WWE SmackDown Superstar Mandy Rose recently talked to Fox News. She discussed how fitness competitions led her to WWE, her favorite female icons, and how her ring name came to be.
Check out highlights below:
How she became a WWE star:
I was studying speech-language pathology at Iona College and I got my bachelor’s degree there. And then I was approached from a friend, actually, that was like, ‘You know, you should get into bodybuilding and fitness competitions.’ And I didn’t really know anything about that industry, but it kind of intrigued me a little bit. So I was like, ‘I’ll give it a shot.’ You know, I always was fit and loved to work out and play sports, but I didn’t really know, you know, anything about fitness competition. So I was training to do a show in Boston with WBFF [World, Beauty, Fitness & Fashion] and I did the show, I really didn’t know what I was doing, but I placed first, which is really cool. And from then on, I went on to WBFF Worlds and I became the 2014 Bikini World Champion, which then led me to WWE. So, it’s kind of crazy.
How her ring name came to be:
My real name is Amanda Rose Saccomanno, so a lot of people don’t know that, but Rose is kind of special in my family as my grandma’s name is Rosemary, my mom’s name is Mary Rose, I’m Amanda Rose, my niece is Demi Rose. So it kind of just keeps going in the family. But I was put on ‘Total Divas’ right when I got signed, so before I kind of stepped foot in the ring, I was on ‘Total Divas’ and I went by the name of Mandy, so […] we didn’t really want to change my name after that. It was like everyone knew me as Mandy and even from ‘Tough Enough,’ so we went with Mandy Rose.
Her female icons:
I would say, Serena Williams, I’ve always looked up to [her]. She’s just bad– and I mean, she just speaks volumes, obviously. And I mean, there’s just a lot of women out there that, you know, even like JLo […] she just, you know, looks better and better with age. And she’s just a huge influence to young girls that want to be out there in whatever industry it is. Music, entertainment, movies. So it’s just a great time.
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