Trish Stratus talked about her retirement from WWE in 2006 while during an appearance on the Wilde On podcast.
Here is what she had to say:
Trish Stratus on her decision to retire from WWE in 2006: “At the time, it was a couple of things that happened. Number one, my contract was coming up. You don’t really think about what’s next until you’re forced to think about what’s next, especially in wrestling. You’re in this constant go, go, go, and it’s almost like this frenetic pace. So, contract up, and that meant I have to think about it for the first time and put some awareness towards my two to five years and think about what I want or need for myself. It made me analyze everything I had done to that point, which was kind of cool because we don’t really do these fulfillment checks……what else did I want to accomplish? What else can I accomplish? I thought I’ve literally worked with every female that’s available on the roster and been so lucky to have these fantastic, robust feuds with all these women – not just a fleeting match, but great feuds and rivalries that to this day people talk about and love and connect with.
“And then my mom got sick and was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. It was just the universe saying, ‘This is your time to talk away and focus on family again.’ If you’re on the road, you can’t be there. I wouldn’t get to her treatments or be there for her. I could not imagine that……she’s recovered now, and sometimes there are just signs that it’s just the time. I never thought, ‘I’ll go back one of these days” because I think back then, you knew Ric Flair and other people kept coming back. That was my time – my little bundle of my career – and I was happy with it. I felt proud of it.”
On how yoga helped her recover from injuries in her wrestling career: “”I’m telling you, automatically I felt a difference in my body. I just had more mobility…..I just knew my body needed this. It was for my mental detachment, to go into and just find my space inside myself and inside my head, was something that I really needed but I didn’t know I needed kind of thing. So, I became slightly obsessed. I used it to rehabilitate my body, so I think it was about three months that I did it every day, and I’m talking every day. Full recovery, I’ve never had to look back. I have full mobility, never had to look back. The second leg of my career … the movements, the mobility of my body was just at a whole different level.
“Recovery time was quicker, and I was just like, ‘Oh my God.’ It needs to be a prerequisite for wrestlers to do yoga. “Not only do your joints get lubricated and all that – to be more agile. The recovery was the main thing because what we do is insane. But also the mental thing, to be in this crazy pace and just find your space…..it’s like you just see things differently and put things in perspective. Before that, it was like, I’m going somewhere on to Monday to wrestle somewhere. That’s kind of that mentality. Then I was like, ‘OK, I have this amazing opportunity to see the world.”
On her most embarrassing moment in WWE: “At my epic retirement match, I’m in the Air Canada Centre in front of my hometown crowd, and it’s my final moment and the crowd is going crazy for me. I’m walking down the ramp and I’m feeling the emotion. I go up the stairs, and then I tumble. I didn’t tumble off and I’m like ‘Oh, I’m fine.’ Why do we do that when we tumble? We’re like ‘I’m good, who saw that?’ Who didn’t see it? Thankfully, thanks to WWE programming, it’s maybe erased from some people’s memories….I went on to have a great match. Hopefully they remember that part.”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
