Trish Stratus is not just another pretty face; she’s got a gap in her teeth to prove it.
As World Wrestling Entertainment’s Women’s Champion, the 29-year-old Toronto native is not some all-looks/no-fight trophy champ.
But that’s how it started for Stratus, a pre-med student who had done fitness modeling when the WWE tapped her to join the business in 2000. She initially was a “valet,” or arm candy for several wrestlers. Yet Stratus, knowing she could “offer more than just my presence out there,” trained at the same Canadian facility as popular wrestlers Edge and Christian and battled her way to the Women’s Championship in 2001.
Of course, most people know how professional wrestling is choreographed in advance, with the end of many matches predetermined. The body slams, blows and bumps, however, can’t be faked. Stratus has taken shots to the head with steel chairs, been “choke-slammed” hard to the unforgiving mat and been smashed through tables.
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“My list [of injuries] is growing,” Stratus said cheerfully of the split lip, torn shoulder, black eyes, broken knuckle (“My knuckle is literally missing”) and other ailment she has suffered.
That gap in Stratus’ teeth? A garbage-can lid to the face from equally aggressive wrestler Victoria during a “street match” at Rosemont’s Allstate Arena a few years ago.
“I actually lost a tooth there,” said the engaging Stratus (a stage name). “After my jaw got knocked, it kind of just fell out of my mouth. I was like, `Well, this is nice.’ I pretty much have a gap right now.”
But Stratus’ wrestler heart is unmistakable: “I decided to leave it [that way]. . . . It’s kind of cool.”
Stratus defends her belt Sunday at WrestleMania 21, the WWE’s “Super Bowl” pay-per-view event, against “diva” and current Playboy cover girl Christy Hemme.