{"id":103815,"date":"2021-11-08T16:00:40","date_gmt":"2021-11-08T21:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=103815"},"modified":"2021-11-08T12:40:06","modified_gmt":"2021-11-08T17:40:06","slug":"survivor-series-2002-lookback-trish-stratus-vs-victoria-hardcore-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/11\/08\/survivor-series-2002-lookback-trish-stratus-vs-victoria-hardcore-match\/","title":{"rendered":"Survivor Series 2002 Lookback: Trish Stratus vs. Victoria Hardcore Match"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>November 1\u2019s installment of <em>Monday Night Raw<\/em> saw reigning Raw women\u2019s champion <strong>Becky Lynch<\/strong> retain her title in yet another challenge from <strong>Bianca Belair.<\/strong> The match was a lengthy and close one, and in the course of over 25 minutes in the ring both opponents came out looking strong, with Lynch\u2019s craftiness and Belair\u2019s prodigious strength equally on display. It&#8217;s no secret that the women of <em>World Wrestling Entertainment <\/em>had a long, uphill fight to be presented the way Belair, Lynch, and other current female WWE Superstars are: as serious fighters, and substantive competitors.<\/p>\n<h2>Survivor Series 2002 &#8211; Stratus vs Victoria Embraces Hardcore<\/h2>\n<p>Although the focus of the upcoming <em>Survivor Series<\/em> pay-per-view is traditionally brand-to-brand rivalry between the Raw and <em>SmackDown <\/em>rosters, Lynch looks poised to once again defend the Raw women\u2019s title there. Punishing, brawling bouts are the norm for Lynch\u2019s matches, but at 2002\u2019s Survivor Series <strong>Trish Stratus <\/strong>and <strong>Victoria<\/strong> shocked the audience and pushed the envelope of what women\u2019s wrestling in the WWE could be with their hardcore match for the women\u2019s championship.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair - Raw Women\u2019s Title Match: Raw, Nov. 1, 2021\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8XJxOh4ybCU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Although not initially trained as a pro wrestler upon entering the WWE (then WWF), Stratus grew into a credible performer whose rivalry with <strong>Lita <\/strong>defined the division during the \u201cNew Millenium\u201d. However, during this era, women\u2019s matches were still short, not as athletically robust as men\u2019s matches, and featured exploitative gimmicks like lingerie and schoolgirl costumes. The storylines behind them were often sexist and reductive, such as the onscreen body-shaming endured by <strong>Molly Holly<\/strong> from WWE\u2019s other \u201cDivas\u201d, often led by Stratus\u2019s character.<\/p>\n<p>Stratus\u2019 feud with Victoria was built around a fictional backstory that in their formative years as glamour models, WWE had expressed interest in both women, but Stratus stole Victoria\u2019s opportunity. With Victoria\u2019s character more villainous and unhinged week after week, their rivalry grew until a hardcore rules match between the two was set for 2002\u2019s Survivor Series.<\/p>\n<p>As the match opened, Victoria used Trish\u2019s trademark leather duster to wrap around Stratus\u2019s neck and strangle her, manipulating and tossing her to the edge of the ring. Victoria reeled Trish back in and continued to keep her in a chokehold with her own duster. The reigning women\u2019s champion Stratus\u2019 blood was already staining the mat in the match\u2019s early stages. Confident in her dominance, Victoria left off her strangulation tactic to introduce a broom into her attack. Stratus fought to her feet, and as Victoria swiped at her with the broom she managed to evade each potential strike and land a hard kick into Victoria\u2019s midsection. Stratus was in control, using the momentum of Victoria\u2019s assault and the leverage of the broom to flip Victoria overhead. Victoria propelled herself back forward, straddled Stratus and went for strangulation again, and continued to work her with the broom, pulling Stratus up to her feet, struggling all the way.<\/p>\n<p>Victoria backed into a corner, pulling Stratus with her, and mounting the second rope for leverage she used the broom beneath Stratus\u2019s neck to lift her off her feet. Stratus landed a kick, and used the broom to pull Victoria up and over, crashing into the mat. Stratus climbed the second rope and seized the lid of a garbage can, and went for Victoria, who dodged the attack, grabbed Stratus by the hair, and smashed her face into the lid. A dazed Stratus rolled under the ropes and outside the apron, but Victoria pursued and forced her into the garbage can itself. Trish Stratus lay sprawled and in obvious pain at the foot of the announce desk. Once again, Victoria seized her opponent by the hair, not done with her by a far cry.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Trish Stratus vs. Victoria - Women&#039;s Championship Hardcore Match: Survivor Series 2002\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aQg_KXkDM1Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Victoria rolled Trish roughly back into the ring, climbed and launched a leg drop on her, and covered. Stratus kicked out, but still wasn\u2019t back on her feet, and as she gasped for breath Victoria set up another garbage can between the first and second ropes. Stratus recovered, and managed to launch Victoria into the garbage can. She covered Victoria, who kicked out. Then, Stratus launched her next tactic, grabbing an ironing board from under the apron.<\/p>\n<p>Stratus sent Victoria crashing into the ironing board, then kicked her, knocking her bleeding opponent down and getting a cover. Victoria kicked out yet again, and Stratus thereupon retrieved a signature weapon of hardcore matches, an <strong>ECW<\/strong> staple, the kendo stick, and began a barrage of savage strikes to Victoria. Victoria fought back with the garbage can lid, hitting Stratus with a vicious headshot\u00a0 that would not be allowed in contemporary WWE. Stratus did a back handspring and locked her legs around Victoria\u2019s neck and used her abdominal strength to pull herself up and pay Victoria receipt with a headshot via garbage can lid to the challenger.<\/p>\n<p>The two continued to compete brutally, trading blows, kicks, and teasing each other with \u201chardcore\u201d weapons like mirrors and fire hydrants. Both women were bloodied and fighting hard. Victoria got a cover on Stratus after a suplex, and became women\u2019s champion.<\/p>\n<p>Although the athleticism of the women\u2019s division of this period largely lacked technical finesse, Victoria and Trish Stratus more than made up for their limitations with a creative, passionate bout that claimed WWE\u2019s women\u2019s stake in the company\u2019s trend at the time for hardcore, ECW-inspired matches. Stratus and Victoria spared nothing in the ring, literally leaving their blood on the canvas. Their 2002 bout didn\u2019t kick off a revolution for WWE\u2019s women-that was still more than a decade away in 2016: but, they certainly helped to lay the foundation for what followed, and moments yet to be made by WWE\u2019s current female Superstars.<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p><em>Stay tuned to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/a>\u00a0for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can check out an almost unlimited array of WWE content on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/watch.wwe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WWE Network<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.peacocktv.com\/watch\/home\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Peacock<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-1\">\n<div id=\"rc-widget-6e0e4e\" data-rc-widget=\"\" data-widget-host=\"habitat\" data-endpoint=\"\/\/trends.revcontent.com\" data-widget-id=\"175604\">\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>November 1\u2019s installment of Monday Night Raw saw reigning Raw women\u2019s champion Becky Lynch retain her title in yet another challenge from Bianca Belair. The match was a lengthy and close one, and in the course of over 25 minutes in the ring both opponents came out looking strong, with Lynch\u2019s craftiness and Belair\u2019s prodigious [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3715,"featured_media":103975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3,320],"tags":[163,1445,239,3686,325,238,3667],"class_list":["post-103815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","category-wwe-women","tag-becky-lynch","tag-bianca-belair","tag-lita","tag-molly-holly","tag-survivor-series","tag-trish-stratus","tag-victoria"],"modified_by":"Robbie Sutter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3715"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}