Lita Was Asked To Do Saudi Arabia Match While Leaving Gorilla Position At 2022 WWE Royal Rumble

Lita’s Raw Women’s Championship opportunity came without much notice.

On February 19, 2022, Lita had her first title match since 2006 when she challenged Becky Lynch for the Raw Women’s Championship at Elimination Chamber. During her recent appearance on The Broken Skull Sessions with Stone Cold Steve Austin (available now on Peacock and WWE Network), Lita said “It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.”

She continued on, explaining why she feels that way, saying that it was one of the only times in her career where she was actually able to soak in the moment.

“I wasn’t looking for it. I wasn’t hungry for this shot, and it just fell in my lap. I feel like all of my career I never got to sink in and soak in the moments because you’re on to the next and I can’t soak in what I did because I’m like, ‘I got to grab my bag and get out before the crowd.’ With this, I almost felt like I was observing myself in there. I felt like I could soak in every moment, from hitting the Royal Rumble to being in Saudi. I could feel the magnitude of it and how special it was to be there and I felt like I missed a lot of that in my career,” she said.

As for when she was asked to do the match in Saudi Arabia, Lita revealed that John Laurinaitis approached her about it as she made her way backstage following her appearance at the 2022 Royal Rumble.

“Johnny Ace just calls me, literally as I’m leaving Gorilla from the Rumble and asked if I wanted to do it. I’m still high on adrenaline and he’s like this is the perfect time. He’s like, ‘Do you want to fight Becky.’ I said, ‘You know I do.’ He’s like, ‘Alright. A couple weeks from now.’ I’m like, ‘Yes?’ It almost started right then, I’m watching myself say yes, like, ‘Are you sure about this?'” Lita said.

Lita shared that she had been training hard for the 2022 Royal Rumble as she wanted to make up for the 2018 edition, which she said was not a good experience. Despite the fact that she had been training, Lita admits that she still would have liked a few more months to prepare for Becky.

“They had given us some heads up on the Rumble and I had been training because I only had done the first Rumble in 2018 and that was on a 24-hour heads up. Not been training, not been in the ring, then I had to get cleared medically, so I touched the ring live when the fans saw me for the first time since the last time I touched the ring. It was not a good experience. I was the wrong kind of nervous and I’ve never felt that. The women had raised the bar so high and I didn’t know if I could keep up with them, I didn’t know if I’m going to turn into dust on my first bump, like what is going to happen? This is not good. But, it was the first and I wanted to be there and be part of it because it was such a monumental thing for the women to have a Rumble match. So when they called, I wanted to re-do that moment as much as I could. So I was training pretty hard and pretty good for that Rumble, so it was like cool, I’ll just continue and redirect as a singles match. I would have liked another few months, but also just going with it, there was something about it that’s just, ‘This is how you work best, not overthinking things, just going with it, do the best you can,” she said.

In a preview for the episode released a few days ago, Lita told Steve Austin that she is obsessed with Raw Superstar Rhea Ripley. Click here to learn more.

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