After stepping down as AEW Women’s Championship away due to injury, Thunder Rosa has revealed the true extent of her injuries.
Speaking on the Athletes and the Arts Podcast, Thunder Rosa shed some light on life as a wrestler.
We don’t sleep, sometimes it’s weeks, I go three or four days with two, three hours of sleep. I own my own promotion outside of AEW, an all-women’s promotion, and I was running three shows a month sometimes … I was overseeing the women that are wrestlers, and I was training other women too. So, it was very grueling, and it was a lot of sacrifice.”
“Before I won my championship, I was hurt for the longest … One time, even doc was like ‘, You need to be taped if you’re going into the ring.’ I couldn’t feel my legs when I got out of the ring. But I have to get out there. I couldn’t let people down … So, I wrestled with my hips taped for about two months, because I didn’t get to rest, I was wrestling all the time. So, it was like, nonstop because of that drive that we have. I wanted to be the champion. I wanted to be the best. Wanted people to say that I did it, I wanted to say that I did it for myself.”
Transcribed by – Wrestling Inc
Thunder Rosa’s injury has led to her being dropped from All Out this Sunday, September 4th. In place of her match with Toni Storm, a fatal four-way match between Storm, Britt Baker, Hikaru Shida and Jamie Hayter will determine the AEW Interim Women’s Champion.
This interview sheds some light on the toll that wrestling takes on people. The term working hurt is nothing new to wrestling. Thunder Rosa isn’t the first champion to have worked with injuries; she certainly won’t be the last.
This sort of behavior, the desire to continue to work to the detriment of your health, is one of the toxic traits of work culture that also permeates wrestling. This notion of being honor bound to work yourself to breaking point. God forbid you to take some time off to look after yourself, any instance of which is dismissed as selfish, that “you’re not a team player” or “letting the side down”. While wrestling feels a million miles away from a typical working environment, the spectra of putting the needs of others over your own still exists. A factor that is made all the more dangerous in a profession where your body is on the line. Hopefully, one day this might change, but knowing how driven wrestlers are, the need to perform is a far greater desire than their personal wellbeing.
Those are some of my thoughts, but what do you think? Should wrestlers’ work hurt? Should wrestlers be putting themselves before the needs of the fans? Let us know what you think. We love hearing from you.