Thunder Rosa Says Brock Lesnar Segment Made Fun Of Her Culture
New AEW Women's World Champion Thunder Rosa joined NBC Sports Boston's Ten Count to talk about winning the AEW Women's World Championship from Dr. Britt Baker DMD this past Wednesday on AEW Dynamite.
More to the point, Thunder Rosa also talked about what she wanted to achieve as AEW Women's Champion.
"Fighting Champion, if possible," Rosa said. "I mean, when I defended the NWA Women's Title during COVID times, I was defending. I think it is very important to bring something different to the table, and me as Thunder Rosa, I can't stay still. I would love to do that. I would love to, if it's a possibility, to take it to Japan, defend it in Japan. If there's another possibility to go to my homeland, Mexico, I would love to defend it in Mexico.
"I think it will be really awesome. I've said it before, Kenny Omega was able to do that. I think there is a time for us to, as women, to be able to do something like that, you know? Be a fighting a champion, that will be my dream, honestly. I always dream to bring, especially this title, the AEW Women's Title to many different places where they haven't been seen."
Thunder Rosa's match with Britt Baker has received a polarizing response from fans since this past Wednesday, and she was asked about the response to both the match and her mariachi entrance. Rosa believes a lot of the responses are from people who have been programmed to react a certain way to pro wrestling over the past few decades.
"Everybody's going to criticize no matter what," Rosa said. "Even on Wednesday, people were criticizing. 'Why are you guys, why? It's so much blood. Why is it so much, why are you so violent? Why is this? Why is that?' It's like, people are programmed a certain way and they have been programmed for professional wrestling for decades to be a certain way because of how things have been handled before.
"I can tell you, I read about me bringing the Mariachi and I remember Brock Lesnar making fun of Eddie Guerrero with that. And that hurts because they were making fun of my culture before. And on Wednesday, I represented our culture properly; with honor and with respect. Because people were, 'oh, Mariachi, fun. Like, let's make fun of Mexicans.'
"It's the same with women. People used to make fun of us all the time. We used to be the popcorn match all the time because that was how people have been programmed for so long. Not anymore. We're working really, really hard guys. You guys can criticize us all you want, but we're working really hard in every single company, I feel, because we're changing things little by little.
"And I tell you, by taking that to a next level, I run a women's promotion on purpose. So people can see we're not a popcorn match. Every single match is a banger, you know? And I have one exhibition match and that's a men's match on purpose, you know? So like I said, give us time, it's going to happen."
Thunder Rosa also talked about the path forward for the AEW Women's Division as a whole and how much work they've done to move forward, and how much work remains. She revealed as champion that she would be more outspoken in terms of what she'd like to see from the division going forward.
"I always said that there is work to do, right?" Rosa said. "I personally have taken that into another level. You know that I run Mission Pro Wrestling, so I always try to bring ideas or new talent to the table. A lot of the girls that have worked at AEW have worked in my promotion before. I think we're on the right path. Revolution, we had three women's matches instead of one, so that's a big deal. We main-evented on Wednesday. Yeah, people were complaining that we should have had five more minutes, but things are not going to be perfect all the time. It takes a while.
"And I think we are on the right path to do it and there's a lot more than one storyline right now, for women. And I don't think people are saying anything about that. I always thought that there are growing pains before things start working the way they should be working, right? But I think we all working very hard to sharpen our skills. That is in the ring, on our promos, on our presentation. So, like I said, as a champion, I will be a little bit more outspoken in terms of what we like to see, for all the ladies in the locker room."
To quote this article, please credit Ten Count and provide an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription