Trish Stratus didn’t hold back when reflecting on a particular moment during WWE’s Diva era — and it turns out she had a lot to say about Christy Hemme’s Playboy cover.
While speaking to Inside The Ropes, the WWE Hall of Famer opened up about her real feelings seeing Hemme — a newcomer to WWE at the time — branded as a “champion” on the cover of Playboy, despite never holding an actual wrestling title.
The backstage reaction was tense, with Trish revealing that the women’s locker room didn’t exactly celebrate the moment in private. On the outside, it was all smiles, but behind the scenes? Not so much. Stratus recalled how the tension led to a sly on-air jab that only her fellow wrestlers were meant to catch.
“Can I tell you one interesting moment? I do remember one thing. When they did the Playboy cover, and there was like—what did it say at the top? It was like ‘Cover Champion’ or something.”
“And so there, internally—just between us guys—when we saw the cover, the wrestling girls were like, ‘Oh hell no.’ You know? But we’re like, ‘Oh, I love your cover, I love your cover, it’s so nice, it’s cool.’”
That frustration came to a boiling point when Trish got her mic time on WWE TV. She used the moment to take what she called a “wink” at the locker room.
“So yeah, when I went out there, that was not planned. But it was almost like my wink to the girls, like, ‘Watch this, girls.’ So I’m like, ‘You ain’t no champion!’ I don’t know why I spoke in this weird southern… I don’t know. ‘You ain’t no champion, honey!’ I don’t know what that is.”
She made it clear that this wasn’t a throwaway line or a joke — it was her way of reclaiming what “champion” actually meant.
“So that was a little moment for the girls that I was like, ‘Yeah, right. She’s not. Because she’s not a champion.’”
“Why’d they call her champion? She’s not a champion. Must be clear. Just be clear. She was not a champ. She’s a champion of the Diva Search. But they didn’t imply that. They were saying ‘champion’—you know, like, as in what I was. I was the champion, sir.”
Stratus’ remarks didn’t come from a place of personal attack, but from her frustration with the era’s mixed messaging. To her, the word “champion” meant more than a magazine spread — it meant work, training, and holding the actual gold.
Trish might have said it with a southern drawl, but the message couldn’t have been clearer: don’t throw the word “champion” around unless it’s earned in the ring.
Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.
Do you think Trish Stratus was right to call out that Playboy cover in her own way? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.
September 21, 2025 2:58 pm