Mandy Rose (Amanda Saccomanno) appeared on Renee Paquette’s podcast “The Sessions” to discuss her WWE release and what the future may hold for her.
Rose recalls the day she handed the NXT Championship to Roxanne Perez:
“I went into work like a normal Tuesday for TV. I was told that the title match that was supposed to happen down the line, at Vengeance Day was when it was supposed to maybe happen, but that was all up in the air. That’s the only news I got as far as the future. It was said that we were going to actually do the match tonight. It was around like, two o’clock or something when I was told.”
“Right away, I had the inclination that something was up because everyone has treated me so great at NXT. I had a great relationship with Shawn Michaels, the writers, the producers, everyone. So I was never kept out of the loop either, you know, being a champion for 413 days. I was in the loop with everything. I didn’t really have many surprises like that. So it was very like, wait, did I do something? What’s going on? Obviously, I had some inclination because of what was going on on social media and what was going on the night before. It came from Shawn Michaels himself, so obviously I knew it was coming from the head of creative in that sense so I knew that I didn’t really have to go and try to seek other answers even though I wanted other answers. But at that moment, I had to do my job and get planning our match and everything else that we had to do that night.”
“It was weird. At that moment, I felt like I was focused. I always loved working with Roxanne. We had a good relationship. It actually went smooth the rest of the day. But in my mind, obviously, I didn’t sell it. I didn’t show it. I was like, this is so messed up, like, what is going on? I had multiple people coming up to me like, what is going on?”
What Roxanne thought while this was going on:
“I felt bad for Roxanne because she’s so amazing and I really do love her as a person. I feel like it is so exciting anytime you’re getting told you’re gonna win the title. It’s very exciting, but I just felt bad because I felt like it was rushed. It was rushed. There was no promotion leading up to it. She had just won the match being the number one contender, so we were going to build on that eventually, and it would be a really good feud in that sense. But I felt bad because it was just thrown on her. Her family would come to the shows. Her sister I’ve met and stuff. So she could have had her family there. So it was just really rushed and I just felt bad. But she handled it like a great professional woman that she is and we just got it done. Obviously, she was very happy and we had a great match.”
On going from the main roster to NXT:
“I thought this was an opportunity for me. I wasn’t really enjoying the spot I was in at the moment. So I was like, this is an opportunity to rebuild my character. I’ve always wanted to go darker with my hair, even though it’s a little bit lighter right now. It’s a little better for my skin tone. I just wanted to switch it up. I was getting tired of God’s Greatest Creation, the Golden Goddess, and I felt like it just needed a fresh coat of paint. At the same time, I was like, this is a good opportunity for me to practice all of my wrestling skills while also helping the young people down here too. That was the biggest part that I took home from it because it was awesome what I did. I’m very grateful and proud of what I did, but I’m very humbled because I think I also give back a lot to the women and men, and not just wrestling because we all know I’m not the greatest wrestler in the world.”
Her plans she besides Fan Time:
“There’s a few things. My skincare line, Amarose, just launched a few months ago. I’m excited for us to kind of branch out to other things, maybe some beauty products and whatnot. So that’s really cool. Then DaMandyz Donuts, obviously with Sonya DeVille. We’ve been trying to open up more locations that are available on Uber Eats. Right now we have one in Santa Monica. We want to have our own store one day.”
Returning to wrestling:
“I haven’t ruled it out for sure. It’s not like the boots are hung up and stuff. It’s not like that, but right now, it’s not like my main focus, but definitely for the future, maybe? We’ll see.”
You can check out the complete interview below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
