Despite criticism from wrestling traditionalists and legends since its debut last year, the Netflix series WWE Unreal has found a vocal supporter in Chelsea Green.
With Season Two set to premiere in the coming days, the former WWE Women’s United States Champion appeared in an interview with Denise Salcedo, where she addressed backlash over the show’s behind-the-scenes, “curtain-pulling” format. Green argued that offering an unscripted look at professional wrestling is not only inevitable—but necessary for the industry’s continued evolution.
To make her point, Green compared wrestling’s current moment to the rise of reality television in the previous decade.
“I just feel like wrestling is basically the longest soap opera known to mankind. Why would you not want to peel back the curtain and watch how the longest episodic television show is made? I don’t understand. Total Divas was one of the best shows on E! So, the proof is in the pudding, we do like when the curtain is pulled back, we do like an inside look.”
While acknowledging the instinct many have to protect the business, Green stressed that wrestling must adapt if it wants broader legitimacy within mainstream entertainment.
“I think it’s just this funny balance of people wanting to protect the business, but we’ve got to progress forward, and unscripted reality TV is progressing forward, pulling the curtain back is pressing forward. Showing, especially the entertainment industry that we belong, because I think we’ve been the black sheep.”
Green went on to explain how professional wrestling often finds itself excluded from both the sports world and Hollywood.
“Sports doesn’t want to claim us, you see that we’re not necessarily at the forefront of the Espys or things like that, right? We’re not really in Sports Illustrated all the time, and then Hollywood is like, ‘Yeah, you’re not a TV show, you’re not real actors, we’re not going to have you (be) a part of the SAG Union and things like that.’”
Ultimately, Green believes the exposure provided by a massive platform like Netflix outweighs any perceived downsides. In her view, WWE Unreal serves as a gateway for new audiences to discover WWE’s weekly programming.
“I personally think that moments like Unreal are what are going to push this industry forward and branch out into sports and into Hollywood in ways that we didn’t know it could. And also, we’re going to get new fans, it’s on Netflix, hello, new fans are going to watch this, and they’re going to tune in to Raw and SmackDown, PLEs and NXTs, and there’s nothing bad about that.”
WWE Unreal Season Two is scheduled to premiere on Netflix on January 20, 2026. The upcoming season is expected to spotlight several major storylines from the past year, including Seth Rollins’ fake injury angle leading into SummerSlam 2025, as well as R-Truth’s exit from—and eventual return to—the company.
As debate continues around WWE’s evolving presentation, Green’s comments underline a growing belief within the locker room: pulling back the curtain may be exactly what wrestling needs to move forward.
