Revisited Rivalries: Trish Stratus vs Victoria
One of the most discussed and highlighted Women’s Championship matches of all time is the hardcore match between WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus and Victoria at Survivor Series 2002. But what’s not discussed with the match is their almost nine-month story that dives into each other’s past and sees a sadistic Victoria and good girl Trish go to new, physical and brutal levels never seen before. Their Hardcore match is only a snapshot of their brutal rivalry.
Before Survivor Series 2002, we must go back to July of 2002, when Victoria made her debut, losing to Trish Stratus on Sunday Night Heat. Victoria disliked Trish from the offset. She started mentioning her past with Trish, discussing how back when they were both fitness models, Stratus had betrayed Victoria and still held a grudge against her.
Looking for revenge for her loss, Victoria pinned Trish Stratus in Victoria's first match in WWE. On an episode of Monday Night Raw, she held on to the ropes for leverage. After the match, WWE Women’s Champion Molly Holly got in the ring, and both the champion and Victoria attacked Stratus, double-teaming her until Trish made a comeback and cleared the ring.
As WWE reached Unforgiven 2002, Trish Stratus regained the Women’s Championship by defeating Molly Holly. The next evening on Monday Night RAW, Trish defended her newly won championship against Molly and Victoria in a triple threat match. It looked like Victoria had the match won, but Trish would get the pinfall on Holly to retain. The following week, Victoria was granted a singles championship match. Before their match, Victoria attacked Trish backstage and during the match, unhinged, Victoria lost it. She hit Trish with a steel chair across the head as they battled outside.
During a special edition of Monday Night Raw, themed RAW Roulette, taking place on October 7th, 2002, Trish Stratus was scheduled to defend her Women’s Championship against Stacy Keibler. The roulette picked a bra and panties stipulation for their match, and Trish continued to retain her championship. After the match, Victoria attacked the champion, losing self-control once again. She rammed her head against the steel steps. With this, it was announced that Trish and Victoria would square off for the Women’s Championship at No Mercy.
Trish Stratus retained the championship at No Mercy, rolling up Victoria. After the bout, a furious Victoria beat Trish until referees came running down and stopped her from the attack. For the next following weeks, Trish and Victoria would continue to clash, and a rematch was made for Survivor Series at Madison Square Garden. On the November 11th episode of Monday Night RAW, Eric Bischoff booked Terri Runnels in a match against Victoria after Victoria attacked the interviewer the previous week. In the ring, Victoria beats on Terri and whips her into the steel steps. Trish Stratus makes the save as Victoria leaves laughing. The match at Survivor Series is then announced as a Hardcore match between the pair.
Their Survivor Series, Hardcore match is a legendary one. In an era where women’s wrestling wasn’t at the forefront of WWE television, Trish and Victoria went to places never seen in WWE. Using various weapons and an aggressive style unseen before, this match deserves its place in history. Victoria even busted her nose, but that didn’t stop her from becoming the new WWE Women’s Champion. Before the match, we saw Victoria showing more character development as a crazed lunatic. Getting ready and asking a mirror, ‘who the prettiest of them all is’ but with Victoria not in the right state of mind, unhinged, she smashed the mirror as in her thoughts, the mirror had named Trish as the prettiest. The finale of their Hardcore match saw Victoria pin Trish after spraying her with a fire extinguisher and delivering a suplex.
Trish tweeted about the match on its 20th-anniversary writing.
The next night on RAW, Victoria successfully defended her newly won championship against Stacy Keibler, but afterwards, Trish hit the ring and began brawling with the new champion. Out of now where Stevie Richards made his way into the ring and hit Trish with a double arm ddt, aligning himself with Victoria.
A week later, Trish challenges Victoria to a match on Raw for the Women’s Championship. Victoria won, successfully defending her championship after hitting the widow’s peak. After the match, Victoria bit Steven Richards's ear, showing her dominant side to their partnership. With Armageddon approaching, Jacqueline pinned Victoria in a non-title match and the following week, looking for revenge, Steven Richards pinned Jacqueline. But after the match, Victoria attacked her until Trish came running down to make the save.
The main event of that episode of Monday Night Raw saw Trish Stratus team with The Dudley Boyz to face the team of Christian, Chris Jericho and the Women’s Champion, Victoria. Stratus picked up the win after power bombing Victoria through a table. Another example of how Trish and Victoria changed women’s wrestling was by taking things to a more aggressive and brutal nature.
This led to a triple-threat match at Armageddon. Victoria would enter new music, one that would become synonymous with her, TATU ‘All the things she said’. The song was a worldwide hit, hitting number one in the music charts in many countries. Victoria again retained her championship, pinning Jacqueline after it looked like Trish had won the match.
Trish and Victoria continued to square off in multi-women and tag team matches for the next few weeks. There would be a rematch from Armageddon, but this time a hardcore match on the RAW episode on January 13th, 2003. Steven Richards helped Victoria win after hitting Trish with a trash can lid.
Trish Stratus and Victoria continued their feud heatedly and brutally when both squared off in a Chicago Street Fight on Monday Night RAW. Victoria once again emerged victorious, pinning Trish while brawling on the outside. After the bout, Jazz returned to RAW and continued beating Trish Stratus in the ring. Trish would be sidelined for a few weeks before returning and attacking both Jazz and Victoria. This led to a WWE Women’s championship triple threat match at Wrestlemania XIX.
The Trish Stratus and Victoria feud climaxed at Wrestlemania when Trish finally pinned Victoria after the Chick Kick and regained her WWE Women’s Championship to a massive crowd cheer.
In an interview with Ring The Belle, Trish gave her thoughts on Victoria.
Victoria, let’s get her in the Hall Of Fame, “Can we work on that, please, people? She needs to be in there. #VictoriaHallOfFame, let’s do that.”
The Trish Stratus and Victoria feud pushed the limits of what women wrestlers could do in WWE at the time—taking things to new levels and going to a more hardcore and physical place that had never happened before. Their match at Survivor Series was heavily talked about as a moment in which women’s wrestling took a new step toward equality, but their whole feud is that step, not just that match. Their Hardcore match on pay-per-view is just a snapshot of the hard-hitting feud that they played out.
