Lita (born Amy Christine Dumas on April 14, 1975, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida) is a retired
Professional Wrestler. She traveled in Mexico to learn the sport and debuted as a manager in
EMLL before working Maryland MCW and various
NWA promotions, managing Skull Von Krush and
Christopher Daniels as Angelica, and former affiliate
ECW as Miss Congeniality. Lita's the best known name she has wrestled under, though, starting in
WWE from 2000-2006.
She made her debut in the WWF managing Essa Rios, but after he attacked her, she switched her allegiance to the
Hardy Boyz and eventually used that to branch into a singles career, where she took female wrestling by storm with her high-flying wrestling. She also gave
Edge the biggest push of his career by cheating on
Matt Hardy with him in
Real Life. She eventually became a four time WWE women's champion, and in 2014 was inducted into WWE's Hall of Fame.
Outside of wrestling, she had a brief acting career, has founded animal rescue A.D.O.R.E., and is one of the band members of The Luchagores.
Not to be confused with
Lita Marez.
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to say.
"I know when I get you alone, there's gonna be a trope list":
- Friend to All Living Things/Pet the Dog: Literalized, in Real Life. She is well known for her work at animal shelters and had her own animal adoption organization called ADORE (Amy Dumas Operation Rescue and Education.).
- Friendship Moment: During Stone Cold's beer bash at the end of the Raw 15th Anniversary, Trish and Lita could be seen walking down the ramp together chatting just like old friends.
- Fun with Acronyms: Along with ADORE, her autobiography was titled Lita: A Less Traveled R.O.A.D- The Reality of Amy Dumas.
- Gimmick Matches
- Was in the first (and to this day only) WWE women's steel cage match, against Victoria. Has also been involved in street fights and TLC matches even if she wasn't a participant. And of course she's done a couple of Bra & Panties matches in her time.
- After failing to win the women's title, Mickie James was inexplicably forced to compete in a series of gimmick matches stacked in Lita's favor in the weeks leading up to her next title shot. Lita would get to wrestle normally while Mickie had her hands tied, feet shackled, was blindfolded, ect
- Girl Next Door: When she was with The Hardyz.
- Girliness Upgrade: When she turned heel.
- Heroes Want Redheads: So do villains (Kane, Edge). Take a look at the amount of Kayfabe love interests she's had.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Trish Stratus. Lita was even named the godmother of Trish's son Maximus.
- I Have Many Names: In order before Lita: Misty, Angelica, Miss Congeniality
- I Have the High Ground: Usually to hit a moonsault, sometimes just to pose for the fans
- I Know Judo: It was Angelica's primary approach early in her career and Lita's late career after she returned from the neck injury. She actually did competitive judo before getting into pro wrestling.
- Irony
- The woman everybody derided as a slut in 2005 (and in Kayfabe in 2006) for one romantic indiscretion, was one of the few Divas WWE contacted about returning for the WrestleMania XXV Divas battle royal who refused to take part in the indignity of that event.note She may have had a point, since the match was won by "Santina Marella" (Santino playing his own "sister" in drag).
- The famous in-ring promo with Trish Stratus where the fans started chanting "slut!". Trish said to the fans "don't call her a slut" but phrased it in a way that she was implying the fans were calling Trish the slut but she was pretending they were untruthfully chanting at Lita. The irony of course being that the fans were chanting at Lita and Trish was attempting to get the heat onto herself since she was meant to be the heel.
- The Lad-ette: When she was with Team X-tream and latter, Edge. You could say her entire WWE career that wasn't spent behind the announce table.
- Love Triangle: Matt Hardy-Lita-Jeff Hardy in late 2001, Matt Hardy-Lita-Kane in 2004, Kane-Lita-Edge in 2005.
- Lovely Angels: With Trish Stratus in 2003 and early 2004.
- Madonna–Whore Complex: Mostly avoided. As a heel she was indeed fitting the Whore archetype. As a face however she was not a Madonna. She still had her thong on display, removed her top in matches and took part in bikini shoots. Yet still presented as virtuous and heroic.
- Mentor Archetype: To Christy Hemme, though she has less success than Lita and was mainly trained to fight Trish or April Hunter when Lita was unable to herself.
- Ms. Fanservice: Yes, she was also more than this, but, she was good at this too.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: After being taunted for losing her baby, Lita unleashed one on Trish Stratus. She'd do so again at Survivor Series where Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler grew extremely concerned not just with how vicious the beating on Trish was, but what Lita put herself through to cause more damage, ending in an attack that could have broken her own neck, again.
- Official Couple: Her and Matt Hardy. Then her and Edge.
- One of the Boys: Non-Kayfabe, the Two Man Power Trip gave her a beating no less brutal than one they'd deliver to a guy.
- Panty Shot: Her pants during the Attitude Era were rather low slung and displayed her thong.
- Retcon: Her marriage to Kane was briefly moved into Canon Discontinuity thanks to the whole Love Triangle situation with Matt and Edge. Years later, in The New '10s, it was moved back into continuity because of Matt's subsequent release and blackballing from the company. In return, the Love Triangle was (mostly) retconned in its place, only acknowledged during the week of Edge's retirement the following year, due to it being pivotal to his rise as a main event star.
- Self-Deprecation
- She described her WWE original's effort as sounding too much like a cheerleader's song.
- After running into some legal trouble she posted about all of Team Xtreme possibly doing jail time and was insulted no one had made any demotivational posters or anything to that effect about it yet.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: When she was going to marry Edge, with Absolute Cleavage to boot.
- Signature Move: Aside from finishers above, the Litacanrana.
- Slut-Shaming: Initially, WWE was going to keep the Matt-Lita-Edge stuff behind closed doors. Unfortunately, it hit the dirtsheets when WWE mysteriously released Matt Hardy and RAW was going to be in heavily-smarky Madison Square Garden. Sure enough, babyface Lita was greeted with chants of "YOU SCREWED MATT" and "SLUT", despite Trish (playing the heel) doing her best to deflect the heat off Lita. Reportedly, Lita was in tears after the segment, but soon found the best way to deal with her massive heat: turn heel on-screen in similar fashion.
- Mickie James had no problem resorting to using this against her when they feuded during one of the unfair matches mentioned above.
Mickie: I'll tell you what, after the match, I'll give these (the shackles) to you, Lita, because everyone knows you're the one who needs your legs tied together."
- Statuesque Stunner: By comparison, being one of the taller divas of the 2000s.
- Take-That Kiss: Trish called Lita the "Walking Kiss of Death" (because Lita appeared on Dark Angel right before it was cancelled), no point for guessing what happened next.
- The Rival: While she had more high profile feuds with Trish and even Mickie James, Lita's most faced opponent in WWE was Molly Holly. The two even teamed up occasionally during Molly's superhero phase with The Hurricane.
- The Unfair Sex: Inverted. Matt being seen as impotent because Lita strayed, or Edge being condemned because he couldn't say no to a hot woman wanting him, only happened sparingly compared to how she was treated as a monster, turned heel, and eventually had to retire because of the hatred from the fans, who had loved her for FIVE YEARS. The reactions did gain some parity over time, but not until the Diva's descent since her retirement and Matt's personal meltdown kicked in.
- The Vamp: Subverted, Edge tried to offer her services to get favors from other wrestlers but it never worked.
- Tomboy: Except when she was Miss Congeniality, who was more girly girl and Jazz was the tomboy. Also when Future of Wrestling was in Peru, Angelica was a girly girl compared to Riptide.
- Took a Level in Badass
- Once she split as Essa Rios' valet, watching Lita was like watching Buffy Summers, Sydney Bristow or Lara Croft in the ring.
- And again during her lost baby angle: some male wrestlers were never as vicious and brutal as she was when Trish taunted her.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: After her affair with Edge she was forced to turn heel and acted like the fans treated her...in other words really bad, skanky and evil.
- Unkempt Beauty: Most of the time she wore pants and a tank top. Subverted occasionally.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: From a mostly kayfabe standpoint, she and Edge incidentally set the course for the Hardy brothers' tumultuous path that eventually culminated in Broken Matt Hardy and Brother Nero. You're welcome.
- Wardrobe Malfunction: One of the most bizarre cases ever — she tried to strip her top off and failed.
- Who Wears Short Shorts?: When she returned in 2003 she started wearing these. Also wore them during her Miss Congeniality days.
- You Go, Girl!: Competed occasionally in various intergender matches and very often got involved in others by performing either a moonsault or Litacanrana on men.
- Your Cheating Heart: The most infamous example in professional wrestling history, in Real Life with Edge, behind boyfriend Matt Hardy's back. According to Matt, however, they reconciled in less than a year and made attempts to get back together before realizing it wasn't going to work out.
