Lita

Lita, born Amy Dumas, became one of the defining women of the WWF’s late Attitude Era and WWE’s early 2000s period. She stood out because she did not look or wrestle like most women on major American wrestling television at the time. With red hair, tattoos, fishnet sleeves, baggy pants, and a punk-influenced look, she felt rebellious and unpredictable.

In the ring, she was known for speed, hurricanranas, the Litacanrana, and her moonsault. Across her career, she won the Women’s Championship four times, later added the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship, and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2014.

Her road to national fame started in Mexico. In 1998, Dumas trained in lucha libre and worked for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) as Angelica. After returning to the United States in 1999, she began wrestling for Maryland Championship Wrestling (MCW) and also appeared on the independent scene in Future of Wrestling (FOW).

ECW brought her in that same year, first as Miss Congeniality with Danny Doring and later again as Angelica. She then signed with the WWF and trained in its developmental territory at the time, Memphis Championship Wrestling (MCW), before transitioning to the main roster in 2000.

Her official WWF debut as Lita came on Feb. 13, 2000, on Sunday Night Heat, when she appeared with Essa Rios as he won the Light Heavyweight Championship. At first, she worked as his partner and mirrored his flashy offense, but her act became much larger after Matt and Jeff Hardy joined her in May 2000 to form Team Xtreme.

That trio made her one of the company’s most popular stars. Lita fit the Hardys’ fast, risky style and became part of the ladder and TLC era that helped define the tag division. She also broke out as a singles wrestler by defeating Stephanie McMahon for her first WWF Women’s Championship on Aug. 21, 2000.

From there, Lita became part of one of the most important women’s rivalries of that era with Trish Stratus. Their feud ran through several phases and stayed a major part of WWE television for years.

A serious neck injury in 2002 slowed her down for a long stretch, but she returned and remained a key figure on Raw. In 2004, storylines with Matt Hardy and Kane kept her near the top of the show, and on Dec. 6, 2004, she beat Trish to win the Women’s Championship in what WWE later described as Raw’s first all-women’s main event. That match remains one of the most remembered women’s matches of its time.

In 2005 and 2006, Lita moved into a very different phase of her career. Her alliance with Edge turned her from a fan favorite into one of the most hated acts on the show, and the Rated-R pairing became a major part of Raw.

During that run, she won more championship gold, beating Mickie James for the Women’s Championship on Aug. 14, 2006, and then winning the vacant title again at Cyber Sunday on Nov. 5, 2006, for her fourth reign.

She also had a major final chapter with Trish Stratus, losing to Trish at Unforgiven 2006 in Stratus’ retirement match. Lita then dropped the title to Mickie James at Survivor Series 2006, which WWE presented as her farewell match from full-time competition.

After her first full-time WWE run ended, Lita still made occasional appearances in wrestling. She worked for UWF in 2007, appeared for FWE in 2012, and wrestled for MCW Pro Wrestling in 2017. WWE also brought her back at different points over the years, including her 2014 induction into the WWE Hall of Fame and her appearance at Evolution in 2018.

In 2022, she returned during the Royal Rumble season and later challenged Becky Lynch for the Raw Women’s Championship. In 2023, she teamed with Lynch to win the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship. She later wrestled at WrestleMania 39 alongside Lynch and Trish Stratus against Damage CTRL.

She remained visible outside the ring as well. She introduced the redesigned WWE Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 32 and appeared on WWE’s Most Wanted Treasures in 2024. As of 2026, she is not wrestling regularly, though she has said she has not ruled out having another match.

Lita helped prove that a woman in a major U.S. promotion could be a featured personality, a high-risk performer, and a real fan favorite at the same time. Her influence is still visible in many of the wrestlers who followed her.