Trish Stratus Talks Pitching And Approving Angles In WWE, Hesitance On Gravy Bowl Match, "Diva" Term
As noted, WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus recently appeared on Lilian Garcia's podcast, Making Their Way to the Ring. Part two of the podcast dropped today, which you can watch in the video above or download on iTunes. They sent us these highlights:
Her reputation for wanting to approve storylines:
"[Triple H] goes, I know you're going to want to approve everything. He did the rolling eyes and I just laughed, because they know. Sometimes I go, I know I'm being a pain in the ass, but it's a good pain in the ass. You'll see. I wasn't picky. I was particular. My whole thing was I was never going to say no. That was the problem in WWE. You can't just go, no I'm not doing that. For me, I said no many times. But I said, no, but how about?? There's a different way for them to get what they need. They needed sex appeal. I was like, OK I'll give you sex appeal. Can we do it this way first?"
Her initial hesitance on the famous gravy bowl match:
"I'll never forget that gravy bowl match that me and Stacy [Kiebler] had. I was like, I looked at Finlay I was like really? We're on a roll and I've got to do gravy bowl match? Did they just make that up? Is it the first annual? Like, gravy in a bikini? The clothes had to come off eventually. So I'm like, but can we start it with me being thrown from the ramp to the gravy bowl thing, into the gravy bowl? And I got my first 'holy sh*t' chant. Thank you for that. That was my first one and it was very good. I was like, OK it was worth having this gravy bowl match."
Trish's response to WWE not signing her right away:
"[Michael P.S. Hayes] goes, you should send your stuff to them. I'll set you up with a call or a contact. So he was actually the first person who saw me and thought this could happen. So he gave me that first contact. I put together this little press kit thing together and I sent it off. Then I didn't hear anything for months, months. Then another month went by, and I thought OK well so much for that. But then I thought, but if they do call I would like to prepare the best possible package. So I was like, well Edge is from Toronto. So let me see where he trained, because I realized it's a physical job."
Why the call took so long:
"So Terry Taylor called me and he was the one who would've signed me, but he goes, I'm sorry I didn't call you. This huge thing happened with WCW an we're here now. We would love to take you here. But it's only fair because you were first approached while I was in WWF, and I know it's actually a passion of your. I've left your package on JR's desk, and I said if you want her here's her package, if not we'll take her?not to say I didn't get an offer later."
How she surprised the writers:
"It was still about getting to know my character, let's figure out her character. They didn't know what to do. Of course, in the meantime, what am I doing? I'm weekly putting storylines together and characters together and submitting them. They'd never seen that before, they said?I mean I had a great one with me and Billy Gunn, I had a great one with Kurt Angle and I. Of course Ron said, you can't just pitch yourself with all the top guys."
Being glad to see the term "Diva" go:
"I never liked the Diva word. I never even used it. I would do my best to not call myself that, nor refer to the girls as that. There were times we had to, or it was on the teleprompter or whatever. But to me it just means a b—hy, over-needy person. It's just not at all what we do. Also I didn't like that it separated us."