Thunder Rosa isn't signed to AEW, but you wouldn't know that from her 20+ appearances since September of 2020.
Rosa is contracted to the National Wrestling Alliance through the end of the year. While they were on a year-long break, Rosa picked up work and became a prominently featured performer in All Elite Wrestling. As she tells Fightful, she's received a lot of help when heading to Jacksonville to do AEW tapings.
"I just want to say that the whole entire AEW staff / family, they’re absolutely amazing. I don’t want to be specific to what person, but everything that I’ve done so far has been taken very positively. It’s a dream of mine, and I even when tell my husband who gave me feedback he gets kind of jealous, ‘cause Arn (Anderson) and Dean—I love talking to Dean (Malenko), he’s so funny—and one other person that has been there and believed in me day one was Dustin Rhodes. Dustin is such a true leader. He’s absolutely amazing. He believes in me. He’s a wonderful coach. I had a wonderful conversation with Kenny Omega. Pretty much everybody, honestly. It’s just a reassurance that what I’m doing currently, it’s right and I just need to tune in certain things to become a better performer and a better wrestler. Sean, you’ve known me for a minute now, I don’t stop. Like I said, I want to be the best, most successful of Mexican born wrestler in the history of professional wrestling and I think every year I’m making it happen," Rosa said.
Thunder Rosa wasn't short on television experience, but considering the fact that she was the NWA World Women's Champion at the time, she wasn't expecting to get the call to come into AEW. Her husband had some unique words of support when she got the news.
"I was in Corpus Christi taking a vacation with my husband, and it was cut short. ‘Aw, dang.’ We were just drinking our water. It was so hot. I remember my husband, we had the conversation, I was shaking and he’s like, ‘Don’t fuck this up, okay?’ I was like, ‘Damns, man. Thanks for the support.’ No, it was like, he’s giving me the 8 Mile, Eminem song. ‘It’s the only shot you got. You only got one shot.’ You only got one shot. So, he said, ‘If you shit the bed, they’re not gonna call you back. But, you go out there and you make sure you show them all the things that you’ve been preaching to everybody and you’ll be fine. But, don’t doubt yourself. You know you’re a badass bitch and you’ve always been a badass bitch.’ So, he gave me a pat on the back and he’s like, ‘Go out there and kill it. I’ll be there watching.’ Every time I’m doubting myself, I call him and I say, ‘I just need a pep talk. I don’t want to talk about this match. I just need a pep talk. Just call me. Tell me something I don’t want to hear.’ Then he reminds me that I have a lot of balls to go out and do a lot of things that nobody else will give me two cents about it, that I have what it takes to achieve and accomplish anything in life. This is something we talked about since he knew me when I was 19. He told me the same thing about college. He said, ‘You are very smart. You are very talented. You need to get out of this area and achieve something nobody else will.’ He gives me the same speech and recently he gave me that speech again and I was in tears because I was doubting myself again and he just reminded me how much of a badass person that I am, fearless I have become and I should not be afraid of taking risks in life anymore because I will come triumphant no matter what," recalled Rosa.
After nearly a dozen wins in AEW, it looks like that ended up happening.
You can see our full interview at the top of the page. Rosa can be seen on NWA Powerrr weekly on Fite, and AEW Dynamite Wednesdays at 8 PM EST on TNT.
