Diva Dirt interview with Trish Stratus
Interview available at Diva-Dirt.com.

Why she picked Stephanie to induct her: "Getting a nod to be in the WWE Hall of Fame, it’s a look back at your career and at the end of the day, there would have been no career, no opportunity, no revamping of the women’s division if Stephanie wasn’t behind it all. When we feuded, there’s something about when you have an experience with someone that you bond with them. When we had our feud, we bonded then and we remained close ever since. She’s just always supportive of showcasing a strong, powerful woman. There would be no division and none of the women would have gotten the push that we needed, or the encouragement we needed.

"She and I have remained friends. I’ve watched her evolve into a businesswoman. We were at the same level — green workers having fun wrestling and then she really just got behind the scenes and became a businesswoman. It’s very empowering to see the position she has now. I retired and went into the business world and with all my endeavors, it’s a tough world for a woman. I admire her greatly and respect her greatly."

On her speech: "My speech has been swirling in my head for, I guess since December since I knew. It’s an obvious list to me, I mean, I could probably give you my speech right now if you say, 'Who do you wanna thank?' [Laughs] It’s sort of been swirling in my head forever and I put it on paper finally. My biggest fear is I’m going to miss something or you don’t have enough time to finish, so that’s kinda like my biggest [worry] - it’s the time constraints, because if you know, I do babble at times, so I’m going to have to watch that. [...]

"You speak from the heart but then you start to go, 'OK, this is also a production', so I need to make sure I don’t babble my way around. Of course, there is the magic of television where they can cut it down or whatever they need to cut down, but at the end of the day, I’d be like 'Aw, I didn’t want them to cut that part.'  [Laughs] So it’s all on paper now, which I’m happy to say, and I’m very happy with it.

On AJ Lee: Aw, I love watching her. There was a point where she was speaking on television every night and I was like 'Yes, love it.' Love to see her, love to see her progress but then the I was like 'I miss seeing her in the ring though, can we get her back in the ring?' But the opportunity that she had to be able to develop her persona was fantastic. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a woman be able to develop that, so that’s going to serve her well. She’s in the ring more and more now and we know who she is on the outside of the ring. That’s money right there, and that’s how you have those characters that have that longevity. I am a huge fan of hers, I think she’s adorable and I just want to pinch her cheeks and then kick her butt, in whatever order.

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