Lita didn't know what she was doing when she started training to be a professional wrestler.
Appearing on the most recent edition of Steve Austin's Broken Skull Sessions, the WWE Hall of Famer discussed a number of topics, including how she got her start in the industry. Lita told Stone Cold that she was a big fan of Rey Mysterio and after learning that many of the luchadors she was watching were from Mexico, assumed that that was where she needed to go to train.
"Because I didn't know, I didn't know any better. I didn't know that there was probably a wrestling school 30-minutes from my house. I didn't grow up with wrestling, my family didn't watch wrestling growing up. But it was my boyfriend at the time, it was his dude thing, like, 'Don't come in the room, I'm watching wrestling.' 'But I just have one question.' I kept popping my head into the room and then I would linger and start getting sucked into the drama. But, I was playing in bands and competing for Judo and it's like they're playing in bands and competing for Judo. You're a rockstar and an athlete in one gig. So I started looking at it almost immediately as 'These guys have cool jobs.' From that day, once it kind of clicked, to anyone I'd say, 'Oh didn't you hear, I'm going to be a professional wrestler.' I was saying it like a child would say they're going to be a fireman. I'm going to figure out the specifics later and that's what I did. I was drawn to the Lucha Libre style, specifically Rey Mysterio because -- I wasn't able to understand at the time but because he was bilingual and he could get on the mic and cut a promo in English, you could feel above and beyond. When he was in stories with Kevin Nash and I believed he could beat him even though he's a quarter of his size. Feeling the emotion through no expression on his face, through his body, and I remember asking my boyfriend, 'Why don't any of the other Luchadors get to talk?' He's like, 'Well, they don't speak English.' I was like, 'Oh, they're really from Mexico? I guess that's where I got to go to figure out how to do this,'" she said.
Traveling alone, Lita admitted that she knew nothing, laughing about the fact that she was wandering the streets asking where she could find Lucha Libre.
"No, he was in a touring band so he was going on tour for a couple of months so I was like, 'Well, I'll go to Mexico for a couple of months then.' Literally wandered the streets asking where the Lucha Libre was, how to get there. I knew nothing," she said.
She concluded by detailing how she was finally offered a spot in a wrestling school after continually showing up at the local promotion's shows three times per week.
"So I went and bought a ticket from a scalper for ten bucks. I remember that scalper was like, 'Sucker.' I got to sit in the front row. I was placed next to this woman who was in her 60s and hadn't missed a wrestling match in 35 years and was telling me who every single wrestler was. She was my first wrestling instructor. I'm soaking it in and immediately the office comes over to me and ask what I'm doing here. 'What do you mean? I'm here to watch wrestling with my people.' They were like, 'If you need anything, let us know.' I was like, 'Yeah, I just spent most of my money on a ticket right now so if you could tell me where the subway is that would be cool.' He was like, 'What? You can't take the subway at night.' I said, 'No, no, I know where the stop is.' He said, 'I'll give you a ride home.' I thought, this guy has a badge, he seems legit. That dude took me to the shows three times a week and I just kept showing up. They asked, 'Why do you keep coming?' I said, 'I want to do this, I want to do this.' They're like, 'She won't go away so I think this is legit.' Then they finally let me start training at their school," Lita said.
After a couple of years on the independent circuit and then ECW, Lita made her WWE debut in July 1999. She would go on to have a Hall of Fame career that included four reigns as the Women's Champion.
Elsewhere during the interview, Lita revealed that she was asked about competing at Elimination Chamber while walking through Gorilla Position following the 2022 Royal Rumble. Click here to learn more.
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