WWE Superstar Mandy Rose was recently interviewed by former WWE ring announcer Lilian Garcia on her podcast, Chasing Glory, to talk about several professional wrestling topics. Rose first discussed being brought up to the main roster recently with Paige and Sonya Deville as part of Absolution:
“It’s been great. So far, I can’t complain,” Rose said. “Being brought in with Absolution and our mentor, Paige, I think it’s really cool, and really full circle since she was our judge on Tough Enough, and she hated me. She was rough with me, but I get it.”
Before being on Tough Enough, Rose had no prior in-ring experience and took a lot of criticism from people who believed she was simply seeking fame and had absolutely no passion for wrestling. Rose said she’s working hard to prove those doubters wrong:
“For me, it was one of those things where I get it where people can be rough with me because I didn’t come from a professional wrestling background or anything like that, and the way I am perceived sometimes as someone who is just a model and is in here for the fame, and I get that, but I don’t think people get that it isn’t the case,” she said.
“Everything I have achieved in my life I worked very hard for; I didn’t just wake up and say this was handed to me, so it kind of bothered me because I was very sensitive to that, but then I thought, you know what, it’ll be more rewarding for me in the end when I prove to everyone that I can be the person that I want to be.
“Besides that, it was fun, but I think it’s awesome that it was full circle, and with her debut back from surgery and the fact that Sonya and I were with her [during Tough Enough] it’s crazy.”
Rose initially needed to prove Paige’s original conceptions about her wrong, as she only believed Rose was just a model or ‘Diva.’ Rose said she didn’t take offense to the criticism she received from Paige because she understood she lacked experience:
“It was more of the fact that she would judge me that I didn’t know how to wrestle, which I didn’t know how to wrestle at that time because I came from a fitness background; I didn’t have any pro-wrestling experience. That was the biggest thing, and I think that I am very different than Paige,” Rose said.
“Paige brought a lot to the women’s division, as the ‘anti-Diva’ which is great, but I kind of come off as the Diva, which I want to change that, I’m not just a Diva of course, we’re called superstars, and maybe that was what it had to do with. We are very different, but Paige didn’t get to know me personally; she just knew me from the show, and I wasn’t the nicest on the show, which I get. I was playing a character, especially towards the end when I played the b***h.”
You can listen to Rose’s interview on Chasing Glory by clicking this link here.
H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions
