Booker T weighs in on Mandy Rose being released by WWE.
On Wednesday, WWE released Mandy Rose one day after her 400+ day NXT Women's Championship reign ended at the hands of Roxanne Perez.
Rose was reportedly released due to the content she had been posting on her FanTime website.
Speaking on his Hall of Fame podcast, NXT announcer Booker T gave his thoughts on Rose's release.
"It's a bad situation, the company being put in a situation where they had to do something about it, Mandy Rose putting herself in a situation. 'Put yourself in a situation,' I say that all the time. That's real. You put yourself in a situation and something happens. That's exactly what happened here. I've been around Mandy Rose since the beginning, since Tough Enough. I watched her work so hard to win, she didn't win, but she impressed me to the point where I was like, 'Give her a contract, put her in the game.' Things didn't work out on the main roster, she went back to NXT and has been banging for the past 413 days as champion and created one of the most awesome runs for a female that we've seen in decades. She put herself in a great position to be looked at as a major superstar like Trish Stratus. People are going to remember Trish forever from WWE and what she's done in the ring. Trust me, Trish Stratus, now, is able to do all of that, OnlyFans or whatever else, and is going to be able to make more money from being a WWE Superstar for so many years. What I'm saying is, I hate it because that money was going to always be there for Mandy Rose. It was like money in the bank. She didn't even need it right now. It was money in the bank for Mandy Rose. I could be wrong, maybe she does need it right now. I don't know. What I'm saying is, the bigger her star would have risen in the WWE, the more money she would have been able to demand going forward in life. Out of sight, out of mind. Being on TV is so important to being relevant. These days, they say, 'We don't need TV, we can do our own thing,' of course you can, but your star is not going to shine as bright," he said.
When it was brought up to Booker that WWE would promote Mandy's sex appeal as part of her character, and that Booker would often make comments about her looks on commentary, Booker responded with an analogy.
"I've been around a long time. I'm going to throw an analogy out there that is the stupidest analogy in the world right now. I used to love Gilligan's Island just so I could watch Ginger Grant. She was the hottest, biscottiest you've ever seen back in the day and as sexual as you wanted to see a woman. If she was doing porn or exposing herself, do you think they would have had her on Gilligan's Island playing that role? It's a corporate thing. It has nothing to do with anything other than that. It's a corporate thing," he stated. "Hopefully, Mandy Rose can find her way back to WWE. Something like this can blow over, it's up to Mandy in order to make something like this right, more than anything. She's very sexual, but working for WWE, they go together in aspects, but in certain aspects, certain things you're not going to get away with."
Booker admitted he had not seen the content of Mandy's posts before addressing how WWE would capitalize on sex appeal in the Attitude Era.
"I think they would have had a problem with this even back in the Bra and Panties matches days if some girl just showed up in Playboy, birthday suit spread. It would probably be the same thing. They probably would have let that person go, that person would get a nice payoff from the Playboy spread. I'm not going to push that life for Mandy Rose. I know everyone wants to see Mandy Rose naked. She has the right to put her body or image out there any way she wants, but this is a young lady that has talent, so much more talent than just her beauty and how she looks. She's made a hell of a career for herself in the WWE over the last five years. I would hate to see her throw something like that away all into a world that is very dangerous to fall into. I'm wishing for Mandy Rose to make a return, someway, somehow, find her way back to WWE," he said.
When the idea of Mandy signing with AEW or another company was brought up, Booker closed with his thoughts on that potentially happening.
"I was one of the first ones that said AEW took Jeff Hardy immediately after he was having problems. They wanted to look past that. This right here is a problem more than anything. I don't think someone should just jump in and think about 'let's make some money off of Mandy Rose and her sex appeal,' and, let's put it out there, use her. I don't want Mandy Rose to be used by any of these other so-called wannabe promoters," he stated.
Booker wished Mandy well and said she could reach out to him at any time.
Following her release, Rose posted a message on her FanTime page, thanking fans for her support and saying that her page was still up. You can view her statement by clicking here.
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