San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Thunder Rosa finds her voice outside ring
Melissa Cervantes left Mexico and moved in with her aunt and two cousins in National City, Calif., when she was still in the sixth grade.
Cervantes learned English, learned to hustle and, maybe most important of all, she learned to survive and adapt.
That hasn’t changed in the 25 years since. But now, the former All Elite Wrestling women’s champion, who wrestles under the name Thunder Rosa, might have also found her voice.
“Since I am an English as a second language learner, it’s been difficult sometimes pronouncing and developing my ideas, because in my brain it makes sense, but when I am communicating them, they don’t come out as I would like to,” Rosa said. “But in the last year and a half, it’s been a lot easier for me to utilize this tool, which is my voice, in a positive way.”
Thirteen months ago, though, she didn’t even know if Thunder Rosa would ever step in the wrestling ring again. Suffering from multiple tears of her vertebrae and a herniation, she was forced to vacate the AEW women’s title, which she had won March 16, 2022, in San Antonio in a steel cage match against Dr. Britt Baker. She hasn’t been in an AEW ring since defending her title against Jamie Hayter on Aug. 5, 2022.
“There were a couple of times where the pain is so much that you don’t know if it’s worth it, or you feel like it’s never gonna end,” Rosa said. “Especially in the first three to four months, it was very painful, especially when you’re having to go back and get epidurals all the time. That was really rough.”
In her time away from the ring, Thunder Rosa released her debut music video, “Mi Mejor Escuela,” became a frequent guest on Busted Open Radio and also was a Spanish commentator for AEW’s television shows.
“I really took time (away from the ring) to step back and really look at what things I was really good at,” Rosa added. “Although it was painful physically and mentally, it really did force me to find myself as Melissa Cervantes.”
Healthy and with her newfound voice, the San Antonio resident said Thunder Rosa “will be in attendance” when the promotion hosts AEW Collision at the Frost Bank Center on Dec. 23.
“Of course, I’m going to be there in San Antonio,” Rosa said with a strong wink. “I cannot miss this one. It’s the first one at the Frost Bank Center. Hopefully one of many Collisions we will have there. (Collision) is my new home.”
The AEW women’s division has faced criticism since Rosa’s injury, mostly due to its lack of TV exposure.
“I can tell you that all the women at AEW work their butts off and give their best every time they’re given an opportunity,” Rosa said. “You have Julia Hart, Willow, Mercedes Martinez, Kiera
Hogan, Abadon and, of course, (Kris) Statlander, who did an amazing job as champion for the TBS championship. … Emi Sakura is one of the best wrestlers and underrated wrestlers at AEW. I hope I have the opportunity to have a match with Emi Sakura. They’re all out there doing the best that they can, and I’m super proud of every single one of them.”
Rosa, who graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in sociology and worked as a social worker for a nonprofit organization in Oakland, has been a promoter of women’s wrestling her entire career. She is one of the founders of an all-women wrestling promotion based out of San Antonio, Mission Pro Wrestling.
The promotion just held its 32nd show over the last four years, Silver Bells 3. Rosa said she expects Mission Pro to host seven events in 2024, as well, beginning with Sleepless in San Antonio on Feb. 24.
“We wanted to make a statement where women can actually run successful wrestling shows without having to put up with all the B.S. that a lot of us had to go through, like sexual harassment and safety in the locker room,” Rosa said. “Because of all that stuff that we saw in 2020 (with the #MeToo movement in wrestling), it is very important for us to have a platform where (women wrestlers) can develop and can have really, really good matches.”
Rosa has had her share of great matches. In 2021, her Unsanctioned Lights Out match with Dr. Britt Baker was voted “Match of the Year” by Pro Wrestling Illustrated.
The two went on to have the steel cage match in San Antonio, where Thunder Rosa won the AEW women’s championship, becoming the first Mexican-born woman to win a major promotion’s title in the United States.
“It was a beautiful, beautiful moment to be able to share with my dad, who I don’t know if I’m going to be able to share a moment like that again with, one where it was so huge,” Rosa said. “So many other fans from all over the world told me that they were watching Dynamite that night – fans come to me during the signings and they’re like, ‘I was crying when you were crying when you won the championship.’ I don’t know if I’m going to be able to top that moment in my career.”
If she does, though, Thunder Rosa’s journey to the top of AEW might once again begin in San Antonio.
“I think that would be such a blessing, because I’m doing it again, or I would be doing it again in front of my people,” Rosa said. “People that have seen me, the people that have been with me throughout this whole entire journey —the good and the bad moments. And what a better way to just repay them with a happy moment, right? Because at the end of the day, another opportunity to do something that you love is just such a blessing.”