10 Best WWE Redemption Stories

Recovering from serious injury is part and parcel of being a professional wrestler these days, but Lita's comeback from a neck injury that nearly ended her career was particularly impressive.

It was also particularly emotional for the fans, who saw in the Hardy's former stunt-woman companion a performer who would repeatedly put her body on the line in the name of entertainment, like no female had ever done (or, perhaps, had ever been allowed to) before.

Two years after her surgery, Lita finally exorcised her demons inside the ring with victory over Trish Stratus, making for one of the all-time greatest female moments in pre-Women's Revolution WWE (where bra and panties matches were, unfortunately, the norm for a long time).

This was not only a personal triumph for Lita, whose future with the company must have been called into question after such a long rehabilitation period, but also for mainstream female wrestling as a whole. Here was a wrestler who put herself through hell to get back in the ring, and the fans got behind her as much as they would any male counterpart.