Trish Stratus reveals why she rejected plans for a WWE return in 2009

Filed to GERWECK.NET:

Trish Stratus sat down with Kenny McIntosh from Inside The Ropes and discussed scrapped return plans in 2009 and her recent 2023 run in WWE.

Exclusive: Stratus Explains Why She Rejected WWE Return Pitch In 2009

Stratus had the perfect last match of her full-time run at Unforgiven 2006 when she defeated Lita to become the new Women’s Champion in Toronto. Ending her run as the top star of the company, Stratus would only wrestle occasionally from that point onwards. When asked to come back for a one-off appearance in 2009, Stratus explained why this particular pitch was one that she was not interested in:

“I always said when I retired, if I go back, it’s got to be for something important. Not important, that’s not the right word. It’s got to be for something that’s good. No, that’s not right either. It’s gotta be just something that has to check a few boxes. I want to work with someone I haven’t worked with before. Selfishly as a performer I want to challenge myself. But I also want to elevate another person. I want to do stuff that hasn’t been done before. I want to present things a bit differently. I just thought about coming back after being retired, I didn’t think that was a good platform to do it. I didn’t think it was necessary. I don’t think it would have been way better if Trish Stratus was in there.”

Exclusive: Stratus Explains Why She Wanted Her 2023 WWE Return To Be Different

Returning to the ring at WrestleMania 39, Trish Stratus teamed with Becky Lynch and Lita to defeat Damage CTRL in front of a packed SoFi Stadium. Looking for more than a nostalgia babyface run, the Hall of Famer attacked Lynch later that month to turn heel for the first time in nearly 2 decades. Stratus would go on to explain how the original plan was not a lengthy heel rivalry with Lynch but it organically developed into the 6 month program:

“I felt like I’d done the babyface comeback. They’re fine, but I don’t want to wear out my welcome. I said, if I go back, I’d like to surprise people and do it a little differently. I thought as a performer, I would like to challenge myself and do a heel run because I hadn’t touched that for so many years. It was 18 years since I did a heel promo. So Becky called me and said, “Do you want to come back and do a match with me at WrestleMania?” But we needed me to come back and turn first. We were spitballing how I could turn heel and then we brought in Lita. We thought it’d be cool to see me turning on Lita. You’re more invested in me turning on my friend of 20 years than me and Becky, who had no television history at that point. I was supposed to come in for a little bit after WrestleMania, do a little something. And then suddenly I was in a storyline every single week for the next six months. So we were not expecting that but that’s what happened.”