WWE legend and role model; getting a Hall of Fame induction and acting as a trainer on Tough Enough.
Discredited Meme: It became a running joke among smarks to chant "you screwed Matt!" after the affair scandal. Virtually no one remembers it fondly given how Lita got obscenities chanted at her from fans because of it.
Fandom Rivalry: Usually with Trish Stratus fans. The two were both female stars that became huge during the Attitude and Ruthless Aggression Eras. This has led to some fans starting World War III over which one was betternote They were both rather green when they came into WWE. Lita had about a year on the indies and ECW before she was signed, while Trish had no experience but did not get pushed as a wrestler until she had been in the company about a year. They both won their first titles with about a year's worth of training. - especially since they feuded with each other many times. This wasn't helped by both women retiring within months of each other. Trish got a beautiful send-off, while Lita got a rather disrespectful one - which greatly annoyed her fans. The rivalry ignores the fact that the two women are best friends in real life, and there are many fans who love and respect both for what they did for women's wrestling.
Fanon Discontinuity: Some fans would like to pretend her heel run from 2005-2006 just didn't happen, since it was WWE turning a real life issue into a storyline, and the X-Pac Heat Lita was getting is what drove her to leave the company. She also wrestled much less, having largely settled into the role of valet by the time her ACL recovered, leading to her only two memorable matches from that time being Trish Stratus's retirement match as well as her own against Mickie James.
Girl-Show Ghetto: One of the examples that broke out of it. She became insanely popular during her rookie year and main evented Raw several times. Her match with Trish Stratus earned a 3.4 in the ratings, falling in line with the show average. She is now fondly remembered along with Trish as most male fans' favourite Divas. According to many other Divas she would receive so many presents from fans at shows she'd have to leave a few of them behind because she wasn't able to carry all of them.
At New Year's Revolution 2005, Lita was set to take on Trish Stratus again a month after she beat Trish for the title in the main event on Raw, a match that featured Lita nearly breaking her surgically-repaired neck on a suicide dive out of the ring. Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler recalled the moment during Lita's entrance, with Ross hoping aloud that Lita wouldn't do anything crazy to risk her health again, selling Lita's risk-taking style. Unfortunately, his fears came true as Lita blew out her ACL during the match note Eerily, it was the second knee injury in as many matches on the show, with Eugene dislocating his kneecap in the opening match on a Lou Thesz Press from the apron to the floor and missed nearly a year of in-ring action, forcing her into the role of valet in order to stay on TV during her recovery.
There's also a moment during the entrances for the Matt Hardy-Kane match for Lita at SummerSlam 2004 where you can see a sign in the front row reading "Lita is an Evil Jezebel"note Although Lita was a face in this match, the event was being held in Toronto, the hometown of Lita's long-time ArchenemyTrish Stratus. "Evil Jezebel" would become one of Jim Ross's favorite expression to refer to Lita as after her affair with Edge broke out less than a year later.
Back when she was in ECW, she was the loose girlfriend of "Dastardly" Danny Doring, where the Mutants would frequently hurl "slut" chants her way, but without the venom the WWE fans would include in theirs.
Making her first ever WWE appearance as one of The Godfather's Ho's has gone from a piece of interesting trivia to this, again because of the slut shaming.
During her forced marriage to Kane: "I love, and I will always love, Matt Hardy!" Not to mention that the entire storyline was based around her being forced into cheating on Matt.
Trish calling her the Walking Kiss of Death, since a romantic indiscretion would later ruin her career. And likewise both Hardy brothers' careers would take unpleasant directions in The New '10s, making Trish's statement oddly prophetic.
When Matt Hardy was traded to Raw, a segment throughout the night made it look like he was going to propose. Then he turned around and got her fired, breaking things off with her there on the spot. While a kayfabe Kick the Dog moment, it is incredibly harsh to watch now, since in the initial weeks after the affair was discovered Matt encouraged the fans to chant obscenities at her, and both have acknowledged in the aftermath that Matt's hesitance to actually propose to Lita despite being together for six years may have contributed to her wandering feelings. (Obviously things went differently with Reby Sky.)
The final segment where Team Xtreme were shown together onscreen was Unforgiven 2006, where Lita mocks Matt and Jeff for how their careers have turned out. Things would get even worse for both the brothers in real life and Lita would eventually enter the Hall of Fame, again making the segment oddly prophetic.
In 2021, Lita revealed that she absolutely did not want to do the infamous live sex celebration with Edge, but WWE threatened to fire her if she didn't go through with it. Edge and even John Cena were also opposed to the segment, but as with the infamous Eddiesploitation angle, Vince McMahon thought it would be great and in WWE his word isn't just law, it's god. This also makes the horrible Slut-Shaming she was subjected to when she retired even worse, as now it's believed that it was further punishment for her opposition to the sex segment, even after she ultimately went through with it.
This video of footage from a signing of Lita's 2001 DVD. The girl crying at the toward the end (as the title gives away) is a 14-year-old A.J. Lee, finally getting to meet her idol in person for the first time. And in The New '10s AJ ended up breaking numerous barriers for women in WWE in similar ways that Lita had, leading to them conversing as peers on WrestleMania weekend in 2013.
On Trish Stratus's DVD she talks about how she and Lita got to main event Raw in their mixed tag match when Trish was just starting out. She mentions a Trish vs. Lita match as one she thinks the fans would really like to see, and a hypothetical match graphic advertises it for Raw. The DVD came out in 2003. A full year later, the Trish vs. Lita match finally happens. In the main event of Raw!
In relation to their WWF careers, looking back on Angelica as a relative "rookie" against Leilani Kai, considering the rookie got into the company's Hall of Fame first.
AJ Lee really DID grow up to be like Lita, not only as a women's champion, but also as CM Punk's girlfriend in real life. Took a memetic leap when an Internet comic drawing illustrating this made the rounds both on the dirtsheets and in the locker room. Then she upstaged Lita by becoming Punk's wife.
Eventually subverted, but there was a period where she was best known for the affair scandal than anything else. It didn't help that during that period, it was becoming increasingly obvious that Matt Hardy hadn't gotten over it, even though it had been years since they permanently broke up.
Lita had been derided on the web as "overrated" for years, usually with accusations of being sloppy and/or almost killing herself with a moonsault. While there might have been some valid criticism, most of this was in reference to her injury on Dark Angel, which was due to being dropped by a stunt woman rather than anything she messed up.
She was the first woman to wrestle with a lucha-inspired moveset in WWE and was hugely popular for it. These days you see quite a lot of WWE Divas using high flying moves to the point where those are considered the standard Diva wrestling style. Plus, with seeing other women in promotions such as SHIMMER doing those moves much better modern fans might not understand what all the fuss was about.
It might be lost on some younger fans spoiled for choice in terms of character variety for the women - but Lita was seen as something different at the time. The women in WWE were virtually all glamorous Divas like Sable (and the ones who were wrestlers like Ivory and Jacqueline were still pigeonholed into that mold) or Brawn Hildas like Chyna or Nicole Bass. Lita's status as a punk rock Tomboy gave young girls a character they'd never seen before and, in a lot of cases, related to. She also showed that one didn't have to be a jacked-up bodybuilder like Chyna to get hardcore or dangerous.
Overshadowed by Controversy: While thankfully not her whole career, it's virtually impossible to mention or discuss her heel run in 2005-2006 without the real-life affair scandal between her and Edge. Or in fact, the extreme fan backlash to it that led to her retiring shortly after.
Salvaged Story: Her appearance on the 1000th episode Raw, defeating Heath Slater in a match is seen as an apology to her rather disrespectful send-off at Survivor Series 2006.
Smurfette Breakout: In ECW, she was Danny Doring's girlfriend. In the WWE, she was initially Essa Rios's valet. Her popularity eclipsed both of theirs.
Testosterone Brigade: Lita has always had a huge crop of male fans in part due to her Lad-ette nature and One of Us sex appeal. And of course, respect for her wrestling and fearless attitude too.
While her heel run can leave a bad taste in fans' mouths from all the slut shaming and segments like a live sex celebration, some fans note that Lita did play heel very well.
The 2004 pregnancy storyline wasn't too well-liked, but it's noted that Lita's acting was quite good and generated genuine crowd sympathy for her.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: During her heel run, she did some nasty things. But being frequently called a ho resulted in this, since she suffered so much Slut-Shaming from fans that she had to quickly leave the company.
Both Lita, Edge and Matt Hardy, the actual infidelity aside. Fans are more likely to remember all of them for their in-ring achievements than the affair scandal:
Edge became a modern-day legend and an inspiration to other wrestlers including longtime WWE superstars Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder.
Lita was missed more and more as the Divas division deteriorated following hers and rival Trish Stratus's retirements. She was eventually inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and works as an ambassador for WWE to this day.
Matt managed to turn around his life after a fake suicide note, became a husband and father, and later struck gold in TNA with his wildly-popular "Broken" gimmick, even surpassing his brother Jeff's own popularity.
The Extreme Pregnancy storyline, surprisingly. As hated as it was at the time, many fans now admit that it gave her and Kanesome of their best acting, it lead to the crowd really getting behind them with a sense of genuine sympathy, and plenty of them expressing sorrow over the miscarriage (and, interestingly enough, disappointment on how The Undertaker won't become an Uncle).
of footage from a signing of Lita's 2001 DVD. The girl crying at the toward the end (as the title gives away) is a 14-year-old A.J. Lee, finally getting to meet her idol in person for the first time. And in The New '10s AJ ended up breaking numerous barriers for women in WWE in similar ways that Lita had, leading to them conversing as peers on WrestleMania weekend in 2013.