User blog:CEDJunior/Lita: Face or Heel?

In this latest installment of my "Face or Heel?" blogs, I will cover another member of the WWE Hall of Fame. She is a former four-time WWE Women's Champion, one of the greatest Divas in WWE history, and she reached another milestone on Tuesday:  she turned 40! Today's subject is none other than the iconic Lita.

Face Lita:  Throughout nearly all of her WWE career, Lita was a babyface. But while Trish Stratus was portrayed as the all-American (well, all-Canadian) superheroine, Lita was basically a bad-ass, rocker chick type of heroine. Of course, Lita's known for her long time alliance with The Hardy Boyz, but she has shown that she can hold her own in the ring on many occasions. Her very first feud was with the then-villainous Trish Stratus, back when both Trish and Lita began competing. However, the two rivals had to come together in 2001 when The Alliance was attempting to build its own Women's Division, with Ivory as their traitorous leader.

Lita won her first Women's Championship as a babyface back in 2000, but she would become known for her longtime alliance with her real-life best friend Trish Stratus from 2001-2003, with the latter end of their alliance seeing them feud with Gail Kim and Molly Holly, and in an odd angle with Chris Jericho and Christian. After Trish became a villainess at WrestleMania XX, the rivalry between the two was reignited in exponential fashion. This would include two memorable moments:  first, Survivor Series 2004, where what was supposed to be a Women's Championship match between Trish and Lita became a vicious beatdown that saw Lita smash Trish's face with a chair. Second, and more importantly, was the evening of December 6, 2004. On that night, Lita and Trish main evented, yes, main evented Raw, and their epic moment saw Lita defeat Trish to win her second Women's Championship. An injury caused Lita to lose the title back to Trish at the inaugural New Year's Revolution event. In the midst of all of this, Lita was in a twisted marriage to Kane, but they finally bonded once Gene Snitsky got involved and (kayfabe) caused Lita to lose her and Kane's unborn baby.

Heel Lita:  Despite her several years as a babyface, Lita is definitely more remember for her stint as a villainess, which enveloped the final year and a half of her WWE career. Nearly a decade has passed, and I still do not like how WWE turned Lita heel. As we all recall, Lita was caught up in a huge real-life scandal when it was revealed that she cheated on boyfriend Matt Hardy with Adam Copeland (aka fellow WWE Hall of Famer Edge). It was around late April/early May that this broke out, and both she and Edge were hit with "You screwed Matt!" chants. With all of the hate that Lita was getting in this real-life mess, WWE decided to use this very authentic scandal to turn Lita into an on-screen villainess.

Lita's heel turn took place on May 16 during the main event of that night's Raw, which was the finals of the Gold Rush Tournament between Kane and Edge. At the match's climax, Lita takes Edge's Money in the Bank briefcase to prevent him from using it as a weapon, but she later slides it back to Edge and distracts the referee so he can KO Kane with it and get the victory. And in the case of life imitating art (and vice versa) Lita celebrated with Edge and made out with him. On the following week in Green Bay (Go Pack Go!), Lita cemented her villainous turn by revealing that she and Edge had been fooling around behind Kane's back. I'll never forget that promo! While I hated the way it happened, I did enjoy seeing Lita as a villainess; she was so good at it!

In the early stages of Lita's heel tenure, she and Edge feuded with Kane until it got more real when they feuded with Matt Hardy. This led to my all time favorite Heel Lita moment on August 29:  a backstage segment with her and Matt Hardy. In the segment, the evil Lita taunted Matt over the fact that he'll never be with her again, and removed her coat to reveal a very provocative top that showed off her assets. She later watched as Matt and Edge fought in a vicious Street Fight, which included another short but terrific moment:  Lita laughing evilly as she watched Edge decimate Matt. The problem many people had with Lita's heel role was that it had her on the receiving end of brutal verbal barbs from nearly everyone, especially John Cena, who was feuding with Edge over the WWE Championship.

Lita finally got back to business and captured her third Women's Championship from Mickie James in August of 2006. After SummerSlam, Lita's feud with Trish Stratus was reignited for the final time, as Trish announced that she was leaving WWE. At Unforgiven, Lita lost the Women's Championship to Trish in the entering challenger's final match. After the event, the title was vacated, and a tournament was held to crown a new champion, with Lita defeating Mickie James in the finals to win her fourth Women's Championship. She spent her final months in WWE feuding with Mickie, which included competing against Mickie in unfair matches that put the babyface at a disadvantage. Months after Trish left, Lita also announced that she was leaving WWE, and she will do so as Women's Champion at Survivor Series. However, she failed to do that, as Mickie defeated Lita to win the title. It got worse after that, as Cryme Tyme entered and auctioned off Lita's "unmentionables," a segment I still say is the worst way to end the tenure of a legendary Diva.

So when it comes to the titular question, I definitely prefer Heel Lita! As I said, I hated the way they turned her, I thought that the powers that be brought in too much reality into a forum that revolves around fiction, but I still loved how good Lita was at being evil. She's a clear tomboy, but we definitely saw Lita's sexy side in her stint as a villainess from 2005-2006. She definitely brought it, and it's one of the many reasons why she's in the Hall of Fame!

Face Lita or Heel Lita? Which do you prefer?