Lita's Return: Will It Feel Right? By Matthew Evans (5/10/02)
Things were going so well for Amy Christine Dumas, the 27-year-old WWE star better known to fans as Lita. She had been in the WWE for over two years (she arrived in October 1999), raised the Women's title, formed a popular partnership with The Hardy Boyz, fought Stephanie Mcmahon in a match refereed by The Rock, took a beating from Steve Austin and Triple H, and generally raised the bar for how women are perceived in wrestling by mixing it up with the guys and executing impressive moon-saults and huracanranas. However, in April, whilst filming a scene for Dark Angel, Lita broke her neck and her wrestling career came to a sudden halt. It wasn't just wrestling either. Everyday things became a problem for her and she had to wear a neck brace most of the time. To make things worse, the break was very severe (similar to Rhino's) and it looks set to keep Lita out of action until Wrestlemania 19.
As bad as it is, this isn't Lita's first injury. On March 13 2000 on an edition of Raw, Eddy Guerrero power-bombed her off the ring apron onto the floor, giving her a concussion, dizziness, double vision and a bad shoulder. Lita however shook off the side-effects and continued with her house show matches with Jaqueline later in the week.
Her next injury came at the hands of Ivory (or more specifically, Ivory's boot) during their match at Survivor Series 2000. As slow-motion footage on Lita's It Just Feels Right video depicts, the heel of Ivory's boot caught Lita in the eye-brow during a huracanrana and busted her open. Lita (who deserves credit for completing the match) received stitches to close the wound. And finally, after an entertaining mixed tag team elimination match featuring Lita and The Hardy Boyz against The Radicalz, Lita needed about two months off to recover from a back injury.
Before the neck injury, it appeared that the WWE were planning a feud between Lita and Jazz. After all, they had fought each other on a series of house show matches (with Lita getting the lion's share of the victories) and they had fought at Wrestlemania in a triple threat match with Trish Stratus. However, Jazz herself got a knee injury in May, so their feud wouldn't have been long-term anyway.
Another question is where will Lita fit in when she returns? Will she join Jeff Hardy on Raw (provided Jeff is still walking by then) or will she join her boyfriend "Mr Mattitude" Matt Hardy on Smackdown? Will she challenge Jazz for the Women's title (it's likely Jazz will return in November/December, beat Trish for the belt and have a long reign). More importantly, will she be able to take the same risks and absorb the same punishment as before? Will she have upped her game? (like Trish did after her ankle injury).
The WWE seem keen to give Lita a big return. She's been making various public appearances for them, she's been given an announcing job on Heat and she's appeared on Raw. Lita's gone through alot in the past few months (and she will continue to until she returns). But as she's proven time and time again, you can't keep a good woman down and there's definately no quit in Lita.