Without any wrestling matches under her belt, Trish Stratus found herself the subject of interest from all three national companies in 1999.
The Canadian-born athlete turned fitness model moved into professional wrestling with a unique navigation toward the WWF as the company was on fire during the Attitude Era.
Stratus recently chatted with POST Wrestling about an era where WWE wasn’t holding open tryouts, the Performance Center wasn’t even a vision, and it had yet to establish its fully formed developmental system.
Appearing in various Canadian media outlets inadvertently got the ball rolling. In 1997, TSN launched its “Off the Record” panel show, hosted by Michael Landsberg and featuring an assortment of athletes, actors, and anyone they had access to for sports-related debate. With the broadcaster’s partnership with the WWF and WCW, professional wrestling became an easy outlet for guests. Stratus began appearing on shows with wrestling personalities and left an impression.
In the embryonic stages of pro wrestling news circulating online, it was in the summer of 1998 that Stratus started becoming a name that popped up. This intensified after TSN held a live taping of “Off the Record” in August to formally announce the network would be carrying Raw live on Monday nights beginning in the fall. Stratus appeared on one of the episodes to coincide with the news of the announcement.
“The live show in front of the SkyDome and I was on the live show with a bunch of wrestlers and all that stuff. That’s when the rumors started, ‘Oh, Trish, this fitness model has been spotted,’ and he (WWF Canada president Carl DeMarco) heard the rumors about it and said, ‘If you get into this business, it’s very physical, you should know that’. He was just straight up that it’s difficult, it’s hard on your body, it’s hard on your life, which I always appreciated.”
She further ingrained herself within the pro wrestling online space by joining Live Audio Wrestling as a co-host in the summer of 1999 with hosts Donnie Abreu and Jeff Marek. The show had launched as an online property and was picked up by The FAN 590 sports station in Toronto in February 1999. It aired at 1 a.m. ET on Sunday nights with Stratus popping into the show for discussions with the hosts, running online polls, and being sent out on interview assignments.
Stratus was encouraged to send in a press kit by Michael Hayes and began the process of WWF’s interest, “Then, there was that transition where WCW took Terry Taylor and all those guys jumped ship. So, I didn’t hear anything for a while.” This spurred Stratus to take the leap and begin training under Ron Hutchison at Sully’s Gym in Toronto. Taylor held onto her press package and placed it in front of the right people on his way out of the WWF. “The story goes, Terry Taylor had my package and said, ‘We’re leaving,’ and went to Jim Ross and said, ‘Here’s Trish Stratus’ package. I’m putting it as a courtesy because she initiated the talk with WWF and if you don’t take her, we’ll take her’. So, that was the deal.”
However, in 1999, it was a fight among the top promotions for the next star and Stratus’ interest was not limited to the WWF and WCW. “In the meantime, Paul E. (Heyman) called me as well, and I think he talked to me, then Tammy Sytch called me. Like, it was this whole thing where I was marking out because all these wrestling people were calling me”.
As she was approaching her decision and being courted by all these companies, the WWF and WCW happened to run on back-to-back nights in November 1999. The WWF held a house show on November 20 at the SkyDome followed by the WCW Mayhem pay-per-view down the street the next evening, but she largely had made up her mind. “I was being recruited. I did the courtesy of going backstage and saying ‘Hello’ to everybody. My mind was always made, but it was worth exploring it.”
Stratus would sign her contract with the WWF shortly after and debut on the March 19, 2000, edition of Sunday Night Heat and was assigned the role of manager for T&A, Test, and Albert. Within months, Stratus was working alongside Triple H and Vince McMahon, culminating in a match with Stephanie McMahon at the No Way Out event in February 2001.
