WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus looked back on her mother’s passing and reflected on her decision to wrestle at Evolution 2025.
In an interview with Bill Apter, Trish Stratus explained what she was going through leading into her match with Tiffany Stratton and how her mother’s battle with terminal cancer shaped everything.
She said Evolution came up during talks, and WWE asked her to face Stratton for the title. She knew headlining it was a big moment. But at the same time, she was dealing with her mother’s declining health. Stratus’ mother had also battled cancer back in 2006, which played a major part in her original retirement.
“She fought that and she had Hodgkin’s lymphoma… that’s one of the reasons I actually did retire, because I knew I needed to step away because I wanted to be with her during treatment.”
This time, Stratus found herself in the same situation, helping her mom through radiation while WWE wanted her to return. She talked to Lita about whether she should pull back on wrestling appearances. But Trish said her mom didn’t hesitate, “Basically, my mom said to me.
“She’s like, ‘Do it.’ Like, she was so not even a question, Bill. She was like, ‘Oh my God, do it.’ Like, of course. And I was like, of course, the wrestling people in us were like, ‘Yeah, but Mom, the storyline’s not even like they’ve barely promoted it.'”
Her mom insisted she take the opportunity, even when Stratus questioned whether WWE was promoting the match enough. “It’s like the women’s pay-per-view. You have to be at the women like, you’re the evolution of it… You’re the OG.”
She added that she and Tiffany Stratton already had a built-in story, and her mom pushed her with advice she repeated in her speech, “Do what you can while you can.” Her mom compared it to a spontaneous Greece trip they took the year before, a trip that ended up being their last big one together.
That memory helped WWE Hall of Famer realize she couldn’t put off opportunities. She said the match with Tiffany was fantastic, “If that was my last time in the ring, I would be happy. If it isn’t, sure, there’s more story to be told. But it just felt like, you know, she was right.”
But most importantly, Trish Stratus said her mother got to watch her wrestle one final time at WWE Evolution before she passed away in August 2025.
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