Lita Has High Praise For Britt Baker Vs. Thunder Rosa AEW Match
On this week's episode of Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette, WWE Hall of Famer and the pillar of women's wrestling, Lita, came on and discussed how her appetite for wrestling has been during this pandemic. Although she's still a big fan of the sport she once led, she admits that her viewing of it has come in waves throughout this last year-and-a-half.
"I go in phases. I had a very hard time at the start of the pandemic when it was like sound stage wrestling. I was like, I can't do this," Lita replied on whether or not she's been keeping up with the current product. "I felt bad for people that I knew. I don't know if they felt bad. They could have been perfectly fine [with it]. I was like, this isn't for me. This isn't the craft that I love. Then, when they started doing the virtual fans and then having some fans over on AEW, I started to watch, but it was like more in clips. I'd hear a match was good, so I'd go watch that one-off, and that would be enough.
"And then, you know, gearing up towards WrestleMania, and things started to feel slightly more normal. I am checking back in a little bit more regularly. I always enjoy it, but when I know I need a break, I just check out."
One of those matches she happened to watch was Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D and Thunder Rosa's violent clashing back in March on AEW Dynamite. One week after taking part in this career-altering match, the now AEW Women's Champion, Baker, mentioned on Paquette's podcast how she would love for Lita and Trish Stratus, her idols, to watch this match and give their honest feedback. Well, Baker received her wish, and honestly, she received a great reception from Lita.
"I did [watch it], not initially. But holy s–t, right? It was insane," Lita noted. "It was great that they got that spotlight. But you need a moment that brings you up from a wrestler that people have heard about to [someone] that knocks your stock up. I think Thunder Rosa won the match, but it's one of those that's just like, it doesn't matter. They just, like, tore the house down. There's no counterpoint or counterargument. That was an awesome match! They fully went for it: not for gender or amount of time in the business. They went for it and delivered. It was crazy.
"I know being involved at ringside in so many TLC and hardcore matches, [I remember] being so nervous for them. I'm stoked to be standing here ringside, but I'm going to be more stoked when we're back on the other side of the curtain, and everyone is walking out of there."
After Lita brought up her days of seeing those violent matchups unfold, Paquette then asked Lita which matches were the hardest ones for her to watch.
"The TLC matches, mostly. It was at WrestleMania in Texas. It was the Hardy's versus The Dudley Boyz versus Edge and Christian. Definitely the match – I just did an Untold episode -with Edge versus Mick [Foley]. They had a hardcore match with the bag of thumbtacks, flamming tables and barbed wire, stuff like that where I was like, this is going to be awesome, but I just want you to be ok.
"It would be hard listening to them talk about these things and to not have your inner person that cares about them as humans come out."
You can listen to Lita's full interview here. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Oral Sessions w/Renée Paquette with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.