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Trish Stratus knows she was your first crush, and she thinks it’s the ‘coolest thing’.
The WWE Hall of Famer, who is included in WWE 2K26, became a huge star in the wrestling world back in 2000, becoming a poster girl for women’s wrestling during the Attitude Era, and she’s well aware of the millions of admirers she had around the world, having even launched the First Crush Tour.
Speaking at WWE 2K26 CreatorFest at WWE HQ in Stamford, Connecticut, the 50-year-old star exclusively told Metro: ‘What happened was, after I wore the t-shirt that said ‘Your First Crush”, people were like, “Yes, you were!” It’s all people were telling me, “You’re my first crush! You’re my first crush!” ‘
That even includes ‘some of the superstars’ who appear on WWE TV two and a half decades after Trish’s debut.
She smiled: ‘I was some of their first crushes, you know? So the coolest thing I’m still their crush, the fact that I’m doing this 25 years later, and doing this tour.
‘People are like, “Can you just write “your first crush” on there?” It’s like, “No, bro, I got you”. It’s really fun. I feel blessed that I’m able to be doing this still and getting to meet people that I’ve influenced.’
She’s feeling the love across generations, as Attitude Era fans are introducing Trish to their children.
‘I’m meeting someone who was my fan from back in the day, but then I’m meeting their kid,’ she beamed. ‘We’re touching different generations now, and I feel blessed to be doing that.’
Trish is also grateful to still be a key part of WWE’s video game franchise, and she was in great spirits as she posed for pictures with content creators and media at the headquarters for the recent hands-on event.
‘I was doing these things back in the day with the media and everything at the headquarters. And here I am again,’ she pointed out.
A lot has changed since then, with women’s wrestling now given the respect it deserves, whereas Trish and her generation weren’t afforded the same opportunities.
‘We had no idea what we were doing. We just knew that we were having a match. We were lucky to just get on a pay-per-view at the time,’ she recalled.
‘When we look back, we realised what we were doing was actually building a little foundation for these women, who now have built this amazing skyscraper on.
‘We had a little bit of a part of that, and we influenced the generation that didn’t think it was possible.’
Trish admitted she never had dreams of becoming a wrestler growing up because it ‘wasn’t a thing”, as she had no one to aspire to be.
‘I always say, “if she can see it, she can be it”. And so now, when I see the girls who did watch me, Lita, Jazz, Victoria, Molly Holly, doing our thing, and now they’re actually doing it,’ she smiled.
She pointed to the likes of Tiffany Stratton, who followed the same path, where ‘wrestling wasn’t even in her vernacular, but now she’s doing it’, while others like Blake Monroe took a different route.
‘She cosplayed me back in the day, so many years ago,’ she said. ‘I love a person that comes from a fan background, and having so much opportunity to come in and actually make an impact, and do the things that we didn’t get to do back in the day.’
It wasn’t always this way, and Trish can still remember the women fighting to simply be allowed to do the same things as ‘the guys’.
‘We felt like our characters had taken our storyline to the point where we should do this in the match or in the ring, but we were not able to,’ she said.
‘First time I ever got hit over the head with a steel chair, that went through so many levels of approvals in order to get done. Because it was like, “It’s what the guys do”. But the point that Victoria and I as characters have gotten to, it felt like it needed it.’
She laughed: ‘It’s such a weird thing to say now, like, “Oh, I finally got that steel chair shot in the head!”‘
Trish pointed out how Lita and Victoria were booked in a Steel Cage Match, but they were ‘barely allowed’ to use the structure itself.
‘The fact that I got to come back and then have that [cage match with Becky Lynch in 2023], there’s no way we would have had that in the day,’ she explained.
There’s been evolution in the game this year, too, boasting a roster of over 400 superstars, while the graphics have improved, and more weapons have been introduced.
‘You can see thumbtacks in this game,’ Trish raved. ‘But the fact that the women are represented differently in this – back in the day, we were lucky to just get some visibility.’
She added: ‘We are getting into this game, everyone’s represented in an equal way.’
WWE 2K26 drops on March 13 with CM Punk on the cover. The Attitude Era, Monday Night War and King of Kings editions all released a week early, on March 6.
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