Former WWE Diva Rosa Mendes leaves her home on a chilly morning and begins her five-hour drive from Pittsburgh to Joppa, Md., a town about 20 miles outside of Baltimore.
Her destination is the MCW Pro Wrestling Training Center, a wrestling school that resides in a flea market complex. There, she spends four-plus hours participating in drills and taking bumps inside a wrestling ring along with 20-some students.
After the training session concludes, Mendes does her part in helping the students clean the facility, including mopping the floor. Tired and sore, she gets in her car and makes the drive back home, where she arrives in the wee hours of the morning.
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She spends the next day taking care of her 2-year-old daughter Jordan, and tending to her lifestyle brand, Totally Fit Mama, which offers healthy meal plans and at-home workouts for women. The following morning she’s off to Joppa for another evening of training. This has been her weekly routine for nearly two months.
It’s certainly not the glamorous life one might expect from someone who spent a decade as a performer in WWE and was a cast member of E’s “Total Divas” reality series, but it’s one Mendes has wholeheartedly embraced.
Mendes, who retired from WWE in February 2017 exactly one year after the birth of her daughter, is training for her return to the ring to prove something to wrestling fans as well as herself. Her first match in more than three years will take place on May 19 for MCW Pro Wrestling at a high school in Hampstead, Md.
Signed to a WWE developmental deal in 2006 after participating in the Diva Search, Mendes, a former model, is fully aware that she is regarded by many as the personification of pre-women’s revolution female performers in WWE, when women largely served as eye candy and often had limited in-ring skills.
“I want to make history as a woman that was known as just a pretty face and garnish to a fierce in-ring competitor, and I won’t stop until I make that happen,” said Mendes, who moved from Newport Beach, Calif., to Pittsburgh during her pregnancy to live closer to her then-fiance’s family.
Mendes, who titillated the WWE Universe with her exotic looks and sexy dance moves, mostly worked as a manager/valet in WWE, where she was associated with Primo and Epico, Fandango, Zack Ryder and Adam Rose, among others. She wrestled as well, but was used as a glorified enhancement talent.
In fact, she never won a match by pinfall or submission during her entire WWE run. Her lone victory in a singles match took place on “SmackDown” in February 2011, when she defeated Layla by disqualification due to outside interference. Mendes did win a Slammy award, however, for Best Use of Exercise Equipment in 2010.
Mendes, whose last match in WWE was at an April 2015 house show, is working with trainers at the MCW Pro Wrestling School not only to shed her ring rust, but also to build on the limited training she received in WWE developmental before being called up to the main roster in 2008.
“We had shows every day at [Ohio Valley Wrestling], which was great, but it limited training days,” she said. “I managed on the shows so I didn’t get a lot of in-ring training.”
Mendes eventually wants to wrestle on independent shows every weekend before hopefully landing a roster spot (as a wrestler, not a manager or valet) for a major wrestling promotion. She doesn’t see her age (38) as an issue.
“I feel like I look younger than I did five years ago,” she said. “People are shocked when I tell them my age, and I’m very proud of looking and feeling this good at 38. I’ve never been this strong and healthy, so I feel as though I should take advantage of this time in my life to fulfill my dream of becoming a strong competitor.”
Convincing both fans and wrestling promoters to take her seriously as an in-ring performer will be a challenge, especially considering how high the bar has been raised as far as the quality of women’s wrestling.
“I love the business so much, and I’m extremely passionate about it, but some of the fans don’t see that because they really haven’t seen me in the ring very much,” Mendes said. “But the real reason I’m doing this is for myself. I want to be proud of my in-ring ability. I want to know what it feels like to have an amazing match.”
Once Mendes made up her mind that she wanted to get back in the ring, she chose to train at the MCW Pro Wrestling Training Center — whose recent graduates include NXT stars Velveteen Dream and Lio Rush — despite the fact that it’s nearly 300 miles from her home.
“I had a signing at one of their shows [in February] and I was blown away by the matches,” she said. “Everyone was extremely professional. After the first class, I knew it was worth the drive, because the style of training was very similar to WWE. I’m really impressed with their coaching and I can see how they have made stars out of past students.
“The drills are challenging, but I love a challenge and I love being pushed. I love seeing how quickly my wind is improving. The coaches believe in me and they see how badly I want to be the best I can be.”
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MCW Pro Wrestling’s head trainer, R.J. Meyer, said Mendes certainly isn’t a diva in the derogatory sense.
“I was shocked by her work ethic,” said Meyer, a 20-year veteran of the independent wrestling circuit. “Seeing her on TV all those years, I thought she was going to be a prissy little girl who wasn’t going to put the work in, but she’s completely the opposite. She doesn’t want any special treatment, and she’s got more heart and is hungrier than some of the 20-year-old kids I’ve seen at the school. She’s really athletic, too, which helps her.”
Despite being a former WWE star, Mendes has fit right in with the students and has been extremely willing to offer them advice, especially when it comes to character development.
“She has a lot of knowledge from being [in WWE] and she’s willing to share that knowledge with the students,” Meyer said. “I can teach anybody how to bump and run the ropes, but getting your character down and understanding why and when you’re doing stuff, that’s the harder part to get.”
Being in New Orleans earlier this month for wrestling-related activities during WrestleMania week only further fueled Mendes’ desire to return to the ring.
“To be back amongst so many talented friends I had worked with since OVW and [Florida Championship Wrestling] made me so happy. It felt like old times,” she said. “I feel like if I hadn’t make my return to the ring recently, [being there] would’ve made me kind of sad. But now that I’m back in the ring, it gave me that extra reassurance that this is my life.
“Wrestling and the business is a huge part of what has molded me into the strong woman and mother I am today.”