Lita wants dream match with Rhea Ripley, talks latest WWE return run and more

Lita chats with Daily DDT about WWE’s Most Wanted Treasures, returning to the ring, wanting to wrestle Rhea Ripley, and more.

The year is 2023, and both Lita and Trish Stratus are competing at WrestleMania.

For over a decade, fans were under the impression that both WWE Hall of Famers were definitively retired from the ring. However, they played pivotal roles on the road to WrestleMania 39 and remained relevant on Raw in the weeks that followed as part of a storyline with Becky Lynch.

Lita in particular is coming off a short-lived reign as WWE Women’s Tag Team champion alongside Lynch, marking her first taste of WWE gold in nearly 17 years. She was last seen laid out prior to losing the title on the April 10 edition of Raw with Stratus later admitting she was behind the backstage attack to set up her heel turn.

In her absence from WWE TV, Lita has been serving as a host of WWE’s Most Wanted Treasures, airing weekly on A&E as part of Superstar Sundays.

The first season saw WWE Legends on the hunt for some of their signature memorabilia from over the course of their career, and this second season has been no different. Fellow Hall of Famers Mick Foley and Booker T are also among the hosts of the show.

“I learned so much, and I’m definitely a learn-by-doing sort of person, so it was perfect to be out in the field on an active scavenger hunt chasing down these pieces,” Lita told Daily DDT about her experience filming for it. “We would bring friends along with us that we were attached directly to these items and they’d tell me where they were and what was going through their head with the piece corresponding we were looking for.”

Throughout the second season, she’s come across The Ultimate Warrior’s iconic airbrushed singlet from his Ultimate Maniacs days, along with “Rowdy” Roddy Piper’s patented bagpipes.

It isn’t at all surprising that the fans featured on the show would be so attached to their prized possessions, and that it would be difficult for Lita and company to get the memorabilia back in WWE’s grasp.

“I can’t fault [the collectors] because I understand how it is beyond monetary value, beyond an experience to them,” she said. “It’s tied directly to a sweet spot in their childhood, to a thing they are still passionate about to this day.”

On that same token, the multi-time women’s champ would love to see all of the artifacts acquired by the company one day on display in a physical WWE Hall of Fame. So far, WWE has had test runs with Axxess-esque exhibits over major wrestling weekends.

“We’ve done two galleries so far at the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania and the fans loved to see that stuff and I loved being there watching them see it,” Lita said. “I can only imagine having a Hall of Fame where you can walk in and see everything and maybe bump into one of us who are just as excited to look at this stuff as well.”

Lita reflects on her recent run with WWE

Prior to this past year, Lita had not wrestled regularly for WWE since 2006. In the last year and a half alone, she’s competed in a Royal Rumble match, challenged for the Raw Women’s Championship, won the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship, and had another WrestleMania moment.

“So far, it’s been pretty incredible and it’s pretty weird because as foreign as it feels the first time coming back, like ‘What am I doing here?’, it does start to feel like an old shoe pretty quickly,” she said. “Once I’m back on the road, I think, ‘Oh yeah, I remember this life.’ It feels very familiar and very new at the same time with the deep locker room of women who are so talented and multiple women’s matches every night.”

Lynch needing backup for her feud with Damage CTRL’s Bayley, IYO SKY and Dakota Kai led to Lita making her grand return in early February. The two went on to unseat SKY and Kai as WWE Women’s Tag Team champions a short time later.

“Damage CTRL was incredible to work with, and things have branched off with Becky and Trish,” Lita said. “I just feel like it’s all the more interesting to figure out how this is all going to play out.”

Lynch and Stratus went one-on-one for the first time ever at Night of Champions and NXT call-up Zoey Stark factored into the finish by aiding Stratus to victory. All three are set to take part in the women’s Money in the Bank Ladder match this weekend.

Lita resurfacing to help Lynch even the odds once again and build to a tag team match would seem to make the most sense, but there has been no indication WWE is indeed headed in that direction.

Despite that, she explained being a big proponent of non-title stories and how everything Lynch has been involved in this year has been an example of that.

“I think fans want to get involved and be told this story. Sure, championships are great, but that’s built-in,” she said. “To have a high-profile storyline where it’s just emotional based… the history is so rich. Over two decades with me and Trish, I’ve mentored Becky since she came to the main roster, but I’m kind of in the middle between these two. To see where it can go, there are so many different ways it can play out and I think it keeps the fans on their toes. They like to fantasy-book it and try to say what’s going to happen.”

In her mind, she considered herself retired after failing to beat The Man for the Raw Women’s Championship at Elimination Chamber 2022, though it was never specifically billed as a retirement match. She was more than content to end her career on that high note until WWE came calling again at the onset of 2023.

Everything that has happened since then has simply been the icing on the cake.

“I really felt like my match with Becky in Saudi Arabia was a really nice retirement match,” she said. “I did not anticipate having that opportunity. It felt really satisfying with the whole full circle moment of that paving the way with women in the United States and then when the relationship was established in Saudi Arabia, women weren’t even allowed to come to the matches and there were no women performing then going to a featured match with Becky and I on billboards all over the kingdom. It felt really poetic and I felt really happy with that match. I felt good with that and this just feels like bonus time.”

If she does return eventually seeking revenge on Stratus, Lita teased that Rhea Ripley’s Women’s World Championship could be in her sights. The Nightmare has been dominating Raw’s women’s division since well before WrestleMania and both have expressed interest in making that dream match a reality.

“I actually just saw an interview where Rhea threw that back out there for a match against me,” the WWE Hall of Famer said. “I know we just talked about matches being really great without titles, but I would want that one to involve the title. She’s an incredible talent and I’d love to work with her because it would push me to go beyond my comfort zone I feel like I’ve been satisfied with what I’ve done in this chapter, but I’d love to see how far I can take it.”