Former WWE writer reveals Mandy Rose was supposed to win SmackDown Women's Title at WrestleMania 35

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Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2023/03/16/former-wwe-writer-reveals-mandy-rose-was-supposed-to-win-smackdown-womens-title-at-wrestlemania-35/

Notes about WrestleMania from Dave Schilling. 

From March of 2019 to late April of 2019, Dave Schilling was a member of WWE’s creative team. Through that stretch, he was able to be part of the build to WrestleMania 35. 

Schilling rewatched that year’s WrestleMania and shared notes from it via a thread on his personal Twitter page. One of the notes was that the original SmackDown Women’s Championship bout was supposed to be Asuka versus Mandy Rose versus Sonya Deville and Rose was going to win the belt. The SmackDown Women’s Title was a part of the double title main event with Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey. 

Other notes that Schilling shared was Brock Lesnar and Seth Rollins’ Universal Title match was supposed to be the semi-main event. Lesnar got the match switched to the opener so he could leave early. As a result, Finn Balor versus Bobby Lashley was pushed to that semi-main spot. 

There was a singles match between Shane McMahon and The Miz and up until the day of the show, the plan was for Miz to get the win. 

On the build to Samoa Joe versus Rey Mysterio for the United States Championship, Joe was going to stretcher Dominik Mysterio. WWE was able to get Dominik licensed in the state of Maryland so he’d be in the clear to take moves but Rey ended up getting hurt. 

In a production meeting, it was mentioned that fans were not enjoying the idea of Kurt Angle versus Baron Corbin. Vince McMahon laughed and said, “F*ck em”. 

Schilling went on to share an image of the words/phrases not to use and among those were: Ass, back and forth, belt, choke, crazy, feud, hate, hell, here we go, number one contender, strap, stupid, violence, revenge, national television and DQ. 

Alright, so I have never watched WrestleMania 35, because I was in catering all night, but I am going to live tweet it *right now*. I will have some thoughts. pic.twitter.com/oR86BaQOR2

— Dave Schilling (@dave_schilling) March 16, 2023

As of this writing, here is the match card for this year’s WrestleMania: 

Night One (April 1st)

– Logan Paul vs. Seth Rollins

Night Two (April 2nd)

– Undisputed WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns (c) (w/ Paul Heyman) vs. Cody Rhodes

Date TBA

– SmackDown Women’s Championship: Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Rhea Ripley
– Raw Women’s Championship: Bianca Belair (c) vs. Asuka
– Brock Lesnar vs. Omos (w/ MVP)
– WWE United States Championship: Austin Theory (c) vs. John Cena
– Trish Stratus, Lita & Becky Lynch vs. Damage CTRL (Bayley, IYO SKY & Dakota Kai)
– Hell in a Cell Match: Finn Balor vs. Edge

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Probably the right move, having both titles in the beck/Ronda/Charlotte match did make the match and the titles feel more important.

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Better moment, but having Becky drop one of the belts at the first opportunity cheapened it in hindsight.

I also remember not liking that they inserted Charlotte into the match so late in the game. But seeing how limited Ronda is, that probably saved the match in terms of bell-to-bell execution.

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100% agree with the first line. But I don’t look at the problem as both titles being on the line, I look at the problem as Vince making a bad booking decision afterwards.

I did want the 1 on 1 match as well, but since Charlotte was inserted into the match I preferred the match being for both titles opposed to a triple threat match for one title. I agree, it probably was a better match being a triple threat.

Having Ronda vs Becky for one title, and the the 2019 version of Mandy vs I assume Charlotte for the second title would make the SD title look like a secondary title (like the year Jack Swagger faced Alberto Del Rio for the SD men’s title). I hate it when world title matches feel like mid card matches. (this is not a counter point to anything you said, just me adding to my initial post).

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Totally. They could have 2 quality champs now. I think Seth or KO would make excellent champs but there isn’t enough quality around to challenge them as well. Mad considering how deep the roaster is.

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I agree. The roster is super deep, but there aren’t a lot of guys at a level (kayfabe wise, not skill wise) to be taken seriously in that role. I do love Roman as the double champ for now as his reign (pun inteded) has been great, but he has to loose the titles sooner then later and once he does I hope they get split somehow.

Maybe Cody wins, and then claims he doesnt want to take a second title hostage and gives us the SD title. Not sure the best way to get out it, but I dont want to see Cody just loose one like Becky did.