WWE witnessed Lita becoming one of the most important female performers in the history of the industry. Lita joined WWE relatively early into her career and had a groundbreaking character that helped give the women’s division a chance at success. Even with the recent years of the women’s evolution and new top stars, Lita is still at least a top ten and potentially a top five all-time female talent.
One reason for Lita’s success was the ability to work with others. The women’s division of the early 2000s often featured mixed tag matches or multi-women tag matches. Lita didn’t escape this, but she had mixed results when it came to tag team chemistry. The following wrestlers were the best or worst tag partners for Lita.
10 Best: Jeff Hardy
Team Xtreme became one of the hottest acts for WWE when Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy and Lita became a trio team. The Hardy Boyz were already beloved for the daredevil nature of their high-risk moves. Lita was getting over as a face but joining up with Matt and Jeff allowed her to show that side of her character.
There were plenty of trio tag matches, but Lita and Jeff also had some moments as a team on their own. WWE actually booked Jeff and Lita against Matt when they had conflict before making peace. Jeff and Lita had strong chemistry to help make Team Xtreme a huge hit.
9 Worst: Stacy Keibler
WWE often booked multi-women matches to fit everyone on the show since the women’s division was hit or miss for most of the 2000s. Stacy Keibler and Lita both being face characters at the same time for a few years led to them teaming up when needed.
The main instance of them as a team came during one of the eye candy tag matches with Christmas outfits in 2003. Lita and Stacy teamed with Trish Stratus to defeat Molly Holly, Miss Jackie and Victoria in a forgettable match.
8 Best: Mick Foley
Lita and Mick Foley only had one team match together, but that was still enough of a sample size to have it be a success. The trio of Edge, Lita and Foley gave us three legends all playing heels when wanting to invade ECW One Night Stand 2006.
Terry Funk, Tommy Dreamer and Beulah made up the ECW faces that stood against the WWE heels. This was actually a great match utilizing the dangerous elements of hardcore wrestling. Cagematch rated this the best overall match of Lita’s entire career.
7 Worst: Victoria
Victoria was arguably the most underrated female wrestler of the Ruthless Aggression Era. The start of her run feuding with Trish Stratus was great, but WWE went hot and cold with booking her after. Lita and Victoria ended up on the same side of many tag matches merging two singles feuds.
Heels like Trish Stratus, Molly Holly, Gail Kim and Jazz made up the teams that faced Lita and Victoria. Unfortunately, the characters of Lita and Victoria had no chemistry to leave an impact as a team despite having five tag matches together.
6 Best: Matt Hardy
The relationship between Matt Hardy and Lita defined their careers for a few years when it also played out on television. WWE found huge success with the Team Xtreme act, but Matt and Lita falling in love felt their biggest storyline.
Team Xtreme had stellar matches together whenever there were tag teams with a female manage to feud with. Matt and Lita ended up having more matches together as well when WWE utilized their relationship for mixed tag matches.
5 Worst: Natalya
WWE brought Lita back for the all-women Evolution PPV and the build for it. Both Lita and Trish Stratus decided to stick around for one more night after the PPV. The Raw episode one night later featured Lita, Trish, Sasha Banks, Bayley and Natalya winning a match against a heel team.
Natalya was the only one to feel out of place since the other four ladies had established tag team memories and were just bigger stars. The addition of Natalya felt forced due to teaming with Sasha and Bayley the previous night.
4 Best: Edge
The real-life love triangle gone wrong between Lita, Matt Hardy and Edge strongly impacted WWE television. Fans chanting “you screwed Matt” at both performers every week forced WWE’s hand to have them becoming an on-screen couple with Lita turning heel.
Neither person felt comfortable with the angle, but they had superb chemistry to become a top heel act. Edge finally got to the next level as a true top star during this time. Lita and Edge worked well as a team in tag matches against common enemies like John Cena & Maria Kanellis or Carlito & Trish Stratus.
3 Worst: Chyna
WWE found an interesting scenario unfolding when Lita started to get over as a face in 2001. A storyline with Chyna was meant to elevate Lita both in tag matches as partners and as opponents competing over the Women’s Championship.
One tag match was booked with the “can they co-exist?” story against Ivory and Molly Holly just a week before Lita and Chyna faced off. The chemistry lacked between the two, and Chyna hated selling for other women. WWE never got near what they intended when starting this angle.
2 Best: Trish Stratus
The careers of Trish Stratus and Lita became defined together for what they accomplished in the Attitude Era and Ruthless Aggression Era. Both ladies were the two biggest names for the women’s division forcing WWE to give them more television time.
Even though Lita and Trish were better as legendary rivals, the tag team run also found success together. Stratus and Lita teamed up for the first time representing WWE in the Invasion storyline, and it worked perfectly. Any other tag matches from their prime to the Evolution PPV return featured tremendous results.
1 Worst: Essa Rios
Lita first managed Essa Rios as the role she was initially hired for due to her passion for lucha libre. The act didn’t work as expected and turned into a smaller Marc Mero/Sable scenario where fans only cared about the female manager.
The biggest televised match for the pairing saw Lita stealing the show for her team against Eddie Guerrero and Chyna. Rios sadly never felt like a big enough star and took away from Lita’s momentum. WWE split them up and found Lita a better act as part of Team Xtreme.