Check out the below interview, done by Anthony Neylon for Soundsphere x GAHY! where Rosa discusses her current AEW injury, and the work she does with young people.
We started by asking Thunder Rosa about having to (temporarily) relinquish her AEW World Women’s Championship and how she’s doing. She told us, ‘I’m feeling better, it’s going to take a little while, but I’m feeling positive because I get a chance to really think about my future and reflect on the past, to see what worked and what didn’t work. I now have this time now to think and rebuild.’
Rosa worked as a social worker helping young people before her career in wrestling took off in a big way. We asked her about that experience and how it informs her today.
‘It gave me a different perspective about life and the opportunities I have. A lot of these kids were born in a situation where they had no control and were victims of their circumstances. So, for me, jumping from being a social worker to a wrestler, when I was leaving my old job, receiving the letters from the kids (showed me) how hopeful they were that I was going to achieve because I did it for them.’
‘I’m reflecting on everything that’s happened in the past couple of years and I can tell you, regardless of the hardships, even with the situation that I’m in right now with my injury, I’m blessed.’
Thunder Rosa at AEW’s Fight for the Fallen event.
Rosa then told us about the difficulties adjusting to her injury and that she recently took a break from social media.
‘When you get the news that you’re not going to be able to do something that if your life, that gives you so much uncertainty. But receiving some of the messages from fans that have been following me from before I was a wrestler telling me that they believe in me, that I’m going to come back stronger and that I have inspired them is incredible.’
‘I still see myself as the girl from Tijuana that grew up in a small house, I still see myself as that girl. Knowing that people are researching my name and seeing who I am, it’s magical.’
Speaking in relation to AEW’s 2022 All Out pay-per-view, Thunder Rose reflected on the previous event from 2021 and how it was a game-changer for her.
‘All Out (2021) was the biggest opportunity of my career. I had doubts in my mind, and I had to call a couple of people just for them to remind me why I was there.’
We asked Rosa about her decision to leave a steady job, and one she enjoyed, to pursue becoming a full-time professional wrestler.
She said, ‘I was renting and living in a dining room with my husband when he said, “I think it’s time for you to focus on wrestling, I think you can make it.” So I jumped in, that’s what I did.’
Rosa talked about her support network and how this helped her succeed. She said, ‘Having such a supportive group of people right behind me was very important, but you also have to sacrifice everything to get what you want.’
Thunder Rosa considered becoming a referee when she went through a ‘dry spell’ when it came to bookings and needed more work. However, when a cancelled flight resulted in her not being able to attend her first show as a ref, Rosa turned her attention to MMA.
‘I was already training for it, I already had my mind set upon becoming a professional fighter.’ But after a conversation with her husband, Rosa decided to not give up on her dream of becoming a full time pro-wrestler.
Thunder Rosa took part in AEW and NJPW’s joint Forbidden Door pay-per-view.
We were keen to talk to Thunder Rosa about Mission Pro Wrestling an all woman wrestling promotion which aims to give female wrestlers a platform who may not usually get to show off their grappling talents.
‘[Mission Pro Wrestling] just took off, it has the premise of just giving a platform to women wrestlers that are not as popular, or haven’t had a chance to really thrive and do something in a place where they feel safe.’
‘There was a group of us during the Speaking Out movement who shared out stories with ourselves because we didn’t feel comfortable sharing them [elsewhere].’
‘We talked about certain people that came out and were like “did that happen to you?” “Yeh, that happened to me too, what about this guy?” There was a lot of that and I was like, why are we not running our things ourselves?’
She continued, ‘Why are we letting men decide what we can do? About how we wrestle and how we look? How about we do something like this? We were challenging the establishment a little bit, when was women able to run something like this and it feels so community based.’
‘We have our three-year anniversary show on September 17, 2022, and talked about how special it has been. A lot of the women that came to our shows one or two times then got signed by different places, and now they’re champions there, are travelling all over the world and its beautiful to see them grow.’
THANK YOU ALL FOR WATCHING TONIGHT!
If you LOVED #MPWHardDaysNight – GET TICKETS TO THE NEXT SHOW! #MPWWelcometotheJungle IS SEPTEMBER 17th!!!!
Tickets on sale at https://t.co/Bieu5i7szO! pic.twitter.com/4anzXXvuYN
— Mission Pro Wrestling (@MissionProWres) August 21, 2022
We reflected that Thunder Rosa has gone from a social worker to a wrestler, to a wrestler social worker and asked her how she felt about this observation.
Thunder Rosa told us, ‘I think there’s certain things that are meant for you and meant to happen in your life, it’s just about timing. For me, it was also about timing, it was when I happened to go to a wrestling show and fell in love and decided to challenge myself.’
She continued, ‘It’s like when you meet the love of your life, its timing. You happen to be at the gym or the beach and you lock eyes, and that’s it. It was the same with me and professional wrestling, it was timing.’
Watch the full interview with Thunder Rosa below:
