While appearing on Real 92.3 LA, AEW’s Thunder Rosa revealed that when WWE offered her a referee position in 2019, the annual salary was $60,000. At the time, the constant financial instability of life on the independent circuit had left her exhausted and burned out. The steady paycheck was genuinely tempting, but delays with her tryout caused the opportunity to slip away quietly. Looking back, Rosa now believes it was fate, as not attending allowed her to stay in the ring and eventually rise to the top in AEW, where she captured the AEW Women’s World Championship.
“In 2019, they called me, and they were like, are you ready to hang up the boots? I needed money. I needed steady money because, brother, being an independent professional wrestler, when you’re talking about hustle, it’s a hustle. I had a job when I was in the Bay Area, but when I decided to do wrestling full-time, I was depending on my ex-husband and my hustle. I was hustling all the time, and I was tired. Like hustling after seven years, you’re like, man, I need a job or something. They offered me like $60,000 a year, which at the time, it was like, all right, it’s better than what I was making …There was a hurricane that happened, and then they just keep pushing my tryout and then it never happened, but it was meant to be that way.” – Thunder Rosa
39-year-old Melissa Cervantes, whose real name is Melissa Cervantes, made her professional wrestling debut in late 2014 after working in social care. She quickly made a name for herself on the independent scene, competing for promotions like Stardom in Japan and Lucha Underground. In 2019, she became the first Mexican-born woman to win the NWA World Women’s Championship, and thanks to Billy Corgan’s company having a working relationship with AEW at the time, it opened the door for her to work for both promotions simultaneously.
