In a recent interview with Fightful, former WWE writer Dave Schilling revealed that there was an alternate plan in place for the women’s triple threat match at WrestleMania 35. According to Schilling, the original idea was for Asuka to defend her Smackdown Women’s Championship against Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville, which would have ultimately resulted in a kiss between the two competitors.
However, as we all know, the final match featured Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, and Ronda Rousey competing for both the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Titles, with Lynch emerging as the victorious champion. Despite the change of plans, Schilling’s recollection offers an intriguing glimpse into the creative process behind WWE’s biggest annual event.
On the original plan for the storyline:
“On TV, the Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville storyline. That was supposed to culminate in a romance between Sonya and Mandy at WrestleMania 35 where it was a triple threat for the SmackDown Women’s Championship and Mandy was going to win because Sonya would lay down for her and they would embrace and kiss in the middle of the ring. I said, ‘Oh boy.’ If you’re going to do this, I understand why it could be great because it’s a representation and it’s necessary.”
On his concerns about the storyline:
“To WWE’s credit, they went to GLAAD. Stephanie McMahon was on the phone with them. ‘Can we do this? Can we make this palatable and sensitive to the situation with queer people in America? Can we make this a good angle?’ The thing that I said was, ‘At WrestleMania, 60,000 people are going to be rooting for Asuka, and they’re supposed to be the babyfaces? They’re going to be booed out of the building and you’re going to have two women kissing in the middle of the ring and people booing because they love Asuka so much.’ People do love Asuka and every time WWE thinks they can beat her and ‘who cares,’ they forget people have a positive, intense relationship with her, even when they try to make her a heel, they root for her. Eventually, that storyline didn’t get done because they decided to put the belt on Charlotte.
“It could have turned out poorly even though the best intentions were there, and they did want to make a good storyline and Sonya and Mandy were involved and they were excited about doing it. At the end of the day, you have to do it right, and that would have been the wrong way to do it because you’re beating a babyface who people love, at WrestleMania, when there is so much complaint around how Asuka is losing.”
