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AEW‘s Thunder Rosa‘s 2022 saw her suffer a back injury that sidelined her for more than a year, and she called this period the worst year of her life.
Speaking on AEW Unrestricted, Rosa detailed what she called “probably the worst year” of her life. (H/t Fightful for the transcription)
“That was probably the worst year of my life, period, especially physically, mentally,” said Rosa. “Just imagine, you can run, you can jump, and they just cut your legs, you can’t do that. Had to learn how to walk, had to learn how to run again, had to learn how to do a bunch of stuff again. I’m going to the extreme, but this is how it feels, when they take something that you identify yourself with for so long, and they just take it away, and they’re like, ‘No, you can’t have it, you gotta to earn it again.’
“So it was very rough, and it was very mentally rough. I spoke about this very openly, I had suicidal thoughts for a long time because with all the layers I had, not only the injury, it was like, I don’t feel like, certain people didn’t give me the chance, and some of the fans just turned on me, and the comments they were making, they were awful, awful.”
Thunder Rosa On Her Struggles
Rosa also detailed the mental anguish she dealt with, as she noted that fans turned on her. She explained how this chapter of her life broke her spirit, but she fought through it.
“Like, ‘Go kill yourself. You don’t want to put the people over.’ It hurt so bad that at times, I couldn’t deal with it,” Rosa said. “I just couldn’t. I wanted to defend this title, I wanted to give my best, but I physically couldn’t do it. It just ate me. But I utilized the resources, I got physically stronger, I stopped having pain, which allowed me to exercise, which allowed me to get back in the ring, so little by little, I started gaining my confidence back, and I think that was the one thing,
“I allowed people to take my confidence away from me. So this injury really broke my spirit, and everything that came with the injury, but I fought through it, I have a very strong team that was with me. They were there for me, and a lot of my very close friends, they helped me tremendously.”
Thunder Rosa On Coming Back Stronger
Rosa went on to explain how she persevered through these struggles and how she came back with a different perspective.
“At the time, I had a really good therapist who helped me with a lot of the issues that I was dealing with because it wasn’t only, ‘I want to get back.’ It was all this ideas and things. They broke how Thunder Rosa was,” she said. “I had control of everything, and everything just fell apart, and I had control of nothing. So I had to let it roll and let it happen. When I was [doing] commentary, there was times I was having panic attacks because it was just so hard that I couldn’t be in the ring. It was hard, but I endured.
“I was like, ‘Fuck it, I’m gonna come stronger and nothing is gonna faze me anymore.’ Commentary helped me so much to really see professional wrestling in a different way, and also broadcasting, that gave me the strength and a voice. Ever since then, it’s just been. I enjoy, and I am blessed every time I step in the ring because I never know when this is gonna be taken away. It’s a blessing.”
RELATED: Thunder Rosa: My Confidence Is Coming Back, That’s So Important For Any Performer
