Thunder Rosa explains why she almost took the offer.
Thunder Rosa is currently in her eighth year in pro wrestling. She has been signed exclusively to Lucha Underground, NWA and is now signed to All Elite Wrestling. Rosa just kicked off a program with Mercedes Martinez on AEW television.
She recapped her journey through the business during her conversation with Renee Paquette for the Oral Sessions podcast. Rosa previously shared that WWE wanted her to be a referee and she expanded on that and broke down everything that led up to that point.
She had been having a difficult go at it in wrestling and could not find her footing. She then found herself in a contract snafu with Lucha Underground. After a series of events and situations, Rosa reached out to a friend to see if WWE needed referees. She was in talks with the company and eventually signed paperwork and was going to meet with WWE representatives in person to make it official. There ended up being a hurricane, her flight was cancelled and shortly after, she signed with Combate Global (Combate Americas) and then signed another deal with the NWA.
The Lucha Underground contract happened. I was the sh*ts at that time but guess what? I didn’t let it bother me. Yes, they gave me an opportunity to wrestle, I didn’t cut it. I went back and then started training. Like I was driving from Oakland to L.A. for me to get better at Lucha Underground and I had a contract, right? And getting paid $60 bucks to like wrestle in places because I needed to get the reps because I don’t have the luxury of having great places that are gonna pay me a bunch of money. I didn’t have that. People couldn’t give two sh*ts about me, never did. Everybody was always telling me, ‘You suck. You don’t belong here. Why they did they bring you? Why are they even spending money on you?’ So many people are telling me that, just joking around but that is not cool. When people tell you that, that’s not cool. So I was like, ‘F*ck you guys. I’m gonna be the best and be over, even if I don’t wrestle’ and that’s what I did, right? And then that happens and then I got stuck in a contract again, because I didn’t know, I didn’t read my contract. I was just excited and I was so stuck in this Lucha Underground contract for a long time and I just did my thing because they didn’t care about me. They just care about the big guys who were bringing the big money. I wasn’t one of them. So I just kept working and ended up working in ROH, I worked WOW, I worked a bunch of other places and it was 2019 and I’m telling my husband, ‘We move here to Texas’ because we started running our shows in 2015 with Sabotage [Wrestling] and then we started another one, Mission Pro Wrestling and I was just telling my husband at that point, I was like, ‘I’m so sick and tired of going against the current. I know I’m good, I know I have it, I know I can do a bunch of stuff. I’m always putting people over, I’m always making people look good. That’s why they bring me, I totally understand but nobody gives me a chance, nobody believes in me. I’m so sick and tired of this. What do I need to do to be taken serious? Do I have to get naked? Do I have to do this? I’m not gonna –’ it’s like what the f*ck? I am not gonna sleep with anybody to get an opportunity.
I’m just not, I refuse to do that and I remember just struggling that summer and just the idea of doing MMA came to me and I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll just do MMA. This wrestling thing is not happening. I gotta find something else to ignite my passion for what I’m doing’ and I started training MMA, Jiu-Jitsu, all Martial Arts then I ended up getting — signing a contract and at the same time, that’s at the moment when I was like, ‘Maybe I just need to get a job and forget about this silliness,’ right? And I contacted one of my friends that was a referee and I was like, ‘Hey, is WWE looking for somebody? Because I need a job. I need to feed my family.’ My husband works a regular job and we’re fine but I’m just so sick and tired of doing this and WWE reached out to me and they’re like, ‘Are you ready to hang up your boots?’ I remember having that conversation with Canyon [Ceman] and I’m like, ‘I need a job so what’s up? What’s the deal?’ And then they gave me the scoop, how much they were gonna pay me and my husband says, ‘You’re absolutely nuts! You’re not doing that sh*t! I don’t care’ and I was like, ‘No babe, we need a job. I’m so sick and tired.’ He was like, ‘No dude, you’re better than this Melissa. You trained for six months, get into a fight for MMA. You’re gonna toss that away? You’ve done everything on your own, you’ve done everything at your own pace’ and they send me my ticket, they send me all the paperwork. I did all stuff that I needed to do and then a hurricane happened, my flight got delayed and then it got cancelled and then I signed my MMA contract and then the next day, NWA, David Lagana calls me, he’s like, ‘We have something for you. Are you ready to change your life?’ Because he’s been talking to me for a year, telling me to be patient and I’m like, ‘Ah, be patient. What does that even mean in wrestling?’ And I signed that contract with NWA and things changed. He was the one who believed fully in what I was capable of. In six months, I became the NWA Women’s Champ.
Rosa was present on AEW TV on January 5th. She brawled with Mercedes Martinez as Martinez attempted to get involved in the TBS Championship tournament final between Ruby Soho and newly crowned champion Jade Cargill.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Oral Sessions with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
