Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke, also known as The Sexy Muscle Friends, recently appeared on Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia. They reflected on their WWE careers, their previous struggles with body image issues, and their goal of winning the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship. Here are some highlights:
On body image issues:
Rose: “I’m at a really good place, I think, now. As far as the bodybuilding and stuff, like sometimes, it can mess you up in the sense of like, getting your body to a certain point, where you see yourself on stage. And you’re like, wow, but knowing that that’s not an everyday lifestyle look or whatever you want to call it. But like right now, my biggest thing I’ve noticed, I don’t stress about it anymore. I eat well and work out a ton, but there are so many times where I’m like, I don’t worry about what I’m eating. And I noticed like I’m happy with the way my body is. And I don’t know if it’s also the years of building, and just taking care of myself, and building that muscle and having all that muscle, but like I’m at a really good place now.”
“And I get nervous because I just turned 30, so I’m like, you know, our bodies change and everything. And I hate when people say like, ‘Oh,’ like, ’30, watch out now.’ I actually feel better.”
I just think about when I was younger and like kids change so much and like they go through little you know spurts of like you know they could get a little heavy but then they grow out of it like maybe it’s not their diet or genetics and like I just feel bad because the way kids are and how mean they are and I get so nervous and I don’t wanna be the parent because they’re my nieces and nephews but I try to help my brothers and I’m like listen, I’m like I see a lot out there and if it’s in their control, like really try hard to take care of and get them on a good, healthy regimen.
Brooke: “Honestly, body image, to me, was a huge problem. I don’t know, I mean we touched upon it a little bit, but over this year and a half, two years, I’ve never been more happy. And [Rose] touched on it. I haven’t stressed. I felt like the more I was thinking about losing weight and dieting, it just was the reverse effect. And I’ve changed my sense of training, the way, like my style, and I definitely always incorporate weights, but just I know within WWE, training’s a necessity.”
“We still always have to train and be on top of things. But I don’t stress as much as I once did, and truly I took… time off and I dove into myself, where I literally broke down and was alone. I didn’t talk to anybody, I was just solely focused on myself. I literally was telling myself, ‘Ash, maybe you’re not supposed to love, maybe you’re supposed to be alone, it’s okay to be alone. And maybe you’re supposed to inspire other women to know what you went through.’ And really hone in on, it’s okay to love yourself completely for who you are, not what you look like. If you’re satisfied with who you are, and you’re doing everything in your life that you wanna do, it doesn’t matter. And from that point forward, it was just like wow, I’m finding what I really like to do, and what drives me to go to the gym and what motivates me.”
“This is my marriage, I’ve been married to wrestling, and anything that WWE asks of me, I do 100% and to my fullest.”
On chasing the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship:
Brooke: “Now people…find out who we are, and find out who Mandy is, and then see who Mandy Rose is and Dana Brooke is on TV. It’s like wow, they’re really who they are out in real life and who they are on TV. Like we’re strong, driven, powerful women that are possibly underdogs, that have been always wanting to drive and drive and push and push for a title opportunity. And we’re not gonna give up until we get there.”
Rose: “That’s right, we’re going for that.”
Brooke: “I think, in my mind, we need a little bit more momentum as far as people to get on board. And hopefully, this message helps them to feel like, ‘Wow, we’re just like them.’ We’ve had similar situations, body image, loss of a loved one, alcoholism runs in our family. People can relate to us, and they’ll cheer us on to be like, ‘Wow, I’m just like them.’ You know, we’re real.”
If you use any portion of this transcript, please credit Colin Tessier of WrestleZone.com
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