The road to WrestleMania 35 was full of twists and turns, and according to one former WWE writer, the company originally had very different plans for its women’s title matches and planned for Mandy Rose to have a WrestleMania moment.
Prior to Survivor Series in 2018, it was planned that SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch would face off against Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey. However, when Lynch suffered an injury at the hands of Nia Jax during an invasion segment on Raw, it was determined that Charlotte Flair would face off against Rousey instead.
Lynch lost her championship to Asuka at TLC the following month, only to win the Royal Rumble in January and find herself in title contention once again. While it seemed that two women’s title matches were on the horizon at WrestleMania 35, fans were shocked when Charlotte Flair defeated Asuka on a March episode of SmackDown, less than two weeks ahead of the blockbuster event.
The main event of the show was then changed to a triple threat match between Flair, Lynch, and Ronda Rousey, and in the end, Becky Two Belts was born when Lynch captured Raw and SmackDown gold.
Mandy Rose Was Planned To Win The SmackDown Women’s Championship In A Triple Threat Match
Former WWE writer Dave Schilling took to social media to live tweet WrestleMania 35, a show produced during his tenure with the sports entertainment giant. In the middle of his thread, he revealed that the original plans for the SmackDown Women’s Title would have seen Asuka defend against then-partners Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville.
FYI the SmackDown women’s title match at WrestleMania was supposed to be Mandy Rose vs Sonya Deville vs. Asuka.
In a later tweet, he revealed that Mandy Rose was slated to be the winner of that match. He also noted that Becky Lynch’s use of the phrase “Becky Two Belts” was an improvised line and one that could have gotten The Man in trouble as the word “belt” was banned at the time.
“Becky Two Belts” was an adlib. The word “belt” was not allowed then, so I assumed Becky would get in trouble. Instead, they sold t-shirts.
The SmackDown women’s title was supposed to be won by Mandy Rose at this WrestleMania. Instead, we got this famous main event. At no point did Nia Jax figure into this title match. Nor did I ever see her again after this night. Hope she’s doing well.
The SmackDown women’s title was supposed to be won by Mandy Rose at this WrestleMania. Instead, we got this famous main event.
At no point did Nia Jax figure into this title match. Nor did I ever see her again after this night. Hope she’s doing well. pic.twitter.com/5USDUEZaQu
— Dave Schilling (@dave_schilling) March 16, 2023
While Mandy never went on to have her WrestleMania moment, she did reign supreme over NXT for more than a year. Her 413 day NXT Women’s Championship reign ended at the hands of Roxanne Perez in December of 2022, and the next day, she was shockingly released from WWE due to the company taking issue with content posted on her exclusive subscription website.
It was later reported that Rose’s foray into the world of exclusive content was a lucrative one, earning the star over $1 million in December of 2022 alone.