Original subtitles

- 50,000 fans cheering the beautiful blonde from Toronto.

- One of the greatest women's champions ever.

- I love this and I love this.

- Before I started this business, I was premed.

My ultimate goal was to become a doctor.

What I want to do is make a difference in people's lives.

Someone said to me once, they said,

"In a day, you can see maybe 10 to 15 patients

just make an impact."

But in this business, we touch so many more people

in different ways.

We change people's lives.

- Trish was not just a superstar, but in a lot of ways,

a WWE superhero, especially for women at that time.

- She inspired an entire generation.

- Growing up, I was a huge fan of Trish Stratus.

- I was just like, "I want to be her."

- She was the golden standard for women in the industry

at that time.

- Trish helped redefine the women's division.

- Trish Stratus brought it to another level.

- Trish is a perfectionist.

She is driven by work.

- I think the challenge is really what drives her.

- She has to be reminded to slow down even when her body

is screaming at her that it needs a break.

All smiles you would never know she was suffering at all.

Her colitis would act up and really be a challenge

for her body to perform,

full body chills with the fever and sweating.

- Then you go,

"Wow, she accomplished all of this with that?"

But it shows you the superhuman that Trish is.

- The greatest women's champion in WWE history.

- Are you ready for this box?

- Yes.

- Let's see what's in this box.

Let's see.

Oh, I want to show you this.

This-

- Oh.

- -is-

- What is it?

- Your book about all your ages in school.

- Wait, this is your age, Madi.

This is your age.

- Five?

- Yes, five.

Between five and six in grade one.

This is going to be you next year in grade one.

That's how-

You think that would be someone you'd play with?

- No.

Yeah.

- Yeah?

You think so?

Growing up, I was definitely a tomboy.

I wanted to be one of the boys at all times.

- I met Trish-

- We had to have been about maybe six or seven

years old when we met.

- Ron and I met in kindergarten.

Trish and Ron met, because he was

my best friend at the time.

- Trish was like one of the boys.

She had to hang out with us, do what we were doing.

- Anything physical, she was on board.

- It's like I look back now I'm like,

"Oh, I always was trying to be part of the boys club."

And proving myself to be like,

"I belong here. Look, watch this."

- We would play sports together, soccer, baseball.

- We watched wrestling together.

I grew up in Toronto.

Toronto is a real hotbed for wrestling.

So, my aunt would take us to Maple Leaf Gardens together.

- This capacity crowd loving it.

They're eating it up.

- Macho Man, that's who I resonated with.

He had the perfect mix of athleticism, but showmanship.

And he was the guy for me.

- Having matches in my parents' room,

always aggressive in all the sports.

- And in high school, she played soccer.

She was good.

I would go to the games and watch her.

She was a little rough.

- I was known as a bit of a goon on the team.

I was slide tackling like crazy all over the place.

- She was very popular at school.

Everybody wanted to date Trish.

At least in my opinion, I know I sure did.

- Ah, ha

Look.

- There I am bold.

Look.

- Look at that. Closest friends.

What does it say?

- Ron Fisico.

- What is the date?

- It's got the boyfriend date.

I can't believe you wrote this down.

- The date is August 29th.

- What year?

- 1992.

- What does that mean?

He's my--

- Boyfriend.

- [laughs]

- Wow.

- That's our anniversary. Just for reference.

- That's my boyfriend.

- '92.

That's my boyfriend.

We were best friends.

And then we were 17, we transitioned to boyfriend and

girlfriend and became officially boyfriend and girlfriend.

- We did everything together.

We were attached at the hip.

She was a little bit nerdy.

She did a lot of studying.

There wasn't a lot of partying.

None of that.

- I had my eyes set on becoming a doctor.

That was from a very young age.

Like if you look back, I have a journal from grade

three and it says, "I'm going to become a doctor."

For the most part, I remember a great family life

and a good time at home.

It's I think until when you get older you realize,

"Oh, wait, let me look really closely and see things."

and I noticed we spent a lot of summers and time

with my cousins.

And I realized a lot of it was to get away from my dad

at the time.

My dad, you know, had a bit of a dark side.

He was an alcoholic.

- Off and on, it was sometimes turbulent.

He never showed up at home, like starting to

neglect the family.

Like doing family things--

It was hard.

- My mom did her best to not have us around that

and not see that side of dad.

But, yeah, It was definitely present.

At times not great.

As I got older, I started to realize how

it wasn't a nice environment to be in.

I realized it was affecting my studying.

I'd be up late studying and he'd be up late drinking.

So, that wasn't conducive for a good work environment for me.

One of these things you just remember like,

"This is getting in the way of my life."

Looking back seeing a situation get out of control,

I never want to be part of that and be the cause of that.

And to this day, I don't drink.

And I never really thought about why I didn't.

It is a little bit of I just want to remain

in control at all times.

So, that was a decision I made a long time ago.

Then my mom and dad just decided to split.

She finally made the move to not be around that a lot

and not have her kids around that, so-

We left my dad.

My university life just started without my dad.

And I was able to focus on going to premed,

becoming a premed student and going to med school.

That was my ultimate goal.

The pace I tend to keep is fast and furious, managing school

and then being on the varsity team and being on the rec league

soccer and working two jobs.

It was just this crazy pace I've kept my whole life.

At one point, my body was like, "That's too much for us.

I'm going to have to throw up a red flag."

I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis

back in my university days.

- Colitis is an intestinal illness.

She was on a lot of medication at the time for it.

It was difficult for sure.

I think, initially, I was always worried for her.

I think that she knew her body well.

She studied biology, kinesiology.

She was very in tune with her body.

She knew what her limits were.

I think that she stayed within those parameters.

- The goal was to get me into remission where the flare up

would go away and then I could continue on with a normal life.

It was a little bit tough, but we finally got it under control.

And, I felt like I was in my groove.

And I found that balance that I needed to get to.

And then, in 1997, the worst thing that could have

ever happened to me happened, because I was set.

My sights were set on my goal.

When I get set on a goal, it is like there is no stopping me.

But, there was one thing stopping me which was my

professors going on strike.

I was like, "Oh my God, no, this can't happen.

I have like -

- Like, this is the plan.

This year, I'll be doing this.

I should be practicing this.

All I could do was wait.

I just had to wait and see what was going to happen with that.

- I think when the strike initially happened,

I think the immediate reaction is, "Now, I need a job."

So, she was doing bartending at the time.

- And then as I started working there,

they asked me to shoot their campaigns.

So, here I am, I get this new gig first time ever bartending

and I'm on the main bar and I'm also on all of the posters

and billboards throughout Toronto.

- She was coming home from the bar probably around 2:00, 3:00

in the morning and then going straight to the gym.

We had 24-hour gyms.

Trish got a job working at a gym.

- I started working at this gym.

And I get approached.

Sounds creepy.

But, there's like, "I know a guy who takes photos from it."

"Sure."

Turns out, I looked up this guy, Robert Kennedy, legit,

one of the industry's leading publishers,

publisher of Muscle Mag.

- And I thought I saw a sparkle about this girl.

I thought she looks pretty good.

- He said, "Let's do a test shoot."

He says, "You have it.

You have this it."

He said I had this it thing.

Luckily, again, school's out of session.

So I'm like, "I can do this thing."

And I trained for my first photo shoot.

Ate, slept, trained for three months straight,

transformed my body.

- She studied it.

That's really what she did.

We would go to the store, she'd buy magazines,

study the poses, I mean just learn.

- So, I actually took these pictures as like my goal.

You know, I cut them out as my inspo and said,

this is the body.

And it was just part of the prep, right?

It was just like preparedness meets opportunity

is like my big motto.

And it was part of the prepping.

It was like, "ok, how do I maximize this opportunity?"

I would like go through the magazines and cut out all the

arms article, all the legs articles.

And then I would make my own binder

of like sections with like those school tabs, you know?

Like, this is all the leg workouts.

And I choose one.

And I had my own little training approach, you know?

and learning about protein.

Just like all this new world, I just dove into it.

And just within three months

completely had transformed my body.

- And she turned up and she looked absolutely amazing.

She just shocked everybody.

In fact, all the other professional fitness models

were asking her about her diet,

how she trained and everything else.

It was amazing.

- I was excited.

I was proud of the work that I'd done.

You know, it's like showing off your hard work, right?

So, it was cool to me to see the difference.

And yeah, I was proud to show it off.

And I liked when people noticed because I was like,

"Oh, yes, I did that."

[laughs]

My first shoot ended up being my first cover

and he contracted me after that and he offered me

I was an official Muscle Mag girl at that point.

And then suddenly I had a career.

So, I decided to step away from school and focus on fitness.

And then that year alone, I was on the cover of 10

magazines and was as busy as I am now as far as store signings

and autograph signings and cover shoots and traveling the world.

And suddenly I was a fitness model.

Boom.

Just like that.

- She was the Arnold Schwarzenegger

of women's fitness immediately.

- Suddenly seeing that I had a following,

I had a fanbase and just started to think like,

what can this transition into that was more long-term?

- We were down at a show at the Sky Dome.

I remember Trish saying, "I'd love to do this."

And I said to her, "Why can't you?"

- I was like, "Yes, maybe we can do this.

Maybe we can spin like this fitness buzz thing

that we got going into wrestling."

- Tonight on the Gallagher Show, we're going to welcome one of

the world's top fitness models.

You've seen her.

You love her.

Trish Stratus is with us.

[applause]

- A lot of like right place right time stories where

like I was on the cover of a fitness magazine in the studio,

and I was just on this talk show about the cover of doing

publicity for the cover.

And in the next studio I remember Michael Hayes

was doing Slam Jams and everybody knew

I was a wrestling fan.

I met Michael Hayes, and he was like, "Oh."

He's like, "I've seen you on the fitness magazines."

I was like, "Oh, my gosh, yes.

I am on the fitness magazines."

He goes, "You have a great look.

You should send your stuff to us."

I was like, "Really?"

So, I went home, nerd glasses on and I started

to put my little kit together and sent that off to WWE.

I kind of think this is a neat opportunity, who knows,

maybe I can do this.

But, if they call, let me prepare the best possible

package to present to them.

So, I looked up the gym that Edge and Christian

trained out of.

- These young men are the future

of the World Wrestling --.

- Found Sully's Gym downtown and I set

with my sights on that.

I was like, "All right, I'm going to go train.

I'm going to start training.

And I met Ron Hutchison for the first time.

- Trish was the only female at first.

No special privileges at all.

She was expected to do exactly what the guys did.

- Well, I went in and I was training with the guys.

I had to like literally take them aside like, "Oh."

I'm like, "No, no, don't treat me like a girl.

I know I'm a girl, but don't treat me like a girl.

Like just, I'm one of the boys.

Just do what you do.

I want to learn.

I want to do this full on.

I don't want to tippy toe around this."

I had the calluses and the bruises to prove

that no one took it light on me.

But it was great.

To me that was the best way to learn.

- Right then and there Trish proved to me that,

okay, she can do this.

She'll be able to do it.

- Then one day I finally got the call.

I was flown to Connecticut

and then going to WWE headquarters.

I mean, surreal.

- She was so talented, verbally, articulate, intelligent.

I thought she reminded me of a Pam Anderson from that era.

She was the hot thing at that time.

Trish looked a little bit like her,

but the fact that she could be athletic, she was can't miss.

- Not that long after, I got a contract offer

sent to the house.

So, I guess the meeting went well.

- That's Trish Stratus.

She's a fitness expert.

- It was just so much fun to get her spirit and her energy

in that locker room.

And, you know, she wasn't received very

[chuckles]

well by the other girls.

Well, we didn't have very many girls at that time.

They were pretty sneery.

Pretty sneery.

It's really funny.

It's such a personal space that when newcomers come in,

there's still this like catty thing.

We had a couple people who wrestled, but not very many.

So we kind of had to rotate each other in.

- Women didn't often have the chance to have storylines

and character development.

- Remember, the last woman to keep her evening gown

on will be the women's champion.

- This was a period of time where we had an edict that was,

this is how the women are going to be presented on the show.

- So, initially Trish Stratus was the newly hired

fitness model who was going to manage Test and Albert.

- I was driving with Andrew "Test" Martin and Val Venis.

Test knew Trish and I met Trish.

We were just talking one day, and I thought, T & A,

Test & Albert and we have Trish Stratus as our manager.

- I was excited about that.

I was like, "Oh, my gosh."

Test was a fellow Canadian.

Before I started on the road, we had met and we had done

a couple of autograph signings as Canadian superstars.

And then when we got paired together

and it was a nice partnership.

- She was so gung-ho to do it.

Coming in, getting her foot in the door

and it had its growing pains.

She had no idea about the business that we were in.

- So many people gave it to her in terms of the business.

"You're a fitness model.

What are you doing here?"

They never thought she would last.

Teasing her saying things that were inappropriate at the time.

- Because back in the day, we liked to judge

and we liked to do a little hazing.

- It was kind of hard.

I remember I'd get to the locker room and my stuff wouldn't be

in the prime spot by the mirror.

It would be over there by the toilet.

That's where apparently I was supposed to go.

- I think the first couple of months was really difficult.

She wasn't accepted.

We had to come to grips moment probably about three or four

weeks in where she was on the road and called me

and said she's coming home.

- Ron was just like, I remember him saying,

Kill them with kindness.

That was the number one thing.

Kill them with kindness and never let them see you sweat.

And I guess at that point I decided I have to prove myself.

I have to prove myself to everyone around me

that I deserve to be here.

- She was brand new but had this-

even from the very beginning, this innate desire

to be more than just a valet or some would put it eye candy.

- I'm just thrilled to put in my two cents

into the whole business.

I want to make sure that every time I go out there,

I make an impact.

If I'm only given two minutes, it's going to be the best damn

two minutes I can give.

I was a valet, but I contributed in certain ways.

Because I could take bumps and I could do things like that.

- For the love of God, Trish just exploded in that table.

- I think Trish is very smart.

I think she knew this is a way to get her foot in the door.

I think it all was building to one day her having her own

opportunity to stand on her own.

- I started to wrestle, but in the beginning it was hard

because we were wrestling, but it was a bra and panties match.

Then at one point Chyna was champion and she left

the company and she took the title with her.

And, there was no division.

There was nothing for us to compete for.

We were having wrestling matches for nothing.

It felt hopeless at times.

Then the tides changed suddenly.

Fit Finlay was like the savior of the women's division.

- I was brought in as an agent producer and then given

the task of working with women.

I'm training these girls every single day to wrestle

not hopefully to be doing bra and panties matches.

I think having Stephanie there helped our cause.

It certainly boosted it.

- You know, I always wanted our women

to have more of a forefront.

- All the women knew that Steph was behind them

and if Stephanie McMahon is in this, we're good.

Let her hit you as you go through,

you go through like that.

Boom.

So with Trish, it was mind-blowing

how quickly she picked it up.

She was tough.

I've seen her split her eye open,

got stitched up and then worked the next day.

- I always say he saw the tiger in my eye.

Like he just knew that I'm like, know I can do more.

Like why can't we do more

Why can't we fight like the guys?

I don't want to fight like a girl.

- The scoop slam.

Oh, Trish, turning it up here.

- You could never knock Trish because she always hustled.

If she sees something and she wants to get it,

attain it, she's going to.

- Trish had put in so much work and so much dedication

and just absolutely refused to be some sort of like prop

to just come out with wrestlers and stand there

and look pretty and everything.

That she basically made it happen.

- It sort of led up to this moment where we knew

that we can make a difference.

I think the females can contribute

more than they already are.

They decided to bring back the women's title.

They put together a match a called Six-Pack Challenge.

Knowing that I was the underdog coming in,

I wasn't the most experienced.

- Trish, oh, with the Stratusfaction.

Oh, don't tell me.

Trish has done it.

Trish Stratus is the new Women's Champion.

Certainly not a favorite going into this matchup.

- And I believe Fit got behind me being the champion

for the first time and really leading this new charge

to build this women's division.

- She was determined to get to the top and she accomplished it.

- I became champion.

It was at this present time

we will build the division around you.

And that was a lot of pressure.

- Trish's first title run, she did feel the pressure.

She knew she was one of the least experienced

women in the locker room.

She knew she was being pushed and she felt the obligation

to deliver and get better and better each match.

So the pressure was on.

Most of the time she was going to be in there with somebody

who was more experienced and could help kind of camouflage

any of her weaknesses.

Well, she is set to be in the ring with Jackie Gayda,

who had just won Tough Enough.

She had literally competed on a television show,

and was now in the ring with her first match.

So now Trish is for the first time the veteran in the ring

while still trying to prove herself.

- Uh-oh, look out.

- Trish taking Jackie's eye off the ball with that little

hop up on the ropes.

- It was the first time that Trish was exposed

as being green, because Jackie Gayda knew nothing,

and it just put Trish in a really tough spot.

- And then for that to be going down in history as probably

the worst match of all time.

- Mercifully, it's over.

- It had to have been such a blow to her confidence.

- The pressure of just having to perform every single time

and prove yourself every time, it got a lot.

I remember just driving alone and just being in tears.

After matches being just like, "This is too hard."

Like it's so hard to just keep it going.

Your body's in pain, you're doing everything you can,

you're contributing the way you can,

and it was never enough I feel like sometimes.

Like, you know, you miss the spot, or you didn't look

the right way or you weren't there on time.

It made me look bad when you did this.

It was a lot of that in the beginning,

and I just was like "Okay, yeah, cool."

And I had to take ownership of this responsibility of being

the champion, and taking charge of the women's division,

and knowing what I could deliver would impact all of us.

- Trish is a perfectionist.

She is driven by work.

- My number one person in the entire wrestling business

with the work ethic of wanting to get better every single night

was Trish Stratus.

End of story.

- Seems like we say it every week, but every week,

she just gets better and better.

- So as time went on, what I really saw

in the locker room was the women started getting

a lot of respect for her.

- She came in head to the grindstone-

- Oh, look at this.

- wanted to learn,

and wanted to do, and did such an amazing job.

- I'm impressed.

I think you got a future in this business, kid.

- As the years go on, you see the improvement.

- Bulldog headlock, nicely done.

- To her becoming a real formidable talent in the ring.

- What a sunset flip.

- And then you fast forward, she's having marquee matches.

She's innovating moves.

The Matrix move was so hot at the time-

- Oh, I love it.

- A little Matrix

- It was like, "Oh."

It's one of those things that immediately garners

a reaction from the crowd.

- Guess that's where it began.

We started playing video games and looking for moves.

I can tell you that the Stratusphere

came from Mortal Kombat.

- She was the first one that I watched that made me think,

"That girl is just as good as any of the guys."

- Oh, look out.

- Great athletic move there, and a knockdown by Trish Stratus.

- Yes.

- Hard work and desire, that's what you get

when you put it all together.

Trish Stratus the women's champion.

- Nobody worked harder than Trish.

I used to joke behind the scenes that she was instead

of Trish Stratus, Trish Strategizer because

she knew how to work hard not just in the ring,

but she was always in the production truck finding out

what she can do to come across better on television.

At the non-televised events, she would ask for the microphone

so that she could get practice.

She was just working so hard all the time thinking about

how she can improve, how she can be better.

- Molly and Jackie start, tag in Jazz and Trish.

Trish does a drop toehold to Jazz, fire up in the corner.

Shoot.

So, I'd have a notebook beside me at all times.

It was always handy.

This brain never turns off.

See there was always promos.

I'd be writing promos.

The Rock was really instrumental.

I remember him he would help me with my promos

and here's something that he would say to me,

be strong, pause, and be concise.

He was a big help.

I would have the show sent to me, every Raw, every SmackDown

sent to me so I could study everything I did on the show so

that next time I can do better, I can improve on that,

or that worked well, or the crowd reacted to that,

something I would take and just learning.

But, yeah, wow, obsess much

- Most of us women were actually kind of afraid to

make our voice known.

Afraid to question some of the storylines and

Trish was never afraid of that.

- One thing that Trish said to me when I first started in WWE,

she goes, "Nattie, the one thing that helped me succeed so much

in WWE is that every single week I knew that if I had to fight,

I had to fight."

Fight for more.

Fight for better verbiage.

Fight for longer matches.

Just fight for more.

She goes, "It's going to be hard and it's going to feel daunting,

but don't ever be afraid to fight for more."

and I always remembered that.

- The division got so much better not only with Trish

pushing not only to make the segments better,

but Fit was very instrumental in that as well because he cared.

But, I did not think we were going to walk into the building

the day we did and be told that we were going to close the show.

- Two of the most popular divas in the WWE.

- This rivalry with Trish and Lita took

the women's division in an entirely different level.

- Trish Stratus puts the women's title on the line against Lita.

What a match that's going to be, JR.

- The championship decided later tonight here on Raw.

- We were being given this opportunity to be the main event

on Monday Night Raw which is a coveted spot for any superstar,

especially a woman.

- We have been waiting a long time for this opportunity.

- When we were told were main eventing that night,

we both knew that we could deliver.

- Stakes are high here for the women's title here live

on Monday Night Raw.

- Trish walks out with the face mask that night and takes

it off, hits me with it, and then shows that her nose

is absolutely fine.

That she was just wearing it to have a secret weapon.

- I think she was just con jobbing us all along.

- It's like those type of things that really set it apart

from just being two people doing moves.

- I have always loved the storytelling

and they did an incredible job.

They had such a compelling match.

For them to compete in the main event of Monday Night Raw

was a statement to the world that they had arrived.

- Because they were so good, I really think they changed

the course of women's wrestling forever.

- It was really powerful

to an aspiring wrestler because the winds of change are coming.

There's new opportunities for women.

- We just knew we had this opportunity to deliver

and we had to shine.

That's definitely one of the peak moments of my career.

- I can't believe the effort, the heart both women displayed.

- I was not victorious that night, but I was.

It was a win for both of us to be in that position

and to deliver.

I remember thinking, "Like okay, we have this

opportunity to spread the message, and to show people

our world a little bit, and to show people what a strong

powerful female looks like, or what they were

capable of doing."

It just opened the door for so many things.

- Confidence, okay?

This is all about you.

- It's a lot of pressure.

It's non-stop.

- Action.

- I'm an international fitness model, a world-class athlete,

a WWE Diva.

Good.

Got that first part.

- Trish Stratus.

- Welcome to the family.

- Cut.

Beautiful.

- Trish Stratus, baby.

- Trish's popularity definitely grew over the years,

and she became like a rockstar.

- Hi, how are you?

I'm Ike.

- Hi, I'm Trish.

- Nice to meet you.

Thanks for doing the show.

- No, thanks for having me.

- Very excited

- That's a good one.

- You're doing well.

- I'm feeling good.

- You're funny too.

You have a capacity for humor.

- Why does that feel so good?

[Audience laughing]

- At her peak, Trish was the number one woman

in pro wrestling.

- Please welcome Trish Stratus.

- So now, I had this responsibility of like,

you know, if she can see it, she can be it.

I needed to go out there and be that representation.

We've become part of the boys' club.

You know we used to be the eye candy of the show, and now we've

gone and we've become these accomplished athletes

in the ring.

And we've seen an increase in demographic from the women.

You know, we've seen more younger girls watching and

Kind of aspiring, not necessarily to be wrestlers,

but to make it like

we're women making it in a male dominated world.

So, I remember I put a tremendous amount

of pressure on myself.

I felt like my role then was to help gain visibility

for women to be a voice.

Particularly as a woman, I was happy to hear about the

building of the women schools and the progress in that area.

- She was always out doing stuff.

She was a workhorse in that regard.

- You're running at this frenetic pace of 300 days

a year schedule.

It was one thing after the other.

It was every commercial, it was every appearance,

it was every press conference, it was everything.

It was a lot.

I got a flare up with colitis, and I took myself out

of remission at that time and just suffering,

but almost like this thing I do with pushing through.

I'm not going to take off time, so I found a way

to make it work.

- And so he's trying to be Trish Stratus and trying

to be this optimal machine, and yet she's dealing with these

health issues at the same time.

- I've seen Trish's mind go more than her body

can a few different times.

Like carrying her suitcases will make her feel like

she's going to pass out.

To have to literally stop and take breaths,

but the craziest thing is she'd still doesn't want

anyone to see that.

She'll like stop and pull over, and smile, and she's like,

"I just have to take a breath because I feel I'm going

to pass out, but it's okay though.

If you could just act like you're talking to me,

so that I could take a few seconds, so yeah."

And meanwhile "Dude, uh uh.

Like tell him you can't work tomorrow."

She's like, "No, no, no. I can. It's fine.

Just give me a couple more seconds."

- That was difficult to be on the road and be secretly dealing

with this stuff because you cannot look vulnerable,

you cannot look weak.

That was just the thing back there.

You just can't.

You worked so hard to be like one of the boys

just as I can do this schedule too and I'm doing it too.

You see, the bags are starting to add up.

It's um-

We got three more days to go.

And I'm sure every day, we're saying that every day

we look about five years older.

It's really flattering, really.

By the time TV rolls around, I'll be like looking

fine, fine, fine.

There's no chance of slowing me down.

I wasn't going to let this illness stop me.

It was weak to be sick, I think.

I didn't want to be interpreted as weak, I guess.

I really feel like, you know, having Ron in my life was

what grounded me, what allowed me to come home

take off the Trish Stratus hat,

and just be.

- She'd come home from a tour a couple of days on the road and

she'd be completely wiped out to the point where I'd have

to throw her on my shoulder and carry her up the stairs.

She couldn't even walk.

It was bad.

- The one thing I do not like about Trish is that

she will not give herself a rest.

I don't like it for selfish reasons because

I want my best friend around.

And I feel like if given the opportunity,

she'll run herself ragged.

- I remember just like I felt I need to stop.

I got a yoga DVD and I put a yoga DVD in just so that I could

be in my hotel room and just be guided through

this moment of stillness.

Literally on the first day of yoga,

my body just felt different.

I had more mobility.

I could breathe.

That was so important.

It made that last leg of my career would end up

being the last leg of my career just really a pleasure

and really smooth, and good and not painful.

My contract was coming up.

And they wanted to renew me for another five years.

And I was like, "I don't know what to do."

I felt really fulfilled with the career I had at that point.

I wanted to be a mom and that was something

I've always wanted.

And it was like I almost needed a sign.

Unfortunately, the sign came in a not desirable form.

My mom was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The decision was clear to me to just it was time to walk away.

It was almost like the signal, like it's time

to go home to family.

And I made the decision at 30 to retire and I would take

my final bow in my hometown of Toronto.

- A standing ovation for Trish Stratus' last match.

- I was so sad.

I remember I was crying.

I couldn't believe that Trish Stratus was retiring.

- WWE is such a fulltime job.

There's no family planning or caring for your family

while living the life of a fulltime WWE Superstar.

It's one or the other if you're a female.

Trish was just very definitive in how she wanted to do this.

And whether she felt sad or emotional about it,

she did not feel conflicted.

[bell rings]

- It's over, it's over.

And Trish wins.

- I ended up winning the title that night.

And as a seven-time champion, I retired in front of my

hometown crowd of Toronto, in front of my friends and family

and colleagues, and took my final bow.

And I walked away from the business.

- Oh, man.

- Congratulations, Trish.

There was never anyone any better.

- When we left the building that night,

I think she was just genuinely excited more than anything

for the next stage of her life.

We were getting married three weeks later.

- I now pronounce you husband and wife.

You may now kiss the bride.

[applause]

- We didn't go on a honeymoon after the wedding.

She went straight into the show Armed & Famous.

- Go down to Muncie, Indiana, as a celebrity and fight crime.

I thought, "It would be so cool to do this."

I'm in perpetual motion.

And it's because I like it.

I like to explore new things.

I like to conquer things.

I like to tackle new challenges and be like,

"Did that. Check. What's next?"

I think I just thrive on challenge.

I did a travel show that was a passion of mine.

Enter the Stratusphere in Bali, Indonesia.

In Vietnam.

In Fiji.

[foreign language]

I got a movie gig.

I was still super busy.

I was doing appearances.

- Trish Stratus.

- The world works in funny ways.

There was a point where like I was literally able to

just be by my mom's side during her treatments.

- Well, she was my support bucket.

Like she helped me through my treatments and just being there.

She made me stronger.

It was like we leaned on each other, so it was good.

- Happy to say she's in full remission, and is cancer-free,

and has been since then.

During that time, it happened to be a phase

that slowed down a minute so that I was able to be with mom.

And then we were like, "We're good?

We're good?

Okay, I'm going to go do this thing, you know?

And then picked up where I left off and off I went again.

In 2008, we decided to open up a yoga studio.

So, I opened up Stratusphere which at the time was

Canada's largest yoga studio.

However, being the workaholic that I am-

- Bend at the waist, bring your elbows to your shins.

- I was running ragged.

I didn't know I was running ragged because

I was doing my thing, I was showing up for work,

I was still doing Trish Stratus stuff.

I had filmed Tough Enough at one point out in LA.

So, I was still doing stuff with WWE.

And then I remember I was like, you know, "Time to have a baby."

I was approaching 40 now at this point.

And then I found out that the schedule that I was keeping and

when I think I was managing it well and it was okay,

I wasn't getting a flare up in colitis.

That means I was okay.

I was managing it, but then my body threw

a red flag up again and told me, "Actually, whatever schedule

you're doing now, I can't produce another human being."

And it was really tough for us.

We had infertility issues.

- That was probably the hardest thing in her life that she had

to deal with from a mental standpoint.

I mean, it's discouraging.

- And it was really tough because I thought I just screwed

myself by being this driven, whatever the stupid word was,

that I've just ruined my chance now to become a mom.

The guilt I felt knowing like that I might have just like

missed this chance was really bad, really overbearing.

When things get too overwhelming and I know my body is throwing

up the red flags, I just do a full stop down.

This schedule that I'm keeping is not conducive

with producing a baby.

So I had to like slow everything down.

I had to take those moments and focus on that.

That was my new focus, like this laser focus

that I always have on whatever project.

I guess my new project was to become pregnant.

And I focused on that and whatever I needed

to do to slow down.

Finally, luckily, we conceived naturally.

Nothing that compares to the feeling of becoming

a mother for the first time and a second time.

But, you know, holding my baby,

especially after the struggles that we had.

- For us, it was-

I mean, that's the greatest moment of your life.

- I think as a parent now, I realize how important

it is for a parent to be present.

It's a team effort.

And the kids definitely notice it.

Eventually, like my dad came back around and was back in.

He'd pop in for Christmas.

We'd see him on the holidays and things like that, so-

He was present for a lot of ways.

"How's the studio going?

How's this, how's that?"

He was not present for a lot of my wrestling things,

like didn't come to any events.

And a lot of the times I thought he just was sort of

not even paying attention to this career.

And when he passed away, I remember going back to his

apartment and opening up one of his cupboards.

He had literally like every magazine.

It was so funny.

He had these fitness magazines, all the covers,

clippings from newspapers.

And it's like, it turns out that he was-

Oh, I'm getting emotional now.

So, it turns out he was there along the way in his own way

and he showed up in the way that he could show up.

So, that's good.

So let's see how the glue goes, right?

Get the glue on.

I make a point of being a present parent.

It's been the best journey.

It's been the best gig I've had.

Would you like a cup of tea, madam?

Took a long time to get over accepting gigs,

but then having that mom guilt.

I finally got over that.

Want a little bit more?

- Yes, please.

- I realize the importance of my kids seeing me going out

and being a go-getter.

It's important for them to see that and seeing me

being dedicated and passionate about something.

But, I never thought I would get back in the ring looking at like

what the women were doing too was pretty awesome to see.

- This could be the greatest athlete we've ever had

as a WWE Women's Champion.

- I remember Ron and I were watching TV and there was an

an advertisement for SummerSlam coming up in Toronto.

I remember calling Vince and being like,

"Is there maybe a moment here where I could do a little

comeback and face Charlotte in Toronto at SummerSlam?"

He just loved the idea.

I just love to keep going.

I just love new challenges.

- She's not been a regular competitor in WWE in 13 years.

- It was pretty amazing after all those years to see

Trish Stratus come back, period.

But to see her in the ring with Charlotte Flair, who may go on

to be the greatest of all time was sort of mind blowing.

- It is a meeting of two eras.

Trish Stratus may have blazed the trail, but since then,

Charlotte Flair has scorched the earth.

- You won't ever get to see Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson,

but we got to see Charlotte Flair and Trish Stratus.

- I knew that Trish was going to deliver because I know

what she demands out of herself.

- As Trish put it, I've been training every night

in between my mommy duties and it's paying off.

I echo the sentiments of the Scotia Bank Arena,

this is awesome.

- It showed that Trish is still a badass and she can hang just

as good today as she ever did.

- She taught me so much in the process of getting to work with

her and one of the greats in the entire company male or female.

- Anytime I think Trish might be done,

[laughs]

Trish is not done.

- Trish Stratus.

- That's the thing is Trish loves experiences

and loves to see what else can she tackle and what else can

she hurdle even if it scares her.

- Find the balance between motherhood and then also

being a professional has been hard.

But, I think I finally find it, and it's a good place to be.

- Trish who came in as just as we thought another pretty face,

but through hard work and great athletic ability,

Trish is one of the best ever.

- Trish is leaving such a huge legacy behind for women

in wrestling to inspire little girls all over the world

to dream big.

- She's just accomplished so much.

And she did it with style and she did it with kindness.

- Trish put a smile on people's faces,

whether it was in the audience or in the production truck.

She was kind to everyone.

And that's the kind of legacy that really matters.

- One of my hands down absolute favorite human beings

on the planet.

- You're the best.

- She's who you want by your side.

She'll brighten your day and she'll pick up your slack

and she'll inspire you.

- She's my everything.

- Congratulations, Trish.

There was never anyone any better.