While the February pay per view spot as of tonight is known as Elimination Chamber, for the past 9 years it has belonged to a little pay per view called ‘No Way Out’. As one of the least Diva-friendly pay per views, the event has been host to only one and a half Divas matches over the years. But thankfully, one of those matches just happens to be this one — a match that helped make a name out of Trish Stratus and showed that she wasn’t just a pretty face. This match continues to be remembered as one of the most memorable Divas matches to this day. The other match, Jamie Noble vs Nidia in 2003, not so much.
Relive this bout:
Follow the cut for part two:
Before she became known as the celebrated multi-time Women’s Champion and feuded with a host of talented Divas, Trish became embroiled in a rivalry with Daddy’s Little Girl, Stephanie McMahon after she was found to be getting it on with Vince. This match saw both pampered princesses go all out as you’d never expect them to.
Let’s hope that tonight’s inaugural Divas match on this Elimination Chamber is the first of many, unlike it’s predecessor.
What are your memories of this match? Share in the comments.
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27 Comments
I loved this feud.
Steph is so pretty :).
I laugh a lot when I see matches from the 90′s and early 00′s. The Fashion of that time was something creepy. Its so embarrassing to remember the outfits of that time.
Anyways, I kinda liked the storylines Steph entered. She has a lot of charisma and she could give some lessons to the girls who lack it.
“Anyways, I kinda liked the storylines Steph entered. She has a lot of charisma and she could give some lessons to the girls who lack it.”
You can teach charisma. lol
But the reason this match stands out because you had two chicks who wanted to kill each other. They knew they couldn’t do a million moves. So, they went out there and fought. That is what a majority of the Divas fail to do. They go out there and do moves because their fans think doing moves make you a good pro wrestler. And a lot of times, they botch or even worst.. The crowd doesn’t give a damn.
This was the match that should have made critics shut up about Stephanie’s in-ring and did make them start to take notice of Trish. Pieces of the next PPV, which just so happened to be WM X7, were falling into place and you had strong enough personalities to make it carry over.
Gail and Maryse don’t seem to have that luxury this evening but I’m hoping that an ‘all Canadian final’ makes for some good.
I hope Maryse and Gail get that amount of time time tonight!
I miss Trish sooo much!! She was truely a GREAT Diva!! :)
This was given a LOT of time, and show two women wanting to beat the holy hell out of each other. Both Divas were heels and both were “green” when it came to talent, but it didn’t matter, because the crowd actually gave a damn.
Something tells me that we’re not going to see the reaction that the Stephanie/Trish match got, regardless of who wins (which is SO freaking obvious that’s not even funny.)
Both girls impressed the hell out of me.
Trish was more of a valet at the time and hadn’t quite moved over to full time wrestler yet so she was still in the learning process.
Steph had matches now and again but probably didn’t receive much formal training aside from the basics.
For two ‘non-wrestlers’ this had to be one of my favourites. They kept the formula simple, the feud was great, the heat was impressive and they didn’t try anything too fancy. It was a very neat match! Even though a lot of RAW women are improving they still have the tendency to botch at times and the crowd don’t care much for them anyway. But THIS was at a time when the Divas were at their peak IMO. The fans were given a REASON to care about the women back then. And they were well written.
This match just illustrates why nobody cares about the current women. Back then they actually created good characters, with good storylines. And Trish and Steph, two rookies, put 1000% more emotion into this than any of the current divas do. It’s not about what moves you do, it’s about how you get the crowd involved.
Trish was lucky to come along when she did. She debuted at a time when people were still willing to pay attention to the women, and everybody got great reactions. I’m a huge fan of hers, but I admit that if she had debuted today, with the current product, I’d probaly would have lumped her in with all the other divas. Her legendary status has alot to do with her being a product of the Attitude Era. Timing is everything I guess.
That match was excellent. Even though they weren’t trained hardly at all, they did the basic stuff and then the storyline and their gritty attitudes shone through and made the action believeable, so there wasn’t a need for hurricanaranas and the like. Great fued, great match. :)
ahhh when divas actually had real storylines. I miss these times!!
they both did one hell of a job!!! props to both ladies!!
they did an awsome job telling a story with their match.
Great match!This match obviously puts the current Divas to shame,even the veterans.Although the bookers and creative team have a huge role in why noone cares about the Divas,so do the Divas themselves.
None of the Divas even motion to the crowd in their matches.Ok,maybe they will occassionally,but they never keep at it throughout the match which is what they have to do to get us to care AT LEAST for their matches.They don’t even use their characters in their matches.Again,what character,right?Well,look at Melina.When she came back she was just another bland babyface,but by yelling and showing her fiesty attitude throughout her matches it became her character.Now we know her as the fiesty face Diva who doesn’t play around.
Overall,this was a fun match.The only jibe I have about it is that it was pretty one-sided.Stephanie OWNED Trish in this match,and it was kind of annoying always seeing Trish get the upper hand for a second just to be crushed seconds later.
I <3 Trish :D
This match still impresses me to this day, I mean, do you hear that crowd? This was one of the simplest feuds, Daddy’s girl doesn’t like the new girlfriend. The only difference with this as compared to the women of today is that these two had actual characters and the crowd actually cared. I don’t think anyone was taking a bathroom break during this match up haha. The lack of actual wrestling skill here also makes the current crop of girls look bad, I mean, this match up was great and there wasn’t much in the way of actual holds or moves, but this was an all out brawl and you can see the emotions on their faces and in their intensity. Since a lot of the current Divas are “losers” from a modeling competition, you just don’t see this type of emotion and drive to do this sport anymore, it’s mostly pretty girls making sure they do the correct moves the right way at the right time.
People were into this because it was an actual storyline. This was allowed weeks to build. Plus, the little things that they did do, they did well.
This is one of my all time favorites.
I remember this match one of my fav TRISH matches.i think the problem with the WWE now is that they make the big PPV matches to soon for the divas and they dont let the rivalry build any emotion….well at least the RAW DIVAS matches. The past SD DIVAS matches had some real fuel to it like MELINA vs MICHELLE at night of champs and MICHELLE VS MICKIE at royal rumble. unlike MICKIE vs ALICIA and the latest one MARYSE vs GAIL.
At least we will always have the past matches to reminise on the good times. This is how ‘Divas’ should wrestle! Stop trying to be all fancy and cat fight god dammit!
This is a 5* match. Goes to show that a little wrestling experience can go a long way. I would say that this is definitely one of Trish’s best matches and Stephanie’s best.
Classic match, Even though they didnt have that much experience, You could tell they were telling a story & such.
JaiRate86 – It was a good match, but 5 stars? Even though the 5-star system is highly subjective, most fans of womens wrestling only recognize the 7 classic AJW matches as 5-star matches. Dont forget that 5 stars basicly means “perfect” (in all aspects), where 4 stars is excellent and 3 stars good. So with the official ratings system this would probably be around 3.5 stars (depending on the voters subjective opinion).
This was such an excellent feud, I remember it fondly. The build-up and the work that was put into it get everyone interested, we all wanted to see these two really go at it and they did! You really believed and felt the hatred between them – I wish we saw more of this nowadays.
Why can’t the inexperience divas perform like this? These two were not great wrestlers at the time but they put on a hell of a match to be honest. I loved when Trish wore this attire!
its funny that rookie Trish is better then a lot of Divas on the roster today XD
Man, this is the shit for real though.
Do the current Divas even LOOK at these old matches, promos, etc.?! Probably do, but are they taking notes or what? *sigh* You CAN teach charisma, or at least inasmuch as cutting a promo/gimmicks are taught/developed at wrestling schools. The rest is what comes naturally.
@NT86 and justbringit – Agreed!
This is when I fell in love with the women of wrestling. Neither of them were full-time wrestlers but they went out there and proved that given the proper storyline and the drive to rip someone’s hair out–you can put on an amazing show. I loved it.
I loved when they’d slap each other around. I loved when Steph would tackle Trish and slap her repeatedly. It was my favorite. It was passionate. They were given the proper amount of time and they put on an amazing show. Not a single dull moment. Stephanie McMahon has always been my favorite. I loved her character.
In my opinion, I think there are a few divas nowadays who should revert to this type of fighting. No one wants the “cat fight” move-set anymore but I thought it was great. Their fighting style was to get their opponent on the mat and beat the holy hell out of them. I love that.
Trish has said that this was when she decided to go full-time. This match. And I can see why.
This match was great,these 2 beat the crap out of each other big time.It also gave us a look at what was to come for Trish.She would go on to be the Best female wrestler in North America ever.Watching this match again really just made me sad,because we just dont see that kind of crowd heat in girls matches anymore.Cheers from Down Under