Amy Dumas
Born	(1975-04-14) April 14, 1975 (age 49) Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Angelica Lita Miss Congeniality
Billed height	5 ft 7 in (171 cm)
Billed weight	135 lb (61 kg)
Billed from	Sanford, North Carolina
Trained by	Dory Funk, Jr. Ricky Santana Ace Steel Kevin Quinn
Debut	1999
Retired	November 26, 2006

Amy Christine Dumas (born April 14, 1975) is an American professional wrestler better known by the ring name Lita, and lead singer of punk rock band The Luchagors.

Early career

Amy Dumas attended many different schools throughout her childhood and adolescent years, and managed to finish high school six months prior to graduation. She also studied Spanish for three years. She attended college at Georgia State University, where she majored in education ^[1].

Amy had always been an excellent swimmer and, as an early adult, she practiced judo competitively. Dumas played bass guitar in a band called 3 Card Trick and was a roadie for another band, Fifteen (sometimes mistakenly believed to be the band 7 Seconds because they were Amy's favorite band), for five years before becoming a wrestler. Dumas first became interested in wrestling after watching Mexican luchador Rey Mysterio, Jr. wrestle on an episode of World Championship Wrestling's WCW Monday Nitro alongside her then-boyfriend, who was an avid wrestling fan ^[2]. She traveled to Mexico to learn how to wrestle and learn more about the sport and also encounter a huge assortment of wrestlers such as Yoshihiro Tajiri, Val Venis, Essa Rios, Super Crazy and Chris Jericho. As stated in her autobiography, Dumas financed her training by dancing in a club under the pseudonym Misty. During her stay in Mexico, Dumas trained under numerous wrestlers, including Kevin Quinn, Miguel Perez and Ricky Santana. Following the completion of her training, Dumas made several appearances with the Empresa Mexicana de la Lucha Libre, and spent ten days working for a promotion in Peru. Upon returning to the United States, Dumas began working as a valet on the independent circuit in such promotions as MCW under the ring name Angelica, at one point managing Christopher Daniels. In the spring of 1999, she was approached by Paul Heyman, the owner and booker of Extreme Championship Wrestling, then the third largest promotion in the United States. Dumas debuted in ECW as Miss Congeniality, the on-screen girlfriend of Danny Doring. Dumas later began using the name Angelica once again, and made her pay-per-view debut on July 18, 1999 at Heat Wave 1999.

Dumas was introduced to veteran wrestler Dory Funk, Jr. by ECW wrestler Rob Van Dam, and Funk invited her to attend his wrestling school, the Funkin' Conservatory. Dumas attended the school alongside 23 men, requesting that Funk treat her no differently from any other trainee. She graduated from the school in August 1999 and returned to ECW. In the meanwhile, Funk and his wife compiled video footage of Dumas and sent it to the World Wrestling Federation. The Federation was sufficiently impressed, and on November 1, 1999, Dumas was signed to a WWF developmental deal. She made her final appearance with ECW on October 23, 1999 ^[3].

World Wrestling Federation

1999-2000

After honing her skills at the Memphis Championship Wrestling developmental territory, Dumas was given the ring name Lita and paired with luchador Essa Rios. Lita and Rios made their WWF debut on the February 13, 2000 episode of Heat, with Rios defeating Gillberg to win the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship. Lita assisted Rios in his matches by interfering on his behalf, often mimicking his moves immediately after he had performed them on an opponent. She was one of the first females to mimic the moonsault and hurricanrana. The duo engaged in a brief feud with Eddie Guerrero and Chyna that saw Lita strip Chyna of the dress she wore to Guerrero's prom ^[4]. Tension arose between Rios and Lita in May 2000 after Lita found Rios cavorting with The Godfather and his hoes. Rios eventually turned on her after she inadvertently cost him a match, powerbombing her. Lita was saved from a beating at the hands of Rios by the Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff) and the trio formed a stable known as Team Xtreme. As a member of Team Xtreme, Lita developed a more "alternative" image, wearing baggy pants with a tight thong which was hiked up high above her pants, clearly exposed. During her time with Team Xtreme, Lita became the only female to ever be physically involved in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match in the WWE ^[5].

In June 2000, Team Xtreme began a feud with T & A ( Test & Albert), with Lita engaging in a rivalry with the manager of T & A, Trish Stratus. This would be the start of the long feud between Stratus and Lita until Stratus retired in 2006. The feud ended shortly after Fully Loaded 2000, where Lita pinned Stratus in a six person intergender tag team match. Immediately following her feud with Stratus, Lita began feuding with WWF Women's Champion Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley. In the main event of the August 21, 2000 episode of RAW is WAR, Lita defeated Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley with a moonsault to win the Women's Championship for the first time ^[6]. (Lita is the only woman to win the WWE Women's Championship in the main event on RAW, defeating Trish Stratus and Stephanie McMahon on two separate occasions ^[7].) The match also featured the Rock as the Special Guest Referee, and constant interference from Triple H and Kurt Angle ^[6].

Lita held the Women's Championship for 73 days ^[6], defeating challengers such as Ivory, Terri Runnels, The Kat and Trish Stratus. On the October 9, 2000 episode of RAW is WAR, Lita retained her title in a hardcore match with Jacqueline. In the course of her reign, Lita became embroiled in the feud between the Hardy Boyz and Edge and Christian. In retaliation for her frequent interference in their matches, Edge and Christian cost Lita the Women's Championship, helping Ivory defeat her in a four way match on the November 2, 2000 episode of SmackDown! ^[8]. Ivory at that time was in a group named Right to Censor, which targetted Lita for her attire and moves. Lita attempted to regain the title on several occasions, wrestling Ivory at Survivor Series 2000 and Rebellion 2000, but was thwarted on each occasion by Steven Richards, the mentor of Ivory. She spent the remainder of the year in a feud with would-be suitor Dean Malenko, on one occasion unsuccessfully challenging him for the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship.

2001-2002

Lita continued to feud with Dean Malenko in early 2001, and on the February 19, 2001 episode of RAW is WAR, she defeated him in a singles bout with the assistance of Matt Hardy. Following the match, Hardy kissed Lita, beginning their on-screen relationship. The couple wrestled in several intergender tag team matches throughout the early part of the year.

Following a brief feud between Team Xtreme and The Two-Man Power Trip ( Triple H & Stone Cold Steve Austin) in April 2001, Lita began pursuing the WWF Women's Championship once again. She challenged Women's Champion Chyna at Judgment Day 2001 on May 20, 2001, but was defeated (this was significant because it was Chyna's last WWF match). In the same month, Eddie Guerrero began teaming with the Hardy Boyz. A storyline involving Guerrero and Lita was cut short in June 2001 when Guerrero was sent to drug rehabilitation, and Chyna, who was also supposed to be involved in the storyline, was also released.

In July 2001, Lita and Trish Stratus joined forces to combat Stacy Keibler and Torrie Wilson, members of the Alliance of Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling wrestlers who were invading the WWF. At Invasion on July 22, 2001, Lita and Stratus defeated Keibler and Wilson in the first ever tag team bra and panties match. Throughout the "Invasion", Lita, Stratus and Jacqueline feuded with Alliance members Keibler, Wilson, Ivory and Mighty Molly. The Invasion storyline ended on November 18 at Survivor Series 2001, where Lita took part in a six pack challenge for the WWF Women's Championship, which had been vacated by Chyna earlier that year. The match was won by Stratus.

In late 2001, the Hardy Boyz began feuding with one another. Lita refereed a match between them at Vengeance 2001 on December 9, 2001 that was won by Jeff, with Lita failing to notice that Matt had placed his leg on the rope during Jeff's successful pin attempt. On the following episode of RAW, Matt defeated Lita and Jeff in a handicap match, shortly after informing Lita that both their relationship and the Hardy Boyz were finished.

Lita began accompanying Jeff Hardy to the ring for his matches, with the two implicitly involved in a deeper friendship. On the December 17, 2001 episode of RAW, both Jeff and Lita were sidelined with (kayfabe) injuries following a violent title match between Jeff and WWF Hardcore Champion The Undertaker. The injuring of both his brother and ex-girlfriend led to a reconciliation between the members of Team Xtreme, and on the December 20, 2001 episode of SmackDown!, Matt Hardy faced The Undertaker, but was also injured. All three members of Team Xtreme were removed from WWF television for several weeks, with journalist Dave Meltzer attributing the removal to a lack of storylines for the trio. Head of Talent Relations Jim Ross stated in an interview that the removal of Team Xtreme from television was to enable them to "recharge their batteries" ^[4].

The Hardy Boyz competed in the 2002 Royal Rumble, and, along with Lita, returned to WWF television in February 2002. Lita resumed her pursuit of the WWF Women's Championship in March 2002, and made her in-ring WrestleMania debut at WrestleMania X8 on March 17, 2002, facing Stratus and WWF Women's Champion Jazz in a three way title match that saw Jazz retain her title by pinning Lita.

On April 6, 2002, Lita suffered what appeared to be a stinger while filming a fight scene for a role in the season finale of the television program Dark Angel. After she underwent a CAT scan, it was revealed that Lita had suffered three cracks in her C5 and C6 vertebrae, necessitating surgery. She was not aware of the gravity of her injury and even flew to see the official leading surgeon, Dr. Lloyd Youngblood. On April 30, 2002, Lita underwent neck surgery under Dr. Lloyd Youngblood in San Antonio, Texas, with a section of her hip used to fuse her C5 and C6 vertebrae together. Lita spent the subsequent year rehabilitating, making appearances on Sunday Night HEAT as a color commentator from October 2002 ^[9][10].

World Wrestling Entertainment

2003

Lita appeared on the April 21, 2003 episode of RAW, where she was ostensibly fired from her position as Sunday Night HEAT color commentator by General Manager Eric Bischoff after she rejected his advances and his request that she follow in the footsteps of SmackDown! Diva, Torrie Wilson and pose for Playboy. She returned to the ring after an absence of seventeen months on the September 15, 2003 episode of RAW, saving Trish Stratus from a beating at the hands of Molly Holly and Gail Kim (Co-General Manager Stone Cold Steve Austin later explained to Eric Bischoff that he had rehired Lita). Lita and Stratus went on to defeat Holly and Kim in a tag team match on September 21, 2003 at Unforgiven 2003. Lita feuded with Holly into late 2003, unsuccessfully challenging her for the Women's Championship on November 16 at the Survivor Series 2003.

On the November 17, 2003 episode of RAW, Lita and Matt Hardy were reunited after Hardy was moved from SmackDown! to RAW. After Hardy appeared to be about to tell Lita that he had a girlfriend, Holly interrupted, challenging Lita and Hardy to face her and Bischoff in an intergender tag team match later that evening (with Bischoff later stipulating that Lita would earn a title shot if she won, but would be fired if she lost). Hardy and Lita lost the match after Hardy refused to tag in, with Hardy berating Lita for "selfishly" returning to RAW instead of SmackDown!, claiming that this showed that she cared more about the Women's Championship than about him. Lita was rehired later that evening when Christian informed her that he had persuaded Bischoff to reinstate her. One week later, Lita lost to Victoria in the first ever female versus female Steel Cage Match in WWE history, with help from Matt Hardy ^[11].

As Lita and Christian appeared to be developing a relationship, so did Stratus and Chris Jericho. However, on the December 1, 2003 episode of RAW, it was revealed that Christian and Jericho had bet one another "one Canadian dollar" as to who could seduce Lita and Stratus respectively first. The revelation led to a feud between Lita and Stratus and Christian and Jericho, with the males triumphing in "Battle of the Sexes" matches at Armageddon 2003. There was also a rematch the following night on the December 14, 2003 episode of RAW, however Chris Jericho stopped the match halfway through, due to Trish Stratus injuring her knee.

2004

Lita competed in the Women's division throughout early 2004, winning a battle royal to become number one contender to the Women's Championship on the April 5, 2004 episode of RAW. Victoria defeated Lita to retain the Women's Championship at Backlash 2004 on April 18, 2004. Lita was reunited with Matt Hardy on the April 19, 2004 episode of RAW when Hardy attacked Kane in an attempt to prevent him from harming Lita. In the following weeks, Kane began repeatedly assaulting Hardy and attempting to seduce Lita and even once kidnapped her and held her tied up backstage where he supposedly asked her a 'question' he even persuaded Eric Bischoff to give her a title shot at Bad Blood 2004 on June 13, 2004.

On the June 14, 2004 episode of RAW, Lita revealed that she was pregnant.One week later, it once again appeared that Hardy would propose to Lita. However, the proposal was interrupted by Kane, who claimed that he, not Hardy, was the father of Lita's child, as Lita had slept with Kane to persuade him to stop attacking Hardy. Two months later, it was revealed that Kane was in fact the father. Hardy and Kane feuded for several months, culminating in a "'Till Death do Us Part" match on August 15, 2004 at SummerSlam 2004, with the stipulation that Lita would be obliged to marry Kane should Hardy lose. Kane won the match, leading to he and a reluctant Lita marrying one another on the August 23, 2004 episode of RAW. Despite being married to Kane, Lita harried him during his matches, constantly aiding his opponents. On the September 13, 2004 episode of RAW, Lita miscarried after Gene Snitsky struck Kane with a chair, resulting in him falling on Lita. The miscarriage led to Lita and Kane joining forces in order to take revenge upon Snitsky. With the pregnancy angle over, Lita returned to the women's division in November 2004. She challenged Trish Stratus for the Women's Championship on several occasions, finally defeating her to begin her second reign as champion in the main event of the December 6, 2004 episode of RAW.

2005

Lita's second reign as Women's Champion ended on January 9, 2005 at New Year's Revolution 2005, where she was defeated by Trish Stratus. In the course of the match, Lita suffered a legitimate injury, tearing her left ACL after executing a Lou Thesz Press off of the ring apron. She underwent surgery under Dr. James Andrews on January 20, 2005 ^[4].

Lita returned to WWE television in March 2005, mentoring Christy Hemme in preparation for her title match with Trish Stratus at WrestleMania 21. Despite Lita's coaching, Hemme was defeated by Stratus. Lita continued to feud with Stratus by proxy over the following weeks, with Kane defeating Stratus's champion, Viscera, at Backlash 2005 on May 1, 2005. The relationship between Lita and Kane lasted until the May 16, 2005 episode of RAW, when Lita turned heel by betraying Kane, helping his opponent, Edge, defeat him in the finals of the WWE RAW Gold Rush Tournament. This was her first official heel turn in her entire 5 year run with the promotion. On the May 30, 2005 episode of RAW, Lita announced that she had filed for divorce, flushing her wedding ring down a toilet. She attempted to marry Edge on the June 20, 2005 episode of RAW, but the marriage ceremony was interrupted by a vengeful Kane, who emerged from beneath the ring.

Lita continued to act as Edge's valet as the latter went on to defeat Matt Hardy at SummerSlam 2005 (the WWE had recently acknowledged the real-life issues between Edge, Lita, and Hardy). On the October 3, 2005 episode of RAW, when Edge, with the assistance of Lita, defeated Hardy in a ladder match, Hardy was obliged to leave RAW as a stipulation of the match.

2006

After Edge defeated John Cena to win the WWE Championship on January 8, 2006 at New Year's Revolution 2006, he announced that he and Lita would celebrate by having sex in the middle of the ring on the January 9, 2006 episode of RAW. The event saw Lita and Edge strip to their underwear before retreating beneath the covers of a bed that had been erected in the ring. The event was interrupted by Ric Flair, leading to Edge leaving the bed to fight him. Lita, left alone, hastily redressed as John Cena entered the ring and delivered an F-U to her. Lita's bare breast was momentarily shown during the segment; while this was shown uncensored in the UK, it was censored in the US. This "Live Sex Celebration" segment earned RAW a 5.2 rating ^[12] and earned RAW its highest ratings in over a year ^[13].

Lita returned to the ring in a tag team bout on January 20, 2006 at a house show, teaming with Victoria against Trish Stratus and Mickie James, and made her televised in-ring return on the February 6, 2006 episode of RAW, teaming with Edge in a loss to Cena and Maria. She continued to manage Edge into mid-2006, frequently interfering on his behalf during his feud with Mick Foley. In May 2006, Foley joined forces with Edge and Lita, with the trio defeating Foley's ECW rivals Terry Funk, Tommy Dreamer and Beulah McGillicutty in an impromptu six person tag team match at One Night Stand 2006. Edge won the match after Spearing Beulah, but Lita came off worse, after being on the receiving end of Tommy's Dreamer Driver.

On the July 3, 2006 episode of RAW, Lita assisted Edge in defeating John Cena and Rob Van Dam in a triple threat No-DQ match to regain the WWE Championship.

On the August 14, 2006 episode of RAW, she defeated Mickie James to win her third Women's Championship by hitting James with the belt. She would also defeat in James, in their rematch on the August 28. 2006 episode of RAW, this time using the ropes for extra leverage after she countered a Mick-A-Rana in to a pin.

Lita and Edge went on to feud with Trish Stratus and Carlito, culminating in a bout between Lita and Stratus at Unforgiven 2006 in which Stratus defeated Lita to win the Women's Championship in what was Stratus's last WWE match. Lita used her signature Moonsault for the first time as a heel in that match. The match also marked the second time Lita was defeated by submission. The only other female in WWE history to do this was Jazz, with her signature STF.

On the September 25, 2006 episode of RAW, Lita defeated Candice Michelle for a place in the semi-finals of the Women's Championship Tournament when Edge, the Special Guest Referee, speared Candice. Lita defeated Maria for a place in the finals on the October 30,2006 episode of RAW with a Snap DDT. On November 5, at Cyber Sunday 2006, Lita defeated Mickie James with a snap DDT to capture the vacant title, and begin her 4th reign as WWE Women's Champion. On the November 6 edition of WWE RAW, Lita defeated Mickie James, once again to retain the WWE Women's Championship with ease, when Eric Bischoff (the one day General Manager) ordered James to have one arm tied behind her back. On the November 20 edition of RAW, after defeating Mickie James in a non-title match, Lita announced that she would be retiring from the WWE after her match with James at Survivor Series 2006.

At Survivor Series, on November 26, 2006, Lita was pinned by James, losing her WWE Women's Championship, and her final match in the WWE. She was then was embarrassed by Cryme Tyme who held an auction of Lita's personal affects while making crude jokes about her genitalia.

The day after her retirement, Lita stated, on WWE.com, that her plans to retire began around mid-2005, when the feud between Edge and Matt Hardy was at its height. Because of her involvement in the feud, the harassment she received from some fans was so strong that she felt as if "even when [she] was walking the dog there was going to be someone yelling 'You screwed Matt!' out the window". Eventually, she became so fed up with the mistreatment she was receiving from these fans (most notably those loyal to Matt Hardy), she decided that the only way to avoid such harassment was to retire altogether. She states her plans to further her involvement with her band, The Luchagors, and to act in theatre productions ^[14].

In wrestling

• Finishing moves

• Litasault ^[15] (Moonsault)
• Swinging snap DDT
• Twist of Fate
• Rear naked choke

• Signature Moves

• Litacanrana (Diving hurricanrana) ^[16]
• Reverse Twist of Fate
• Headscissors takedown
• One-legged monkey flip (with punches)
• Spin-out powerbomb
• Russian legsweep (into a floatover pin or punches)
• Diving crossbody
• Suicide dive
• Frankensteiner
• Superplex
• Leg-feed enzuigiri
• Snap Suplex
• Knee drop (when opponent is on the bottom rope)

• Double team signature moves

• Poetry in Motion - with the Hardy Boyz and Trish Stratus. She also used this move with various other tag partners..

• Wrestlers Managed by Lita

Championships and accomplishments

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI Woman of the Year ( 1st runner-up 2000, 2001, 3rd runner-up 2005, 3rd runner-up 2006)
• Feud of the Year (2005 - Matt Hardy vs. Edge and Lita)

• American Chronicle

• Female of the year (2006)

• World Wrestling Federation /Entertainment ^[17]

• WWF/E Women's Championship (4 times)

• Wrestling Observer Newsletter

• Worst Feud of the Year (2004, Kane vs. Matt Hardy and Lita)
• Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic (2004, Kane and Lita's pregnancy angle)

Post-wrestling career

Dumas is the lead singer of "The Luchagors", an unsigned punk rock band. The band debuted in September 2006 at a rock n' wrestling event called Rock -N- Shock at The Masquerade in Atlanta, Georgia. ^[18] Dumas wore a top emblazoned with the symbol of the band during her final match in WWE.

In April 2007, Amy Dumas accepted a job in Atlanta, Georgia as a radio DJ for a punk show on Sunday nights at 9pm EST called PunkRockalypse. ^[19]

Personal life

She had breast augmentation surgery in late 1999 ^[20].

Dumas' hair is naturally brunette, although she has dyed it red throughout her WWF/E career. She has a wide variety of tattoos: a three eyed green gargoyle on her upper right biceps, the word "Punk" on the inside of her lower lip, and the word "iconoclast" written in Russian Cyrillic letters on her lower back neck. ^[21] She previously had two piercings in her tongue and another two in her nose. ^[22]

Dumas is a known animal lover. In 2003, she founded the animal charity Amy Dumas Operation Rescue and Education (A.D.O.R.E.) ^[23]. Dumas is currently fostering a dog named MacKenzie ^[24].

In February 2005, it was revealed that Dumas had been romantically involved with fellow wrestler Edge for several months while still in a relationship with Matt Hardy. Shortly after the incident became public knowledge, the WWE released Hardy. After Hardy returned, the real-life situation was translated into a storyline. ^[25] Matt has stated in interviews that he and Amy have since patched things up, and he still considers her a close friend. ^[26]

Media

Lita was featured in the 2001 video and DVD release Lita: It Just Feels Right. The video featured discussions of Lita's career to that point and ten of her matches.

Lita's autobiography, written with Michael Krugman, was titled Lita: A Less Traveled R.O.A.D. - The Reality of Amy Dumas and was published in 2003. The book, which was featured on the New York Times bestsellers list, covered topics such as her family, childhood years, wrestling career, relationship with Matt Hardy and her neck surgery and subsequent rehabilitation.

In the WWF, Lita originally used Essa Rios's entrance music when approaching the ring. When she parted ways with Essa, and before joining the Hardy Boyz, Lita used "Electron", a production theme that would later be used by Terri Runnels. She used this theme, along with that of the Hardy Boyz, until 2001, when she was given her own entrance music. The song, titled "It Just Feels Right", was composed by Jim Johnston and was featured on the 2001 CD release WWF The Music, Vol. 5. Lita was later given a new piece of entrance music based on Johnston's composition. The song, titled "Lovefurypassionenergy", was performed by Boy Hits Car and was featured on the 2002 CD release WWF Forceable Entry. In addition, Lita recorded a song titled "When I Get You Alone" that appeared on the WWE Originals album.

Filmography

• Headbangers Ball (2004)
• Dark Angel (2003) in episode "Freak Nation" as "Thula"
• Fear Factor (2002)
• The Weakest Link (2002) in episode "WWF Superstars Edition"

References

External links

• Lita's WWE Alumni Profile
• AdoreYourPets.org (charity website)
• Lita at IMDb