Mandy Rose has taken WWE to task over a recent booking decision while addressing her lengthy run as NXT Women’s Champion.
Since returning to NXT in July 2021, Mandy Rose has completely reinvented herself. After her run on the main roster failed to yield any championship gold, Rose headed back to NXT and swiftly overhauled her character. Mandy Rose 2.0 also got herself a couplies of allies in the form of Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne. The trio were later dubbed Toxic Attraction.
The reinvention was completed at Halloween Havoc when the star defeated Raquel Gonzalez (Rodriguez) to claim the NXT Women’s Championship.
Since then Rose’s reign has lasted 270 days, while she’s seen off the likes of Dakota Kai, Cora Jade, Kay Lee Ray (Alba Fyre) and most recently Roxanne Perez.
Speaking during an appearance on the After The Bell podcast, Rose reflected on her year back with NXT. She admitted that she was taken aback initially by the decision to move her back to the brand, but felt it would lead to something good.
“I’m super grateful for everything that has come my way this past year, but I have to say in the beginning I was a little taken back, of course. I really didn’t know what the reasoning was – why I was going to go back to ‘NXT’ but I knew in the back of my head and the back of my mind that this is going to be something really good, and anything I’ve ever done in my past before wrestling, I’ve always kind of had the drive and put in the hard work to create whatever I wanted to create and it’s a blank slate, I can create whatever I want.”
Rose was also asked by host Corey Graves about her absence from SummerSlam, given her impressive title reign. The star was less than impressed with the decision.
“I don’t know, why isn’t it? I think it’s bullsh*t to be honest,” Rose said. “You look at my reign and I’ve been the most consistent champion this year.”
Looking ahead, the Toxic Attraction star said that while she’s enjoying her time in NXT 2.0, her sights are still set on a main roster return.
“100%. I am definitely enjoying my time in ‘NXT’, but at the end of the day, of course, I want to be back on ‘Raw’ and ‘SmackDown’ and I think I will be and I think people better show some respect and show what I’ve accomplished at this point and whether it’s defending my NXT Women’s Title or whether I’m back up there trying to get the ‘Raw’ Women’s Championship or the ‘SmackDown’ Women’s Championship.”
On the most recent episode of NXT 2.0, Rose found out the identity of her next challenger as Zoey Stark won a 20-Woma Battle Royal to book herself a shot against the champion.
H/t to Wrestling Inc for the transcription.