Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2023/02/07/mandy-rose-not-ruling-out-return-to-wrestling-agrees-itd-be-nice-to-reunite-with-either-saraya-or-dustin-rhodes-in-aew/
An in-ring return is something Mandy is not ruling out, but her focus is elsewhere.
It has been nearly two months since Mandy Rose wrapped up with WWE. The former NXT Women’s Champion was released from the company as a result of the content that was being posted onto her FanTime account.
Rose has gone on the record about her exit from the company on several occasions and she joined Renée Paquette on The Sessions podcast to further discuss her time at WWE and what the transition out of the company has been like.
Towards the conclusion of the conversation, Paquette mentioned the idea of reuniting Rose and Saraya in AEW and Rose agreed that it would be nice. She mentioned her past pairing with Dustin Rhodes as well. When it comes to competing again, it is not something Rose has ruled out but it’s not her primary focus.
Oh, that would be nice (to reunite with Saraya in AEW)… Oh yeah, oh my God (I could reunite with Dustin Rhodes too). I have a few little old schools that we could reunite.
I haven’t ruled it out for sure (coming back to wrestling). It’s not like the boots are hung up and stuff. It’s not like that but right now, it’s not my main focus but just right now, it’s not my main focus but definitely for the future maybe. We’ll see.
Looking back at her release, the night prior to receiving the phone call, Rose had been joking around that her release was coming. She was at Indi Hartwell’s house when she got the call. Rose said they became close friends and she’d be there often.
The next day, which I was anticipating with how everything went down (with me losing the NXT Women’s Title in the manner I did). I was making jokes about it actually the night before (being released from WWE)… It’s the only way (to get through it). I was literally making jokes about it and the girls were even like, ‘Oh my God, stop. You’re crazy.’ I’m like, ‘No. It’s not crazy.’ But, yeah, I got a call around, I don’t know, like 11 or something and you know that 203 number? (Rose laughed) When it comes in, it’s gonna be either really good or really bad. But it’s funny because obviously, I grew up in New York, I had some family in Connecticut. Like our cousin who’s down here right now who’s doing a lot of work at our house has a 203 number so every time I do get that, I’m like, ugh, whatever… I got that call and they said what they said. They had to release me because of the situation but I didn’t really get much info so that was kind of it and yeah, I was actually staying at Indi Hartwell’s house, Sam, because I stay there sometimes because we became really close and she was upstairs getting ready for TV because — I haven’t told anyone this story actually. But she was upstairs getting ready because we had to do a double taping that day and that’s why I stayed and I was like, ‘Indi!’ I was like, ‘I just got fired’ and she’s all the way upstairs, she’s like, ‘What!?’ She’s like, ‘Shut the f*ck up. No way,’ blah, blah, blah and I’m like, ‘No, I’m serious’ and you know, at first you’re just like, you kind of laugh a little bit because you don’t know if you wanna laugh or you wanna cry and it was like a gut punch but then I was like, well now I need to really think about this and handle this, whatever.
She reflected on her overall experience at NXT and discussed how she was able to get to the point she was at prior to her departure.
Mandy stated that it was a collaboration of individuals who helped her progress and at NXT, she felt she had a lot of freedom and more say with what she did on-screen.
It was definitely a collaboration (that helped me get to the peak of my time in NXT). Just a bunch of people were really great to work with because, I don’t know, I just felt like I had a lot of say in what I could do and I think it really clicked when it felt that I was so respected and I felt that I was, yeah, I am that b*tch. I deserve that, you know? So I felt that’s when my confidence rose to a whole new level because it was like, I got that respect. It’s hard in our business. When you’re not getting that positive reinforcement, sometimes (it messes with you)… And even if you are at the top or whatever and mentally it could mess with you so, I felt just so comfortable and so confident in how I was being treated and how it portrayed on TV and my character and everything so, yeah, it was awesome. I can’t complain. That was an awesome run and I had a lot of fun doing it.
Rose’s former group, Toxic Attraction (Gigi Dolin & Jacy Jayne) are scheduled to appear on the 2/7 NXT as a part of Bayley’s ‘Ding Dong, Hello’ segment.
Dolin and Jayne were unsuccessful in their respective attempts to become NXT Women’s Champion at Vengeance Day.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit The Sessions with Renée Paquette with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.