Exclusive: AEW's Thunder Rosa on being a travelling champion
Thunder Rosa captured the AEW Women's Championship from Britt Baker back in March, culminating in a long feud between the pair that started over a year prior.
Now, Rosa is making her mark as the AEW Women's Champion by proving she is not just a fighting champion, but a travelling one too.
On tonight's AEW Dynamite (July 27) Rosa will defend her title against Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling's Miyu Yamashita, who managed to defeat Rosa in a non-title match at TJPW's Summer Sun Princess show in Japan.
Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy ahead of Dynamite, Rosa explained what fans who are unfamiliar with Yamashita can expect from tonight's match.
"She's one of the most talented women I've been in the ring with," Rosa said. "She's magic, she's just this firecracker. You can see her being quiet and like, cute, but there's nothing cute and quiet about her.
"She's very methodical and I love her style. It's different, it's very in your face. She's very good, very technical, and I thoroughly enjoy wrestling her and this one – I know because of what we did last time – is going to be excellent."
AEW has a working relationship with TJPW and Rosa believes their partnership is a great asset for the women's division.
"[The TJPW relationship] is important for the women's division because they bring another style of wrestling that you don't necessarily get here," Rosa said.
"The psychology is different, the way they do things is different. For me, selfishly, it's really good because I love working Joshi style. That's how I was brought up pretty much, with the Joshi style, so I'm pretty acquainted with it. So I enjoy it and I hope that we continue with this relationship in the future."
Now that she's brought the AEW Women's Championship to Japan, Rosa is ready to take it all over the world, including to her home country of Mexico where she was recently called out by the former Franky Monet in WWE, Taya Valkyrie at AAA's Triplemania XXX.
So is Rosa vs Valkyrie happening soon? "If you don't believe me, just watch what's gonna happen!" Rosa said.
"It's something that's been in the making for many years. [Valkyrie] was one of the first women that I worked on a TV show, in Lucha Underground, seven years ago."
"Everyone wants a piece of me," Rosa continued. "It's just nice to see I'm on everybody's mouth, everybody, Taya, people from AEW, people from other places. I'm on dirt sheets, regardless of if they think I say stupid stuff, I'm on everyone's mouth.
"So she's gonna get it if she wants it. If anybody wants it and they're calling me out and I feel that it's worth my time, then yes, you can get it."
The AEW women's division has long been under a microscope and as champion, Rosa has had to hear criticisms, but she's proud to be able to put her own mark on the championship and do things her way, by going international.
"I'm doing my best to be a good champion," Rosa said. "Now that I'm able to travel the world and hold the title as I'm doing it, it's very important.
"I don't think it has been done in the women's division in All Elite Wrestling, so it is important and it is different, and when things are different people are like, 'I'm not sure about this, I don't understand it'.
"So it could be criticised but I'm used to it at this point."
Catch AEW Dynamite live every Thursday at 1am in the UK and Rampage every Saturday at 3am on FITE with an AEW Plus subscription. US customers can also watch Dynamite live on TBS and Rampage live on TNT. In the UK, Dynamite repeats air on ITV4.
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