Thunder Rosa has come a long way.
Very early in her career, she was thrown into the fire without much experience, landing on television with Lucha Underground. Now, she's having main event matches that are lauded as being the best of the year. When looking back, Thunder Rosa tells us that she doesn't like her Lucha Underground performances.
"I cringe, I cringe, I cringe. I’m just so, like, not confident. I think it was because I was still developing the character and when you’re developing a character that is not you, as you can see—even -1 asked me right now, ‘Thunder Rosa, why do you always have the face paint on?’ I was like, ‘Cause I live the gimmick, brother.’ So, I wasn’t living the gimmick with the mask. It was very challenging, like everything. Learning a new language is lucha libre, learning a new style of wrestling, talking to all these veterans and not feeling like I belong there because I was so young and so green. It was culture shock. Completely. Which, I had to learn real quick that the reason I was there was because I had the ‘it’ factor and someone saw it and I have to accept that. So, when I did that I started getting more comfortable and Kobra Moon actually got over, especially with the storyline that I have," said Rosa.
These days, Rosa is helping mold young minds at MIssion Pro Wrestling as well, helping book female talent from the ground up. She hasn't lost sight of those who saw something in her early on. She specifically named one in Lucha Underground -- the former Big Dick Johnson.
"Chris Dejoseph. He saw me, he came and talked to me and then we had a conversation. He said, ‘You just have that ‘it’ factor. I cannot pinpoint it right now, but if nobody believes in you, I do believe in you.’ I was like, ‘Oh, okay.’ Then from there it was on. I love being in front of the cameras. I love acting. I love the fact that I was able to do English and Spanish. I was one of the very few that could do that. For me, it was to adapt or die and I had to adapt to my environment, and that’s what I did," Rosa said.
You can see our full interview with Thunder Rosa at the top of the page. You can also check out Mission Pro Wrestling at this link.