Trish Stratus had every reason to expect a storybook ending at WrestleMania 18 in Toronto, but more than two decades later, the WWE Hall of Famer says she has zero problem with the company denying her the hometown championship win.
During a conversation with the Toronto Sun, Stratus looked back at the March 17, 2002 event inside the SkyDome, where she challenged Jazz for the WWE Women’s Championship in a triple threat match that also included Lita. The women had the unenviable task of following one of the loudest matches in WWE history after The Rock and Hulk Hogan tore the roof off the building. Stratus still remembers standing behind the curtain watching Hogan and Rock send the Toronto crowd into complete chaos — while realizing she had to walk through that curtain next.
“Being in Gorilla Position watching this go down, saying, ‘So we’re next? Cool.’ Like, ‘Oh my God,’ right? Yeah, that was pretty iconic. Oh my gosh.”
Despite competing in her hometown, Stratus didn’t leave WrestleMania 18 with the title. Jazz retained the championship, and plenty of fans have argued ever since that WWE should have given Stratus the big Toronto victory.
Stratus doesn’t see it that way. She explained that she never viewed WrestleMania 18 as a moment that WWE robbed her of. At that point, she had only been in the wrestling business for roughly two years, and simply being placed in a championship match in front of tens of thousands of hometown fans was already bigger than she could have imagined.
“I remember everyone being like, ‘Oh, Trish should have won in Toronto.’ And I was just like, it just wasn’t the moment for me, you know? And I really believe that everything happens for a reason. And like, that was my Toronto homecoming. Think about it. It was 2002, so I’d been in the business for two years. For me to be in a Women’s Championship match in front of 60,000 people at the SkyDome — what? You know what I mean? That is a story. That is a fairy-tale ending for me, just to be in that match was amazing. And to get that reception and to wear my little Canadian flag thing and stuff. So everything was meant to be the way it was meant to be. And yeah, I mean, what a great event to be a part of.”
That loss obviously didn’t derail Stratus. She went on to become one of the biggest female stars in WWE history, and WrestleMania 18 remains one of those moments fans still debate because the hometown win seemed almost too perfect to pass up. Stratus, however, believes the night played out exactly the way it was supposed to.
Do you think WWE made the right call by having Jazz retain at WrestleMania 18, or should Trish Stratus have gotten the championship win in Toronto? Let us know what you think in the comments.
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