WrestleMania 35 saw a historic main event in which ‘The Man’ Becky Lynch would capture both the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Championships with a victory over ‘Rowdy’ Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair.
The event would mark the first time that women had headlined the WWE’s biggest show of the year and would provide a moment to inspire future generations of WWE fans.
One former WWE writer, however, has revealed that original plans for the show saw a different women’s triple threat match planned for the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship.
Former WWE Writer Reveals Scrapped WrestleMania 35 Lesbian Angle
During the pre-show of WrestleMania 35, Carmella was victorious in a Women’s Battle Royal that also included Asuka, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville. The latter three ladies may have been featured in an entirely different way according to one man in the know.
Former WWE writer Dave Schilling revealed on a recent edition of In The Weeds that the original plans for WrestleMania 35 saw Rose and Deville involved in a lesbian angle during a triple threat match with Asuka for the SmackDown Women’s Championship:
“On TV, the Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville storyline. That was supposed to culminate in a romance between Sonya and Mandy at WrestleMania 35 where it was a triple threat for the SmackDown Women’s Championship and Mandy was going to win because Sonya would lay down for her and they would embrace and kiss in the middle of the ring.
I said, ‘Oh boy.’ If you’re going to do this, I understand why it could be great because it’s a representation and it’s necessary. To WWE’s credit, they went to GLAAD. Stephanie McMahon was on the phone with them. ‘Can we do this? Can we make this palatable and sensitive to the situation with queer people in America? Can we make this a good angle?’
The thing that I said was, ‘At WrestleMania, 60,000 people are going to be rooting for Asuka, and they’re supposed to be the babyfaces? They’re going to be booed out of the building and you’re going to have two women kissing in the middle of the ring and people booing because they love Asuka so much.’
People do love Asuka and every time WWE thinks they can beat her and ‘who cares,’ they forget people have a positive, intense relationship with her, even when they try to make her a heel, they root for her.
Eventually, that storyline didn’t get done because they decided to put the belt on Charlotte. It could have turned out poorly even though the best intentions were there, and they did want to make a good storyline and Sonya and Mandy were involved and they were excited about doing it. At the end of the day, you have to do it right, and that would have been the wrong way to do it because you’re beating a babyface who people love, at WrestleMania, when there is so much complaint around how Asuka is losing.”
Mandy Rose would go on to be released by the company on 14th December 2022 after concerns about content the Superstar was releasing on a private subscription website. Rose’ Christmas would not be ruined, however, after it was revealed that she earned a staggering amount of money from the website in the month of December alone.
Thanks to Fightful for the above transcript