Trish Stratus – Early History in the WWE

Trish Stratus exploded onto the whole World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) scene in the spring of 2000 as the manager of tag-team duo, Test and Albert (T & A).  Her debut was nothing short of magnificent as the crowd was whipped into frenzy at the sight of this beautiful, petite blonde confidently leading out two established wrestling superstars.  Foreshadowing the future perfectly, the WWE would be the perfect stage for the diminutive trish stratus to reign supreme! 

Trish Stratus’ omnipotent sex appeal has helped the WWE reap in immense financial awards from their main demographic – overwhelmingly 12-45 year old males.  Her first main storyline in the WWE brought the throngs of pre-pubescent boys and child-at-heart adult men to their knees, which was a testament to the rising stardom of Trish Stratus.  The storyline involved Trish Stratus’ tag team, T & A, losing a poker bet to rival tag team, the Acolyte Protection Agency (APA).  The stakes – a striptease by Trish Stratus herself during Wrestlemania 2000.  After Trish Stratus refused to strip, T & A ambushed the APA. 

You have to understand that the world of professional wrestling is pure entertainment.  WWE wrestling to their fans can be compared to daytime soaps for middle-aged housewives.  The plots are outrageously unrealistic but like daytime soaps, are highly entertaining (to regular viewers) and addictive, and their stars have a larger-than-life personality with the necessary physical attributes to support their personalities.  The WWE’s inclusion of more and more of a female presence has helped the overall aesthetic appeal and popularity of wrestling for their fans although this may be considered sexual exploitation by many peoples.  Although the females involved in the WWE are usually stunningly gorgeous, well-endowed, and have to exhibit their stunningly gorgeous endowments by job requirement, they do convey a sense of power and control.  And no female wrestler is more in power and control than Trish Stratus. 

After the WWE realized the immense star power that Trish Stratus possessed, her character was involved in more lurid storylines with important implications in the WWE hierarchy.  After managing T & A, and other wrestlers like Intercontinental Champion, Val Venis, Trish Stratus embarked upon a much more tantalizing storyline in 2001 involving WWE’s head honcho himself, Vince McMahon, who is portrayed as wrestling’s most villainous character.  Here, Trish Stratus became Vince McMahon mistress after Linda McMahon (Vince McMahon’s wife) suffered a nervous breakdown and was maintained in a vegetative state thanks to steady diet of sedatives.  This did not endear Trish to McMahon’s daughter, Stephanie, as the two of them became nasty rivals.  In the end, Stephanie McMahon won the support of her father to oust Trish Stratus with the blowout escalating in the degradation of Trish Stratus.  It was in the ring that Vince McMahon forced Stratus to do humiliating acts such as get on her knees, bark like a dog take her clothes off, as well as act as a servant for Stephanie during an episode of WWE Raw.  This marked the beginning of a transformation towards the good for Trish Stratus as she won sympathy from the fans, while Stephanie McMahon switched places, effectively becoming a villain. 

Stratus would get her revenge on the McMahons during Wrestlemania X-Seven.  During a match pitting Vince against his son, Shane McMahon, Trish Stratus, who was acting as Vince’s manager turned against him.  After slapping Vince mid-match, Stratus set her sights on Stephanie McMahon, chasing her around and away from the ring much to the approval of the deafening fans.  This also marked a shift in focus for Trish Stratus as she would concentrate more and more on her wrestling career, no longer relying on her managerial career.