A Look Back: When Trish and Lita Main Evented Raw in 2004

I am a diehard fan of women's wrestling and hockey, and a question I often ask myself is, "Which do I love more?" To this day, I still haven't answered that definitively. That's how much I adore women's wrestling. All I ask for is for women's wrestling to be put in the biggest spotlight possible, because, as I've said for many years now, women are the true stars of wrestling. And as a diehard fan, I will always treasure the evening of December 6, 2004, as that night's edition of WWE's Monday Night Raw saw Trish Stratus and Lita compete in the main event.

That night's Raw was the very first to be main evented by a women's match, and it was only fitting that it was these two who achieved that history. Not only because of their feud at the time, but because for so long, Trish Stratus and Lita served as the heads of the proverbial table that is WWE's Women's Division. They were the gold standard of that era--the measuring stick, if you will--for several years and two eras, kicking off during the Attitude Era and becoming the top talent during the first half of the Ruthless Aggression Era. So here's how this all took place:

Trish and Lita had been rivals in the past, but after Trish's face turn in 2001, she and Lita had spent the better part of two years on the same side as babyfaces. After three years as a face, Trish turned heel at WrestleMania XX, with her villainous run beginning with being the manager/love interest for Christian before finally getting back into the business at hand: the Women's Championship. Trish won her fifth Women's Championship (and her first as a villainess) at Bad Blood in 2004, doing so in a Fatal Four Way and defeating Gail Kim, Lita, and entering champion Victoria.

Speaking of Lita, 2004 was not a good year for her, storyline-wise. Her then-real life relationship with Matt Hardy was part of an angle that saw Lita as the object of pursuit by Kane, which ended up including Lita not only becoming Kane's wife, but also carrying his child (until the storyline miscarriage caused by Gene "It Wasn't My Fault" Snitsky). During that angle, Lita was on the receiving end of cruel barbs by WWE's villainous women, but leading that charge was Trish Stratus, who would crash Lita's wedding to Kane and continue to shame her. The rivalry was reignited right there, and it led to one of my favorite moments: Survivor Series 2004.

What was supposed to be a Women's Championship contest between the two rivals was everything but that, as Lita chose Survivor Series as the moment to flat out level Trish. I watched this on PPV, I still remember it like it was yesterday, and I honestly still laugh about it. Lita proverbially went to town on Trish with a chair; taking out months of frustration on the very woman who had been tormenting her. Needless to say, the Women's Championship was the very last thing on her mind that evening.

So with that, we finally got Trish vs Lita weeks later on the aforementioned date: December 6, 2004. There are two reasons why I remember that date; one, it was the tail end of the aftermath of Survivor Series, and two, it's a very important date in women's wrestling, and I hang on those memories. I remember being elated and surprised to see that Trish and Lita would end Raw--they were the main event. It was the very first time that women main evented Raw, and it would take nearly a decade and a half for that to become somewhat commonplace in WWE. Unsurprisingly, these two showed out, and I remember two great moments from this. One, Trish removing the face mask she had to wear and arrogantly smiling in satisfaction over the subterfuge, and two (and more importantly), the result:

When the final bell sounded ten minutes later, Lita's hand was raised as the new Women's Champion. I remember being so elated over Lita's win, not only because of the story (a great positive after many misfortunes), but because it had been so long since Lita had been Women's Champion. Lita winning that title in Raw's main event is one of the greater feel good stories in WWE's history, especially in the years I had been watching.

Aftermath: The aftermath was not a good one, sadly. Lita and Trish's rematch was set to take place at New Year's Revolution on January 9, 2005, and unfortunately, it was during that match that Lita suffered her terrible injury. As a result, a quick finish saw Trish regain the title and start her sixth (and longest) run as Women's Champion. I recall that we were supposed to get Trish vs Lita for WrestleMania that year, which would have been the first time that these two iconic Hall of Famers would have competed at the grand stage. Due to Lita's injury, however, Christy Hemme was put in that spotlight, and we got a title match that was...underwhelming.

As I said before, it would be a long time before women main eventing Raw would be somewhat commonplace. It took well over 10 years and an outcry for us to see women main event Raw, SmackDown, NXT, pay-per-views, and even the grand stage of WrestleMania. But we have reached that point, finally, and while we are seeing WWE's women shine in main event spotlights in a near habitual basis, we can't forget that the true beginning of this came on a Monday night in December of 2004, featuring two legendary and iconic Hall of Famers.