Every Version Of Lita, Ranked From Worst To Best

There are very few women in WWE history with the popularity or iconic statusof Lita. Like many female WWE Superstars, she was an attractive woman, not to mention that she caught the eye of fans for her bright red hair and tattoos that set her apart from her colleagues. All the more so, though, she captured the imagination as a talented wrestler in her own right, particularly well known for her signature moonsault.

Fans got to meet a number of different versions of Lita over the years, from face to heel and from relative unknown to legend. Many of these iterations connected with fans, though they were not all created equally.

10 One Of The Godfather’s Hos

When Lita first appeared on WWE television, fans were offered little reason to pay her any individual attention. That’s because her first appearance came not as a wrestler, nor even as a named valet or manager, but rather as one in a crowd of The Godfather’s Hos.

Not all aspects of the Attitude Era have aged well. The Godfather’s pimp character would never fly today and was largely defined by the cadre of beautiful women who accompanied him to the ring. Now, being labeled a ho would certainly be cause for indignation, but in the height of the Attitude Era, Lita’s cameo in this role wasn’t so different from talents like Becky Lynch and Braun Strowman making cameos as part of Adam Rose’s Rosebud entourage.

9 Teamed With Essa Rios

Lita got a more proper WWE debut, complete with the name Lita, when she first appeared as the manager to Essa Rios. The pair made some sense as both of them were high-fliers. Rios got pushed as the Light Heavyweight Champion, which positioned Lita in a reasonably high profile role. Moreover, Lita’s unique look and penchant for hitting beautiful moonsaults on Rios’s fallen opponents added a lot to his character.

In the end, there was a ceiling on WWE’s plans for Rios, and there’s little question Lita’s star power exceeded his. She would move on to much bigger things.

8 Kane’s Bride

In a strange turn of events, Lita found herself in Kane’s clutches after he decimated Matt Hardy. Things quickly grew complicated as Lita went from fearful of the monster, to revealing she was pregnant with his baby, to a miscarriage, to turning on Kane to join forces with Edge.

Lita’s whirlwind of character movement--not to mention Kane's nonsensical character arc--made for provocative if a bit disjointed television. Particularly in the latter stages of her being intertwined with Kane, art imitated life as WWE grappled with an increasingly public story of Lita’s real-life breakup with Matt Hardy, and associated drama surrounding her and Edge.

7 Miss Congeniality

The woman who would eventually become Lita debuted for ECW as Miss Congeniality (later called Angelica). She hammed it up as anything but what one would expect a beauty pageant contestant to look and act like. On-screen, she played Danny Doring’s girlfriend.

Lita was quite understandably rough around the edges at this point but demonstrated potential. It was only a matter of months before she found herself working for WWE, leaving her ECW run largely forgotten.

6 Battle Of The Sexes

Lita mixed it up with male Superstars a number of times, including a program with Dean Malenko in 2001. By late 2003, though, Lita and Trish Stratus had both emerged as icons of the women’s division and struck up a partnership rooted in mutual respect. Indeed, they were respected women, and while they didn’t have the size of someone like Chyna to believably hang with male talent in the ring, they did have enough investment from WWE fans to make a go at intergender wrestling.

So it was that the two entered a storyline of courtship and violence with Chris Jericho and Christian, highlighted by a “Battle of the Sexes” tag team match at Armaggeddon 2003. The women lost, and Stratus would overshadow Lita in the months to follow as Jericho turned face to defend her, only for her to turn heel and join Christian at WrestleMania 20. Nonetheless, her placement in the angle reinforced that Lita was over as a major star for WWE at the time.

5 Legend

Lita left WWE in late 2006, but has made her share of appearances for the company over the years to follow. That includes accepting an overdue Hall of Fame induction in 2014, unveiling a new Women’s Championship in 2016, and participating in the first women’s Royal Rumble in 2018.

Lita has remained in good shape and can still go in the ring, as she particularly demonstrated in reuniting with Trish Stratus to defeat Mickie James and Alicia Fox at the all-female Evolution PPV in October 2018. She probably walked away from wrestling full-time at the right time to leave around her peak and leave fans wanting more, and has remained a fun legend to see return to the fold for guest appearances.

4 Face Underdog

Lita’s look never fit with the bleach-blond, tanned aesthetic of WWE’s women’s roster of her day. Her real-life journey to the top of the women’s ranks was an unlikely underdog story and so it fit her well when her creative direction as a character followed a similar arc.

She was cast as an outgunned face standing up to management opposite a bullying Stephanie McMahon. She battled to get over the hump to finally unseat Trish Stratus as champion. She was a clear physical underdog against powerhouses like Jazz, Victoria, and particularly Chyna in 2001. In each case, it was easy for fans to get behind Lita.

3 Face Challenger And Champion

Once Lita was established and she and Trish Stratus became the top faces of women’s wrestling in WWE, Lita’s career largely revolved around her pursuits of the Women’s Championship. She was popular and talented enough to become the first woman to garner two one-on-one main event matches on Raw, first taking the title off of Stephanie McMahon in 2000 and then Trish Stratus in 2004.

In her title pursuits and defenses, Lita was a Superstar fans were organically and passionately invested in. She thrived as the top face in her division.

2 Femme Fatale

For as good as Lita had been as a face, she discovered new depth to her character with a heel turn in 2005. WWE intertwined fact and fiction, playing off of a real-life breakup between Lita and Matt Hardy that the latter had taken public. Playing off of drama between them and Edge, as well as Hardy losing his WWE contract for a brief period, Lita emerged as the heel sidekick to The Rated R Superstar.

It turned out that the very real heat around Lita, her ability to get involved in the action, and exploits like her “Live Sex Celebration” with Edge all helped him get to the next level as a bona fide main event level star. Maybe Edge would have gotten there anyway, and he certainly continued to thrive after their partnership ended. Nonetheless, Lita offered some of her very best work both as a manager and wrestler during this stretch.

1 Team Xtreme

While Lita got a positive response from fans when she managed Essa Rios and in her first matches, her popularity exploded as part of Team Xtreme with The Hardy Boyz. Matt and Jeff Hardy were, themselves, cutting edge, cool faces and Lita fit their aesthetic and identity like a glove. Together, all three members of the trio elevated one another.

Via her association with The Hardys, Lita got involved in TLC Match scenarios as well as high profile programs like Matt and Jeff facing off with The Two-Man Power Trip of Steve Austin and Triple H. Though Lita arguably reached even greater heights in popularity and quality of performance at other points in her career, it may well be her work with The Hardys, when WWE was at its absolute hottest during the Attitude Era, that will be best remembered from her career and that laid the foundation for her success to come.

Next: 10 Things About Lita That Would Never Fly Today