When a 3-time WWE World Champion refused to hook up with Lita

Amy Dumas, popularly known as Lita, rose to fame when women's wrestling wasn't all about "wrestling" in WWE. Female performers back in the day were pitched to participate in questionable angles, and one such storyline involved the Hardy Boyz.

Fans who grew up throughout the Attitude and Ruthless Aggression eras will consider Team Xtreme one of the greatest teams ever. Lita, along with Matt and Jeff Hardy, were amongst the most popular acts in WWE during the early 2000s and attracted the younger audience's interest, owing to their punk and goth-inspired look and propensity to push the boundaries in the ring.

However, not every successful group will remain together forever in WWE, and the company eventually wanted to break up the Hardy Boyz and have the brothers feud against each other. The problem, however, was that company officials wanted Lita "to hook up" with Jeff Hardy, which would serve as the backdrop for the rivalry.

Matt Hardy was in a real-life relationship with Lita at the time, and Jeff Hardy had no intentions of getting romantically linked, even in kayfabe, with his brother's girlfriend.

As revealed in the archives of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Jeff Hardy "was not down with" having an on-screen affair with Lita as he respected Matt Hardy's relationship with the former Women's Champion.

The program between Matt and Jeff didn't amount to much when it happened, as the story was dropped after their match at Vengeance 2001.

"Eventually, WWE broke up 'Team Extreme' and had them feud with one another. The idea was for Lita to hook up with Jeff Hardy, but Jeff wasn't down with that one. The feud wasn't much, and in fact, I recall thinking that after all their years working together, you'd think Matt and Jeff would have had better matches. The program fizzled out, and they were taken off TV for several months."

Lita even revealed in her autobiography that WWE wanted Jeff Hardy to kiss her on live TV as part of the feud, an idea that the AEW star firmly shot down.

Despite the promotion's attempts to talk him into the awkward segment, Jeff Hardy got his way, and the company nixed plans for him to kiss Lita before reuniting the trio shortly after.

Will Lita return to WWE after her recent stint?

The four-time women's champion returned in February 2023 for a short-term run with WWE, which involved her allying with Becky Lynch. The dream team defeated IYO Sky and Dakota Kai of Damage CTRL on the February 27 episode of RAW to win the Women's Tag Team Championship for the first time in her legendary career.

Trish Stratus was brought into the mix on the road to WrestleMania as she joined forces with the babyfaces to take on Bayley's faction at the mega show in Los Angeles, California.

Lita was written off TV in April, just before her and Becky Lynch's scheduled championship match against Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez. Stratus replaced her in the bout and lost the championship match before attacking Lynch, effectively turning heel in the process.

Trish later also claimed responsibility for the attack on Lita, and as reported, WWE, unfortunately, does not have plans to use the former Team Xtreme on TV going forward. The focus is on Stratus and her issues with Lynch, and it seems like Lita might not appear on television programming for the foreseeable future.