On December 13th 2022, Mandy Rose lost her NXT Women’s Championship on that nights episode of NXT. She lost to belt to Roxanne Perez, who ended her reign at 413 days and solidified her as one of the greatest NXT Women’s Champions of all time, alongside the likes of Asuka, Sasha Banks and Bayley. She looked ready to return to the main roster as the leader of Toxic Attraction and was set to make a huge impact on the WWE women’s division.
One day later, on December 14th 2022, Mandy Rose was fired by WWE. Her release came out of nowhere, given the fact that she had been a champion less than 24 hours before her release and was the most heavily featured woman on all of NXT. Destined for future stardom, fans of Rose could only help but wonder what went on behind the scenes to cause her WWE career to come to an abrupt end.
The news surrounding her release was broken by Fightful Select in the afternoon. As of the time of writing, the release has not been announced by the WWE, with the top story on their website being her losing the title belt to the new champion Roxanne Perez. However, Fightful are known to be reliable, previously breaking huge news like CM Punk‘s AEW debut, so we can trust their report about Mandy Rose being fired by WWE.
Mandy Rose did not have the usual journey into WWE. She was signed up to the 2016 edition of WWE’s reality show Tough Enough. She finished in second place behind the late Sarah Lee, but was signed to a WWE deal almost immediately and reported to the WWE Performance Centre for training, despite her lack of experience prior to appearing on the show. She competed on NXT for a couple of years before moving to the main roster as a member of Absolution, alongside Paige and Sonya Deville.
After Paige’s retirement, she stuck with Sonya Deville as the team “Fire and Desire”. They would later feud, with Rose’s partner Otis and Dolph Ziggler also involved in the rivalry. Mandy Rose and Otis were one fot he most popular partnerships WWE had in years and were fan-favourites during their time together in the company.
She moved to NXT in 2021 as the leader of her won new faction – Toxic Attraction. Leading young stars Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne, the trio won all the gold available to them in the promotion. Mandy Rose won the NXT Championship, whole Dolin and Jayne held the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships. Rose’s reign lasted 413 days.
But with such a brilliant success story and a legendary reign in NXT, why did WWE fire Mandy Rose?
Why Was Mandy Rose Fired By WWE?
WWE fired Mandy Rose due to her selling “risqué” photos and videos on FanTime, an OnlyFans style website used by the former NXT Women’s Champion. Rose has been selling various videos and photos of herself in various levels of undress for a number of months, although only recently has the full extent of her page come to light.
Over the past weekend, videos have been leaked from her account by a paying member of her page. The various videos have gotten more risqué over the months, starting off as simple modelling photos, progressing to fully nude shoots and “softcore p*rn” equivalents, according to one user.
The reason behind her release was reported by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select. They reported that Rose had put WWE in a tough position, with their family-friendly nature over the past two decades being incompatible with the photos and videos making their rounds online. Long gone are the days of WWE Superstars, like Chyna or Maria, posing nude for Playboy or the like.
“Fightful has learned that WWE felt they were put in a position where they needed to release her due to what they considered the explicit nature of the content on her FanTime page. They considered this to be outside the parameters of her WWE contract.”
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) December 14, 2022Fightful Select has learned that Mandy Rose has been released by WWE.
WWE officials felt they were put in a tough position based on the content she was posting on her FanTime page. They felt like it was outside of the parameters of her WWE deal. pic.twitter.com/RZSiQ53XPf
Mandy Rose likely has a 90 day no-compete clause following her release. This means that WWE will pay her full salary for the next 90 days, ensuring she will not be able to compete for any other promotions in the meantime.
The likely destination for Mandy Rose to go to next is AEW. The women’s division has been slowly building up over the last few years, with a number of former WWE talent making their way to Tony Khan’s promotion. If signed, Rose would join the likes of Saraya (Paige, her former manager in Absolution), Toni Storm and Ruby Soho and would be a great addition to the AEW Women’s Division.
Do you think WWE should have fired Mandy Rose for posting those explicit photos and videos online? Let us know in comments what you think, or click below to read about all the WWE wrestlers released in the past year.
