Chelsea Green Opens Up On WWE Rejections, Why Diversity Matters In Wrestling

WWE Women’s United States Champion Chelsea Green spoke with Click and Tell on a number of topics, including how competitive women’s wrestling is and making it to the company.

Green said, “Very. Very. I mean, think about how many NHL teams there are in the league and then how many players are on those NHL teams. We don’t have teams. It’s WWE. That’s it. When you grew up watching wrestling, you only wanted to go to WWE. That was the goal, right? That’s a pinnacle. So to be fighting all the girls in the world that ever wanted to be a wrestler for that one spot, but then also fighting all the girls that WWE wants. They’re picking, they’re going out and they’re seeking women or seeking talent. So, you know, especially look, I’m just a white Canadian straight girl. Like that’s not giving much, right? Like we want, we want diversity, right? In WWE, we want something special, we want a story, and for me, coming in as an independent wrestler from Canada whose background is just, I’m just British, I’m just a Caucasian British girl, that doesn’t lend to hiring me. That’s not giving something special. So I had to make sure that my story was special, that the journey it took to get there was special, or my character work in the ring was special. Someone else couldn’t bring that to the table. But I had to show that a lot.”

On making sure her gimmick stood out:

“I’ve had a lot of WWE tryouts where they’ve said, no, we’re not hiring that demographic and I totally respect that. Because when I’m watching wrestling, I don’t wanna just see 10 blonde white girls in the ring, right? We love Bianca because she brings something new to the table. We love Naomi because she was the second black woman of her time to be in NXT with Alicia Fox. She gives us something different. She comes to the table with something I could never come to the table with. We had a Chinese superstar, Xia Li. She’s no longer at WWE with us. How amazing is that for all the little girls and boys in China to see her out there bringing her Chinese culture and heritage to the ring? That’s special. The Brazilian girls that we have, we have like Taekwondo girls. We have like everything that’s really special for the people that are sitting, watching, thinking like, I don’t see myself in anyone in the ring. They can’t say that. They see everyone.”

You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.