YMMV / Trish Stratus

• Americans Hate Tingle: A downplayed example. During Trish's first year or two in the WWE, she could always generate heel heat in Canada by bragging about being from Toronto. For context, Torontonians are stereotyped as considering their city to be the "centre of the universe" and other Canadians deride them as Small Name, Big Ego types. This faded as Trish's popularity grew and she drew huge cheers wherever she wrestled in Canada.
• Audience-Alienating Era: The period in 2005 after Lita suddenly got injured and cut their feud short, which also coincided with Molly Holly requesting her release and left Victoria as the only wrestling woman on Raw. Trish ended up feuding with Christy Hemme of all people for WrestleMania 21 which, although decent material for a storyline, produced a lacklustre match. Trish would then just have aimless storylines with Kane and Viscera that would amount to nothing with her injury (and then the title would just be inactive due to lack of competition on TV). Her return as a face once again, helping Ashley Massaro feud with Vince's Devils, and eventually debuting Mickie James got things back on track.
• Author's Saving Throw: A lot of fans were annoyed that Trish's guest host spot in 2009 gave her no segment with Mickie James - who not only was now the top face that Trish had been, but she was the reigning champion. The only reference to their famous feud was a throwaway line by Mickie on commentary. In the 2018 Royal Rumble, the two had a face off that was seen as a nice acknowledgment of said feud. They also worked a program involving Lita and Alexa Bliss going into the Evolution PPV.
• Awesome Music: Lil' Kim's "Time to Rock and Roll" is an iconic theme tune and fits Trish's career so well.
• Broken Base: Trish's status as "The Diva of the Decade" rubbed some people the wrong way for being declared prematurely. Her early WWE Hall of Fame induction is perceived by some to demonstrate the comparative lack of respect her contemporaries tended to get^note though this leveled off once Lita, Ivory and Jacqueline were recognized in subsequent years as was her retiring as Women's Champion. While a discussion on Trish's career can provoke an internet backdraft, she's still beloved by numerous fans for her time in wrestling.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • With Lita fans understandably, given that they were both the top female stars of the Ruthless Aggression Era. The debate is of course over which one was better in the ring^note Lita had a year on the indies and ECW before she was signed, while Trish was trained exclusively on the road in WWE. Both won their first titles with about a year of experience. Not to mention both retired within months of each other and got the polar opposite of send-offs; Trish a beautiful one and Lita a disrespectful one, greatly annoying her fans. This rivalry ignores that the two are best friends in real life, and many fans love them both for what they did for women's wrestling.
  • With Molly Holly fans to a lesser extent, due to how often they were rivals in kayfabe. Hardcore fans tended to blame Trish for being the one to start the 'Molly has a huge ass' thing.
• Franchise Original Sin:
  • Shares this distinction with Sable. Trish was the first of the eye candy models to become a respectable wrestler and get over big with the fans. The reason behind that was that Trish was willing to take the hard bumps (something which Sable had specified in her contract that she would never do) and put the effort into training to become a proper wrestler, but WWE and other companies' attempts to recreate her focused more on the eye candy part and less on finding women who were willing to put the effort into becoming wrestlers or had the talent to even try, leading to a lot of terrible wrestlers being pushed as the next Trish Stratus.
  • WWE would also get into the habit, particularly in The New '10s of building the division around one woman and pushing her relentlessly until she retired or the fans just got bored (Michelle McCool, Melina, A.J. Lee, Paige, Charlotte Flair, etc.), a strategy that had worked with Trish. However Trish did not spend that much time at the top of the division — and in fact her second and third title wins were only because Lita had suddenly been injured and there was no other ready made Diva star to use as a top face. Her reigns were also relatively short and used to build up new heels in Jazz, Molly Holly and Victoria (see Rooting for the Empire below). Notably as soon as Lita returned, she was put in her intended spot as the top face. A spot Lita only lost due to X-Pac Heat over cheating on Matt Hardy.
• Growing the Beard: So to speak; once she stopped being valet arm candy, and dedicated herself solely to her ring work, her popularity grew exponentially. In her DVD she points to the 2001 period when she was off with an injury as something that allowed her to watch more matches and learn psychology. She and Jazz talk about how their feud helped build the prestige of the Women's Championship after the Attitude Era had used it as a T&A prop.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The angle where Vince McMahon had an affair with her and demeaned her onscreen is cast in a whole new light after allegations emerged in 2024 that he did something along these lines only way worse in real life to a young woman he hired.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • After her last match against Mickie James on the 11/09/2006 edition of Monday Night Raw, Jim Ross said that he wouldn't be surprised if Trish ended up in the WWE Hall of Fame one day. Fast forward to 2013, Trish does get inducted into the Hall of Fame.
  • In her 2003 DVD, she talks about her times she's shared the ring with Lita and wonders what it would be like to feud with her. A graphic for a hypothetical match between them appears on the screen, and Trish says she thinks it could be a good match. Over a year later, they have that match in the main event of Raw!
  • Replacing Alexa Bliss with Alicia Fox for the tag match against Team Bestie at the Evolution PPV. How come? Because in 2009, when Trish was interviewed about what she thought of the current crop of Divas, she named Alicia Fox as one of her favorites to watch (and Alicia Fox won a #1 contender's match the night Trish hosted Raw).
  • Melina eliminating her from the battle royal on the Eddie Guerrero tribute show, and their subsequent Women's Championship match. Fast forward to 2009, and Melina is now the top face of her generation, and being considered a Spiritual Successor to Trish.
• Hype Backlash: With seven Women's Championship reigns, numerous pushes and nearly everyone in the North American wrestling scene calling her "the greatest female wrestler of all time", many a Smart Mark has derided Trish as overrated and average in the ring.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The little laugh that plays at the start of her "Time to Rock and Roll" theme. Even years after her retirement, the laugh is still recognizable and can generate massive pops.
• Mis-blamed: Trish got a lot of heat from smarks when Molly Holly opened up about how she wanted to leave WWE over how the repeated jokes about her weight got to her, as she was the first person in kayfabe to say it. This ignored that Molly said that the joke was Stephanie McMahon's idea, she initially thought the jokes were Actually Pretty Funny and it was actually Jerry Lawler's repeated commentary about her weight that really soured her on the whole thing.
• Misaimed Fandom: While very rightly controversial nowadays, the infamous “bark like a dog” segment did give the wrong idea to the crowd that night. The segment was meant to show how petty Vince is and make us sympathize with Trish that night as she was being humiliated. The crowd however just wanted to see Trish take off her clothes, not helped by the crowd popping when Vince yelled “take your bra off!”
• Once Original, Now Common:
  • WWE had spent the Attitude Era putting the title on pretty women with no real wrestling ability, so it came as no surprise when they put it on Trish in late 2001 (after she had concluded her first year in the company). However the surprise was that Trish worked hard to properly improve and produce good matches. The idea of a model-turned-wrestler soon enough became standard, given WWE's hiring practices, but Trish turning from valet to wrestler on screen was a huge idea at the time. Likewise she was also involved in matches and feuds that were actually getting time. The matches she had with Jazz, Molly Holly, Victoria and Lita inspired some of the women who would later work for promotions like SHIMMER, and while those matches often pale in comparison to SHIMMER cards from an athletic standpoint, they proved American crowds did want to see women actually wrestle.
  • Six of the current generation of women's wrestlers (Sasha Banks, Bayley, Natalya, Carmella, Alexa Bliss and Mandy Rose) all cite her as inspiration for what motivated them to become wrestlers. Combined, that's at least sixteen Championship reigns split between Raw, Smackdown and NXT. While it may not be as noticeably nowadays with the quality of Women's matches in WWE, it cannot be stated enough the impact Trish had on the industry.
  • Cewsh Reviews even notes her accomplishments when they watched Wrestlemania XIX back:
  "I still think that people may not remember clearly just how great Trish was in her role as the figurehead of this division. The fans are way into everything she does, she never misses a beat on anything, and she is giving 100% effort on everything she does. You can tell that she’s not as natural as the other two in the ring, but that just further serves to sell her as the underdog babyface that you can’t help but root for."
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Trish wasn't very popular when she started - despite being attractive she had no charisma, and she was so bad in the ring she managed to botch a catfight. However, she kept improving bit by bit. There was the infamous "table promo", where she dressed up in various lingerie and writhed on some tables. Then she took a table bump from The Dudley Boys, and told Bubba Ray not to protect her in any way. He also remarked that she earned his respect in the moments before that, when she kissed him passionately in spite of the blood all over his face. Even though it would be roughly half a decade before she became the top face of the WWE Women's Division, she thoroughly demonstrated that she wanted to be there and was willing to put in the work to get better.
  • While not as unpopular by then, giving a former model who did not work on the independent scene or go through developmental the title after Chyna, who was known for beating up men, and having her go over Jacqueline, Lita, Ivory, Molly Holly and Jazz in a six pack, all of whom were notable prior to their WWE careers, was seen by the dirt sheets as a sure sign WWE had picked looks over ability. However, as her title reign chugged along it was noted Trish had seriously stepped her game up, the women's division dodging a bullet because of it.
• Rooting for the Empire: The thing with the "ruthless aggression era", otherwise seen as something of a golden age for women's wrestling on US television compared to what came after, is that besides Trish, only heels won titles (Molly, Victoria, Jazz). Nearly four years of heel beats Trish, has free reign of the show until Trish finally beats heel, another heel beats Trish, repeat. WWE's plans to push Lita were stopped by injuries, Jacqueline pinned a few heels but never again for the title, and Ivory's push was derailed by Gail Kim, who debuted as a face champion but lost to Molly and turned heel. Its not that Molly, Victoria and Jazz were cheered but they were the focus of a whole lot of Byte This episodes, shoot interviews, fansites, polls and such simply because there were no other prominent babyfaces. There was finally a change of pace when Victoria turned face and got to be face of the division but then came the second diva search. Speaking of the diva search, Trish herself got some of this against Cristy Hemme, who was basically put against her to pad for time until Lita recovered.
• Shocking Moments: Her heel turn on Chris Jericho at WrestleMania XX was shocking because she was WWE's biggest babyface in the women's division, and the storyline seemed to point to her and Jericho becoming a proper on-screen couple. Indeed, that was the original plan, and Vince only changed his idea at the last minute.
• Strawman Has a Point: On her 2004 heel turn, when the crowd began chanting "slut!" at her, she reminded them that Chris Jericho was the one who had originally made a bet to sleep with her.
• Testosterone Brigade: In contrast to Lita, who had the One of Us and Lad-Ette image to help win them over, Trish has always had a crop of male fans who both love her as a Ms. Fanservice and respect her for her in-ring achievements.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Sable returned to WWE in 2003. Back in the Attitude Era, Sable was the beautiful blonde who had dominated the division, and Trish was considered her Spiritual Successor. Despite the similarities, the two never feuded or even interacted on screen. Granted Trish could actually wrestle, but Sable in her 2003 phase did show she could have a decent Cat Fight if the occasion called for it.
  • Trish also never had a meaningful storyline with Torrie Wilson. In 2003 they were the top faces of Raw and Smackdown respectively, and Torrie was being promoted more as a wrestler and getting more matches. They did go against each other sort of in 2005 when Torrie was traded to Raw, but that was a tag team feud with Trish and Ashley against Vince's Devils — and they were already laying the groundwork for Trish's program with Mickie James. It could have been interesting to see heel Torrie gunning for Trish's spot as the golden girl, in the same way that Melina did in 2005.
  • More than a few fans would have preferred that the WrestleMania 27 program was just a straight up match between Trish and Michelle McCool, as opposed to a mixed tag involving Snooki from the Jersey Shore. According to Michelle, the match was also planned to run much longer. But their time was cut at the last minute and the two were told to rush everything as soon as they got to the ring.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Not entirely unintentional, but despite Mickie James saving an injured Trish and an overmatched Ashley from Victoria on her Raw debut, Stratus remained unimpressed with James for quite a bit of time. Even after they started to get along, Trish did not seem particularly grateful for Mickie helping her out against MNM or eliminating herself to ensure Victoria did not win the title in a battle royal. When Mickie earned herself a title shot, Trish was also the less friendly of the two during the defense. The long term plan was to turn one of the women heel and have the feud but "creative" couldn't settle on who it would be, so the idea was to leave hints for both of them (Mickie's fandom being a "Stan"-like obsession vs. Trish being unappreciative and seeing Mickie as beneath her) until they could come to a decision. Thing is, Mickie didn't do anything wrong until she started getting jealous of Ashley, not long before her full on turn, whereas Trish had been dropping hints since day two of the angle. If there had been a more even portrayal throughout the angle, the crowd might not have completely turned on Trish at WrestleMania. Probably also not helped by it being something of a Recycled Script of a storyline between Sable and Tori — which had the fan as the face and the champ as the heel.
• The Woobie:
  • While she came off as a total bitch during most of her affair angle with Vince McMahon, when he started to really demean her (forcing her to act like a dog and referring to her as his "toy"), it was hard not to feel for her.
  • How about when she found out Chris Jericho made a bet to sleep with her? Good lord she was a convincing crier.

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