NXT women’s champion Mandy Rose was the latest guest on Insight With Chris Van Vilet, where the Blonde Bombshell gave her thoughts on her love triangle storyline with Otis that culminated at WrestleMania 36, and what advice she received from WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels, who Rose has been working with closely during her return to NXT. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
On the love-story angle with Otis:
That was such a fun, like, loving, entertaining story. And I think of the timing of it, like, you know, right during the pandemic, too. So, I feel like there was so much, you know, so much negativity going around, and just like, you know, people cooped up in their homes, and I felt like it was such a good story to just kind of like for, I don’t know, it was just pure entertainment. And it was fun. But for me, I just had a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun working with him. He’s obviously a character in and out in and out of the ring. And it was really cool to be able to have that kind of storyline where it was like, you know, we barely wrestled, it was more just like that was an entertaining [storyline]. Like, when they talked about sports entertainment, like that was pure entertainment I feel like. But it was fun. I had a lot of fun.
On working with Shawn Michaels in NXT:
Shawn Michaels is amazing and he’s great to work with. He has been nothing but amazing towards me and you know, Toxic Attraction, and you know, we all kind of it was a collaboration of Toxic Attraction. You know, when I first got there, it was like, oh, maybe you’ll team with these girls, they’re just gonna just about ready to be on TV. But, you know, we don’t really know exactly and it was Triple H that said this before he, you know, took a leave of absence, but he had said too like we’re not going to pigeonhole you either, you know, like, this might be something good, but we’ll see. Like, then that’s how we work, you know, nothing’s ever really set in stone, everything changes by the day. But yeah, so we just, we kind of all collaborated and, and I think Shawn and you know, our writer, Johnny Russo and coach Bloom, and like the people that were really behind Toxic Attraction and really, like, you know, had strong belief in making us successful. It worked. Because when you have the right people behind you, and you have those people that believe in you, they’re going to stand up for you, and they’re gonna put you hopefully put you in the right spot.