Mandy Rose isn’t spending her post-WWE life looking back in anger. Nearly four years after her run with the company ended, she says she’s at peace with what happened — and she believes things worked out pretty damn well for her.
During TMZ’s Inside the Ring, Rose was asked whether she’s intentionally trying to separate herself from her WWE career now that she’s entered an entirely different stage of her life. Rose said she actually embraces her wrestling past. She then addressed the circumstances surrounding the end of her WWE run and made it clear she isn’t carrying around resentment.
“I feel like I embrace it and I’m always kind of like, you know, the main the big question people ask is like, will you ever go back and I always just say like never say never and I’m I’m never bitter.”
“I’m never upset about what had happened and what had gone down and the whole situation because I just look at it like, you know, I I love my life right now. I’m I’m married. I’m a mom.”
Rose pointed to the freedom she now has outside WWE, including the ability to control her own schedule and finances. Then she dropped the line that probably best sums up how she views everything that happened.
“I’m able to have the financial freedom and um independence and just be able to do what I want when I want and I don’t need to do anything which is really amazing.”
“And also, you know, they made their decision and you know, I made mine pay off.”
That decision came in December 2022, when WWE released Mandy Rose from her contract just one day after she lost the NXT Women’s Championship to Roxanne Perez. Rose had held the title for 413 days and had become the centerpiece of the NXT women’s division alongside Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne in Toxic Attraction.
The timing made the exit even more jarring. Rose’s championship match against Perez had originally been planned for NXT New Year’s Evil, but the title change was moved up as part of the last-minute decision surrounding her departure. WWE officials were said to have felt that content Rose was posting through her premium subscription platform fell outside the parameters of her contract.
Rose was also said to have been caught off guard by the firing. Despite how suddenly everything ended, the situation was never necessarily viewed as a permanent banishment. At the time, WWE had not closed the door on Mandy Rose potentially returning to the company down the road.
Instead, Rose went all-in on the business that had become a major part of the controversy surrounding her WWE exit. She has since spoken extensively about the financial success she found through subscription content, and during this interview made it clear that she now enjoys a level of financial independence that allows her to choose what she does next. That doesn’t mean Rose has forgotten what WWE did for her career. She went out of her way to credit the company for giving her a massive platform and helping her build the audience she continues to monetize today.
“I don’t like to even talk bad about it, right? because or bad about them because I’m super grateful for everything that the company gave me and and the platform it presented itself with and the following that I that I you know um that I got from WWE.”
Rose acknowledged that her WWE following became an important part of the business she built afterward.
“I wouldn’t be here today and I wouldn’t be able to you know selfmonetize as much with this incredible fan base that I have. So, I’m super grateful and it just you know it is what it is.”
Rose clearly isn’t trying to rewrite her WWE history or pretend that chapter never happened. She lost a 413-day title reign and her job within a matter of hours, then turned around and built a life where she says she no longer needs WWE financially. Nearly four years later, there doesn’t seem to be much bitterness left — but that “they made their decision and I made mine pay off” line shows she definitely hasn’t forgotten how it all went down.
Do you think Mandy Rose ultimately came out ahead after her WWE release, or is there still unfinished business between Rose and the company? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
