Shawn Michaels says he has nothing but good things to say about working with Mandy Rose during her time in NXT.
Mandy Rose was fired by WWE in December due to posting risqué content on her FanTime page, and it led to NXT crowning a new Women’s Champion. During his NXT Vengeance Day media call, Shawn Michaels was asked about how Mandy Rose’s departure affected the creative plans for NXT.
Michaels clarified that he didn’t have a hand in her dismissal and enjoyed having her on the brand, but noted that the plan was always to build towards Roxanne Perez as champion.
“Well look, not the ideal situation. I will say — I guess if I’m allowed to say it for the record — I didn’t fire her. I can’t fire her, I can’t fire anyone. The only thing correct about that is I handle creative. But no, look, it was unfortunate obviously. I think Mandy was fantastic for us, I absolutely enjoyed working with her. She was a phenomenal champion. We would have loved for things to have gone differently and build our story with Roxanne, but I was put in a position where I had to make a call creatively and so we did it.
It’s one of the things that I’ve learned doing this job is that nothing comes before the brand and we have to put those things forward. Roxanne is certainly where we were going regardless, we just went there a few weeks earlier than expected. The great thing is now we’re right back on course and I will say I think the world of Mandy Rose. She was nothing but phenomenal with us. We’ll miss her, but we are thrilled about Roxanne Here being the NXT Women’s Champion and taking us into the future.”
Read More: Mandy Rose: I’m The Only One Watching Out For Myself And My Career
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