Former AEW Champion Almost Joined WWE As A Referee

By AG

Posted on April 24, 2023

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• Former AEW Champion Almost Joined WWE As A Referee

Former AEW Women’s World Champion Thunder Rosa almost gave up on her wrestling career and decided to take a job as a Referee in the WWE.

She told this story during an interview on Renee Paquette’s The Sessions podcast. You can read it below:

“This wrestling thing is not happening. I gotta find something else to ignite my passion for what I’m doing and I started training MMA, Jiu-Jitsu, all Martial Arts then I ended up getting — signing a contract and at the same time, that’s at the moment when I was like, ‘Maybe I just need to get a job and forget about this silliness,’ right?

And I contacted one of my friends that was a referee and I was like, ‘Hey, is WWE looking for somebody? Because I need a job. I need to feed my family.’ My husband works a regular job and we’re fine but I’m just so sick and tired of doing this and WWE reached out to me and they’re like, ‘Are you ready to hang up your boots?’

I remember having that conversation with Canyon [Ceman] and I’m like, ‘I need a job so what’s up? What’s the deal?’ And then they gave me the scoop, how much they were gonna pay me and my husband says, ‘You’re absolutely nuts! You’re not doing that sh*t! I don’t care’ and I was like, ‘No babe, we need a job. I’m so sick and tired.’

He was like, ‘No dude, you’re better than this, Melissa. You trained for six months, get into a fight for MMA. You’re gonna toss that away? You’ve done everything on your own, you’ve done everything at your own pace’.

I did all stuff that I needed to do and then a hurricane happened, my flight got delayed and then it got canceled and then I signed my MMA contract and then the next day, NWA, David Lagana calls me, he’s like, ‘We have something for you. Are you ready to change your life?’

Because he’s been talking to me for a year, telling me to be patient and I’m like, ‘Ah, be patient. What does that even mean in wrestling?’ And I signed that contract with NWA and things changed. He was the one who believed fully in what I was capable of. In 6 months, I became the NWA Women’s Champ.”

Also Read: Thunder Rosa Reveals Her New Role In AEW