A/N: Well, here you go, my amazing readers. You wanted it, you got. Talk is Jericho – Christina Rose & Dean Ambrose. Thank you for an amazing first year with 'Your Future, My Past' and this does take place after Kaylee returns to the THWA, so there may be a few spoilers involved when it comes down to all. I hope you enjoy it and the next chapter for 'Your Future, My Past' has been slightly delayed due to writing this as well as some personal issues, but I should be back to writing it soon.
And don't forget to let me know what you think.
xo
Talk is Jericho – Ep. 216
Christina Rose with Dean Ambrose
Former Toronto Harbour Wrestling Association Bombshell Champion and a Two-Time Bombshell Tag Team Champion and rumoured 'Bombshells Unleashed' cast member, Christina Rose shares stories about her childhood, living in the city of Toronto, her signature red hair, the stables Karma & The Philia, her friendships with CM Punk and Paige, her little brother Luke and the band 5 Seconds of Summer, her love for music, the ending no one saw coming and the aftermath of her TLC match with Cassie V at Sun, Sand & Slams 2015, her recent return to wrestling and her upcoming feud with long time real life best friend and former tag team partner, Ronnie G. Plus, why she and WWE's Dean Ambrose kept their relationship a secret for so long and just what exactly is it like being engaged to someone in a competing company?
"Alright, she's one of the eight women that have brought the THWA Bombshell division to unimaginable heights before her untimely accident at Sun, Sand & Slams 2016. I'm talkin' about the much requested Christina Rose, the Royal One is finally on Talk is Jericho. You're gonna hear the crazy stories about her childhood and her little brother Luke from the band 5 Seconds of Summer and what it is like living in the city of Toronto, which is where this interview took place, how she got her signature red hair and became a part of the stables Karma and The Philia. We're also going to hear all about her friendships with CM Punk and Paige, the ending that no one saw coming and the aftermath of her TLC match with fellow Bombshell, Cassie V at Sun, Sand & Slams 2016. Not to mention, I am going to ask the hard questions about her return at the Triathlon and her feud with her former tag team partner, Ronnie G and her engagement to my friend, my buddy, my pal, Dean Ambrose and they're upcoming wedding plans."
"And we're gonna get back to it just after first, I tell you how you can win a DDP program signed by my friend and my yoga mentor, DDP Yoga Creator, Diamond Dallas Page. This is all you have to do: just tweet your personal DDP Yoga success story to TalkIsJericho on the Twitta and use the hashtag PodcastOne. One winner will be chosen to get the free DDP Yoga Program autographed by Dallas. Now, DDP Yoga is more than just a workout program, it's a healthier way of life that's already helped tens of thousands of people. You guys know how much it's helped me. I wouldn't be in the ring or on stage with Fozzy, if not for DDP Yoga. Now, you know what it did for Jake the Snake Roberts, DDP and DDP Yoga literally saved Jake's life. You can see it for yourself on, on the Resurrection of Jake The Snake.
(Note: Chris Jericho Christina Rose Dean Ambrose)
"Okay next time, please remind me that I should never believe Ambrose . I think that it's actually colder here than it is in New York right now. I mean, how is that even possible?"
"Well, Dean is already used to the cold here, so you shouldn't have believed him to begin with."
"And what about you? Dean's always telling me about you hate the cold-"
"I don't hate the cold, it's just you and I both grew up in a Canadian cities, Chris, we should have been born with ice in our blood to begin with."
"Alright Miss Ice for Blood, you said it yourself, you grew up in a Canadian city. What was it like growing up in the shadow of Toronto? It's like the wrestling capital of Canada, it had to have been interesting to live there."
"Well, to begin with, I always honestly believed that Toronto kind of stole that title from Calgary because like you already know the legendary Stu Hart, God Bless his resting soul, used to run his wrestling promotion out there and that's where a lot of the older Canadian wrestlers cut their teeth and got their name because the THWA, just like a lot of the other bigger promotions used to be this tiny regional show that was held about every blue moon before Ron Hutch's mother, Gloria Hutchison took over and got the backing that was really needed from the network, but by the time I was born in October of 1990, the THWA was a rather well known company that at the time was run out of this tiny little building that's still standing on the actual Toronto Harbour and even had its own weekly episodic show."
"Wednesday Night Fights?"
"Haha, actually no, Fights didn't start until about '96 or '97, well into your illustrious career. The THWA show at the time was actually called THWA Tuesday Night Madness. Practically the entire province of Ontario tuned in every Tuesday to see our legends fight in that small little TV studio with maybe at most a handful of people as an in-house audience."
"So, the first ever wrestling match for the THWA you saw didn't even take place on Wednesday Night Fights, it took place on Tuesday Night Madness? Wow, well, who got you into wrestling or did you just happen to be flipping through the cartoons and catch a match?"
"It's a funny story actually, and I'm fairly sure no one, and I do mean no one, is going to believe this, but it is completely, a hundred percent true."
"Is this going to completely ruin this mental image that Dean gave me of a miniature Christina Rose running around her family home in her mom's good leather jacket from the 80's screaming and hollering like the Dame…"
"Maybe, but it's like the Karma DVD says, it was my Dad who got me into wrestling. He's been a fan for fifty plus years. He was watching it when Vince Sr. was in charge of the WWE, but that's a completely different story and not relevant right now. Um, I think was about 5 or 6, no I was 5 because it took place before my birthday and my dad had ordered Wrestle Mania 12. I had been really sick, it was just a case of the flu or something that is really trivial at this exact moment, but no matter how many times my mom or my day would put me to bed, I just couldn't fall asleep-"
"Whoa, wait, wait, wait. Are you serious? The first wrestling show that you saw was Wrestle Mania 12? It wasn't even a THWA pay-per-view, it was THE WWE pay-per-view?!"
"I told you, it would shock you and a lot of people, but yeah, I was sort of dozing in and out in my dad's arms while the pay-per-viewed played because that was the only way they were getting me to fall asleep and yes, I am a complete daddy's girl. But, the first match that I can honestly remember in its entirety, well not so much now since it's been over twenty years, but the first match I remember consciously watching was the Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels Iron Man Match."
"So, I gotta ask, but were you a Shawn Girl or a Bret Girl from that day forward?"
"Ah, the Canadian and Bombshell in me wants to say that I was a Bret Girl from a young age, and the fans are probably going to hate me for actually admitting this out loud, but I-I was a Shawn Girl. And you know what, I am not ashamed to say this, but I still am. I mean, come on Chris, I have a hat in my closet that says 'Shawn Michaels Fan Girl' on it and for my first ever solo Harbour Wars match in 2013, I paid homage to his entrance at Wrestle Mania 12."
"Really? How did you get permission to do that?"
"Ron Hutchison, or as you're probably going to hear me refer to him as Ron Hutch, who is an amazing boss and an even more amazing man was trying to come up with all of these different ideas for my entrance at Harbour Wars 2013. And Harbour Wars entrances are always these out of the box things and well, at that point in time when I had a spare moment, I was transferring some of my old wrestling tapes to DVD because I was getting rid of my VCR, which probably came from the dark ages to begin with, and no matter what Ron thinks, I don't need it and I was just enthralled with Shawn Michaels' entrance and to be honest, I've always sort of wanted to give the Heartbreak Kid some sort of nod because without that whole match, I don't really know what I would be doing with my life."
"What did Ron Hutch say what you came to him with the idea?"
"He didn't think it was going to be spectacular enough. The Harbour Wars match was going to be a triple threat between myself and my former stable partners; Ronnie G, who was going to be riding down the aisle in this beautiful and I do mean, beautiful blue convertible with a 'diamond' encrusted bumper, and Cassie V, who was going to be like Cleopatra and have a few guys from our developmental division carry her down. Ron wanted mine to be on the same level, but I quickly explained to him, 'Look, the best way for me to stand out against them is to do something completely understated, I'll have Luke,' my little brother, 'walk down the main aisle to my music and point towards the rafters when the music stops much like Shawn's trainer had done for him, the music would start again and a spotlight will find me and I'll just ride the zip line down into the crowd.' He was very much against it because we were going to have Martha Hart and her children in the audience that night, but I was willing to risk it, so he okayed it as long as we did a trial run. I think he was trying to dissuade me from actually going through with it, but the trial run the day before went off without a single hitch and I was able to do it."
"So, let's get back to what it was like growing up in Toronto?"
"For the most part? It was normal because I didn't grow up in the core of the city; I grew up in the surrounding areas, which is called the GTA or Greater Toronto Area. I grew up in places like Scarborough or East York or Mississauga. As much as it would be easier for the company to bill me from the city of Toronto, they bill me from the city of Mississauga because that's where I had spent a majority of my life."
"Alright, so, what was it like growing up in places like Scarborough, East York and Mississauga?"
"It was great because no matter where I was, I was always close to family. And yeah, they would drive me crazy from time to time, but I wouldn't change it for the world because without the family that I have and the upbringing that I got, I wouldn't know how to be the person that I am today. I wouldn't have had the strength to deal with a lot of the things that came my way these past few years."
"What do you mean by that you wouldn't have the strength?"
"Like a lot of people, I draw strength from my family, but my strength goes a little bit deeper than that. My extended family has had their hardships, none more so then that of my grandparents. My maternal grandmother was hit by a car and lost the hearing in one of her ears when she younger and she didn't let the stop her, not even when she got hit by a second car much later on in her life. She's also fought with chronic kidney disease and lived through cancer. My maternal grandfather watched his own father get shot in the head by soldiers that had invaded their village when he was only just a kid. He also came to Canada with less than twenty dollars in his pocket with less than a high school education. Not to mention they lived through losing their youngest child. Any parent you ask will say that it's not easy outliving your children when they're supposed to be the ones that bury you."
"And what about your father's side?"
"I didn't know my paternal grandfather, he had left the family before my father even hit puberty, which made my grandmother a single mother with five kids. Honestly, I don't think I ever wanted to know the man, not even after he had died. He, uh, he was a scumbag of the Earth. He was physically abusive and my grandmother had run away to a woman's shelter to get away from him before he finally decided to just leave. She's also had to fight with kidney disease and her own health issues, but my great-grandmother though, she's the real hero in that family."
"How so?"
"First off the woman has lived to be almost a hundred and it was just after the second world war, when the wall was still up in Berlin, she had risked her life on more than one occasion helping families get across and away from that horrible way of life. So, like I said, I literally get my strength from my family, which really, really helped during high school."
"Why do you say that?"
"High school is never easy for anybody. You know that and I know that, but it's the place where dreams can be tested and you kind of learn to see people for who they really are and without that experience and the strength that I got from my family, Christina Rose as many people know her today, would not be here if it wasn't for the 18 plus years that led up to her kicking ass and taking names."
"So, since I'm sure that you shocked my listeners by actually admitting the first match you ever saw was Bret vs Shawn at Wrestle Mania 12, what was the first THWA match that you saw?"
"The Dame vs Bessie West for the Bombshell Championship at Harbour Wars '96, a week after the Bret and Shawn match."
"A week later? Wow, so if your dad didn't order Wrestle Mania 12, the first wrestling match you would have seen would have been the Dame vs Bessie West."
"I guess so, I mean, I got pretty hooked thanks to Bret and Shawn and that epic Iron Man match, but I don't know if The Dame vs Bessie West match would have gotten me as hooked. Don't get me wrong, it was great match and it was an absolutely stellar title defense by the Dame, but I don't know if it would have had the same effect that the Bret vs Shawn match had on me."
"Why do you say that?"
"Well, my cousins, Justin and Josh, bless their hearts, were talking through the entire match like it didn't even matter, my other cousin Cassandra had absolutely no interest in it and just wanted me to play Barbie's with her and to top the whole experience off, my brother at the wonderful age of two and a half had gotten sick with whatever I had and well, at the blissful age of 5, I was still into the idea of protecting him instead of beating the snot out of him. But, I don't think I would have gotten the same exposure out of, the Dame vs Bessie West title match that I had gotten out of Bret vs Shawn, but of what I do remember getting out of watching it, is the belief that I would do what Bret and Shawn had done, and maybe, I could possibly even do it better."
"So, as you got older the belief stuck? And what about your cousins; have they changed their outlook on the Bombshell matches, now that you're the one in them?"
"Oh, they have definitely taken to believing that those matches matter just as much as the others on the card, and well, Chris, I grew up in a very female dominated family. I mean, there has always been more estrogen than testosterone, so I always knew that women could do what men could do, but it was the knowledge that I got from the Dame vs Besie West match that drove me further and made me even more stubborn than I already was when I had the great fortune to meet friends that had the exact same interests and dreams that I did. A lot of the THWA fans will be familiar with these names, but I had the great fortune to meet Herc in elementary school, Mistress Psyche in middle school and Ronnie G, Venus, Hostile, JC, JFree and Ghost while we were all in high school. We all attended Meadowvale High out in Mississauga, GO FALCONS. And as much as our friendship started because of and is surrounded by the business, it has nothing to do with it. We all feel like we're family and that's what matters when it comes down to it all."
"When did you all start training?"
"At the beginning of our senior year, we started training at Sully's Gym because they had this beginner class and if you want to learn how to wrestle in the city of Toronto, you go to the source."
"Sully's Gym is the main training ground for the THWA, right?"
"Yep and we had a blast because even though you're hitting that mat, which in all actuality is more like a boxing ring, day in, day out, you become a family there and when you're already pretty much family walking in, it makes the relationships you have even stronger. Ron and Sweet Daddy Siki will not let you leave that gym and more importantly, they will not let you sign with Toronto Harbor until they know that you are without a single doubt, absolutely ready for this. They will teach you the respect that this craft demands and must be given and they will give you the skills to become the absolute best version of yourself."
"And it's at Sully's Gym where you met Cassie V and JJ Mayhem, is it not?"
"It is. Our backstage family really became complete after we met and as the Philia stable, we wouldn't have been able to accomplish half of what we did without Cassie. More importantly, there never would have been Karma without the Mistress of Attitude."
"Well, let's talk about that. How did Karma come to be? The three of you practically tore the Bombshell division to threads when as a trio you entered the company and joined the main roster in 2010."
"Ron Hutch and Richard James, which many of your listeners will know as Hades, were looking to expand on the character. The King of Hell persona had taken Hades, who was already considered a legend in the company to new heights in his career, but the creative team, who are probably some of the best in the business, wanted to expand that persona into the Bombshell Division. The champion at the time was Deanna, who was married to Hades for the storyline and she was feuding with his real life wife Bessie West, but the feud just wasn't getting the crowd reacting the way they had before. It was then that the decision to call Cassie, Ronnie and I up to the big league was made and Ron took one look at us and christened us the 'Daughters of Evil."
"It doesn't have the same ring to it…"
"Not, it really doesn't. So, our wonderful writers came up with this idea for Hades' 'daughters' to be the most destructive force in the world; the force that just keeps on giving, hence the reason why we were then re-christened 'Karma.' 'Cause in their words, Hades was going to 'bring us up from the very depths of Hell' to give his enemies what they rightly deserve. Well, what force gives you what you deserve?"
"Karma."
"Right, Karma, and then, boom, these vignettes are laid out with the tag line, 'Karma's Not Just One Bitch, but Three."
"I know some girls might have a problem with being called a bitch, did you have any complaints about being called one?"
"No, Chris, come on, you know what bitch stands for right? Babe in Total Control of Herself."
"Haha, okay, okay. Is this right around the time that the decision was made that they wanted you to dye your hair?"
"Yeah, Cassie and Ronnie are both naturally blonde and my hair is naturally a dark brown, but creative didn't want us to have normal hair colours. They wanted us to have hair colours that would stand out in comparison to the rest of the Bombshells, because we're supposed to have this supernatural element to us because, hello, we're coming from the 'depths of hell,' and, in their words, we absolutely cannot look like regular, on the street people. Ronnie wasn't willing to change her hair too much, so she just bleached it, so that would become more of a platinum blonde; which left Cassie and I to figure out what to do with our hair on our own. Cassie had always wanted to change her hair drastically, so she had dyed it this raven hair colour with hints of purple with blue underneath."
"How did you come up with the red on red for your hair?"
"I've always wanted to dye my hair red, but when I was still being a little indecisive about it, I started looking at my ring gear. At the time, it was this awful reddish-orange that the costume department had assured me was red, but it didn't look like any kind of red that I had seen before and I really didn't want to wear it to begin with."
"So, what happened?"
"I was out with my mom shopping one week and I told her all of this and we just so happened to be in the hair colour aisle at our local Wal-Mart. She pulled this auburn hair dye off of the shelf and suggest it. I liked it, so I bought it."
"Wouldn't it have been easier just to a hair salon or have the hair and make-up team at the THWA do it?"
"My mom used to be a licensed hair dresser before my brother and I were born. She's the one that used to cut mine and my brother's hair and she still cuts my dad's hair, so at the time it was just a natural instinct for me to ask her to dye my hair because she's done it before. I had blonde highlights for the majority of my senior year. Anyways, it took about thirty minutes to set and I really like the way it turned out. It was still a natural hair colour, but it wasn't something that every other person on this green Earth has. I sent a picture to Paulie Panic, who at the time was in charge of Talent Relations and Development, and Ron, who thought it still didn't stand out enough, so Ronnie suggested that I add the red, red highlights to it."
"And I sense another trip to the local Wal-Mart?"
"You would be right. So, with Ronnie I drive back to Wal-Mart because we were going to be having a sleepover that night anyways, so I pick up the colour that I want and we drive back to her parents' house. Since she and I are pretty good at doing highlights, I had Ronnie do it for me instead of asking my mom to re-do my hair again. Once the highlights set and I had washed out the dye and styled my hair once more, I sent another picture to Ron for approval."
"And you got the thumbs up?"
"I got the thumbs up and thankfully, the creative team took one look at my hair and went to our fantastic wardrobe department and demanded that they change that awful reddish-orange atrocity to a beautiful all-black ensemble. Chris, I'm very serious when I say this, but I probably would have been laughed out of the building if I had worn that stupid costume that was thankfully burned hours later. And if I had been laughed out of the building Karma wouldn't have been taken seriously."
"Now, that we've talked about Karma, what about the Philia? First off, what does Philia actually mean?"
"Well, Philia in Greek roughly translates to a love between friends. It can actually be translated to an affection regard of friendship usually between equals."
"Alright, well, now that we actually know what it means. That is quite clever by the way, do you know who came up with it?"
"Not really, um, it was like I was saying earlier, the Family started backstage. We were never actually meant to be a stable on screen."
"So what happened for it start on screen? I mean, Karma took off not long after you debuted and then once everything with the Hades storyline ran its course, about a year and a half later, you, Ronnie G and Cassie V had this absolutely epic face turn on your so-called 'family' and then you were in this other stable that was taking him on instead."
"It was actually creative that made the decision to put on screen because they were kind of struggling with the outline of that rebellious daughters storyline. They saw our chemistry backstage and thought that maybe we should be together as a group on screen. Mistress Psyche, Venus and JJ Mayhem had their own storylines going, so they couldn't join us, but the rest of them didn't really have anything serious going on at the time. We were originally nicknamed 'The Family' by some of the older wrestlers on the roster and by some of the staff because we were always, and I do mean, always together and we were always calling one another 'my brother' or 'my sister,' it was just something that happened."
"So, your group is kind of like the THWA's version of the Kliq…"
"I don't know if I like that or not. I mean, yeah, U guess we kind of are, minus the whole splitting up part of it all and you know giving creative idea."
"So, you and your friends don't give your input to creative on your storylines?"
"Not unless they ask us for out input. Most of the people that work in creative were wrestlers to begin with and that's why I think the storylines on our show are very organic and very believable because they're always told from a wrestlers pint a view."
"But, you do see the similarities between the Philia and the Kilq, right?"
"Of course, but I'd also like to think that we're our own people as well and the two groups don't really need to be compared because we all have our own careers and our own legacies that we want to leave behind."
"Yeah, I understand where you're going. There's no use in trying to find this generation's Shawn Michaels because there will never be anyone like him and if they are, the last thing that they'll want to be known as is a Shawn Michaels knock-off."
"Exactly, everything we do as professional wrestlers or as professional entertainers is to make a name for ourselves. We may pay homage to our favourites when we can, but I don't think any of us ever want to be call knock-offs or female/male versions of so and so, unless of course that's what you're basing your entire career off of. I think the WWE jas just re-re-instated a complete and utter knock off of the Mega Powers."
"Haha, wow, alright well, I'm sure this is something that is on a lot of people's minds, but you and CM Punk are friends and I think everybody wants to know why you and CM Punk are such good friends. I mean, we all heard the story in 2014. His wife was the one that convinced him that he needed to see a doctor when everything with the WWE was happening, she even went to you to set up a possible appointment with the THWA's most trusted doctors. Then, after everything was said and done, you were the one that convinced him that he needed to sign with the THWA because you could see that, even though he was denying it, he was missing it. I mean, we all know his part of the story, but what about yours?"
"Well, as everybody does know, Punk and I had the fortune of meeting when he was the WWE Champion coming off of his heel turn at RAW 1000 in 2012. We were both in Vancouver at the time doing some promotional work because at the time, I was in my first run as the Bombshell Champion and if I remember correctly, and if I don't I'm sure he'll correct me because likes doing that, but he and I met when we both just so happened to be scheduled to be Breakfast Television Vancouver."
"What were your first thoughts when meeting him?"
"I thought he would be taller, honestly. I mean, I'm not better; I practically live in high heels. I wrestle I them, I walk around in them day in, day out. I think the only time I'm not wearing a pair is when I'm working out or sleeping."
"So, you're telling me that you thought Punk would be taller. Have you ever told him that?"
"I said it right to his face; I honestly thought that he was taller than what I saw in real life. Maybe, it was the fact that I am always wearing heels or maybe it was the fact that sometimes people seem taller on TV than they actually are in real life, I mean, look at my fiancée. I thought that he'd be taller than most of the men in my family, but he isn't. Back to Punk though, the next day we went for coffee and we've pretty much been friends ever since."
"You know, I gotta be honest, when I found out that you agreed to be on this show, I looked back at some of the stuff you and Punk had done together before your accident and for those of my listeners that do watch Wednesday Night Fights, they all have to agree, you and Punk have a very natural on-screen chemistry. If AJ Lee and Dean Ambrose weren't in the picture, do you think that maybe something would have happened between the two of you?"
"I agree, we do have a natural chemistry, but I've always kind have seen Punk as that annoying older brother figure that gets on my nerves one minute and is introducing me to my future husband the next."
"Punk's not the only WWE person that you had made friends with before you and your fiancée got together. You also know the current Diva's Champion."
"Paige, or as I like to call her, my little English Crumpet."
"How did the two of you meet?"
"Shimmer; the THWA used to have this deal with them a few years back before they had their partnership with Ring of Honor, but I knew Paige when she was going by Britani Knight. But, anyways, when the girls were in Toronto, we would open up Sully's Gym for them and they could use the space to train, well Paige and I ended up getting in one of the work-out rings together and that was how-"
"How you two became friends."
"It started out like that, but yeah. If I had known that she was looking to get out of Shimmer, I would have pressed Ron into hiring her even more than I already was. I would have love to get back in the ring with her and have an official match, maybe even for the Bombshell's Championship."
"You gotta get the belt before you can offer her a title match, don't you?"
"Oh yeah, I guess I'm just really looking forward to that match that I have coming up in April against Ronnie."
"It looks like it's going to be a great match."
"Hopefully, it will be. It'll be the first time that my little brother, Luke, will get the chance to see me wrestle since the accident in 2016-"
"He's been on tour with his band 5 Seconds of Summer, hasn't he?"
"He has and he tells this story about a fan telling him about me waking up and no one had called him to tell him that I had to have neck surgery because of a small bit of ware from when I had been in a car accident, but I know that it isn't true because he's just about as bad as I am when it comes to picking up calls from our cell phones."
"You're proud of his success though?"
"Completely, you know, I remember there would be days where I was coming home from Sully's Gym or I would be coming by to visit since I had been on the road and sometimes it could be 11 o'clock at night or it was 2 o'clock in the afternoon and they were either writing songs or playing their instruments. When they first started, they didn't quite mesh as a musical group, like anyone who knew them then, has just got to admit that they were horrible and I mean, they were so horrible that my parents had to get the garage sound proofed to avoid the noise complaints and then it was almost like this switch flipped a few months later and they started getting really good."
"Are you and Luke close?"
"Our mom likes to joke that if it was another life, I would have been the singer and he would have been the wrestler. We both have a love for music and we both love to watch wrestling. He'll try and be at every pay-per-view and if he can't make it, he'll watch it either from his hotel room or from the website on his cell phone when he's in-between sets. When I work-out, I have almost their entire songbook on my playlist and I try to make it to the concerts that are close by when I'm travelling. I am so glad that they're finally doing their upcoming world tour, even though, I do think that the name of their first world tour."
"What did they call it?"
"Rock Out with Your Socks Out and do you want to know what's really sad?"
"What?"
"I knew that they were going to call it that about twelve years ago. I was babysitting them, trying to make a little extra spending money because a teenager you never seem to have enough and they would put on little impromptu shows with air instruments and his CDs playing on the computer or the stereo and they would always, and I do mean always, call it the 'Rock Out with Your Socks Out' show and I would be the ONLY audience member. I guess, they're living a childhood dream by calling their tour that."
"I asked it you were proud of him, but do you think he's proud of how far you've come?"
"He likes to brag to everyone that will listen that his sister is a two time Bombshell's Champion, a two time Bombshell's Tag Team Champion and the winner of 2011 and 2018 Bombshell Bash, but I think he's more proud of the fact that I got back up and didn't let the accident affect me as much as it could. You see, he sends me a text practically every day to see if I'm doing alright, because, I guess, he wants to make sure that I haven't fractured my skull or broken my neck again. He was really scared that night, Chris. I mean, don't take my word for it, 'cause I don't know from firsthand experience because you know, I wasn't conscious at the time, but I could tell that he had been absolutely petrified when I woke up after my surgery in Vancouver and found him sharing the smallest couch I have ever seen next to my hospital bed with Jon. Both of them were fast asleep, but it looked like they hadn't left the hospital or slept properly since I had been admitted."
"I've got to ask this since you brought it up. The fall that you took during the unfortunate end in your TLC match at Sun, Sand & Slams in 2016, did that scare you? Were you afraid to step back in the ring?"
"The first few months afterwards were all about getting healthy, I didn't really have time to be scared. I had to have two of the vertebrates in my neck fused, but the doctors also wanted to make sure that I was able to come back from the injury if I wished to. Not many people know this, but, uh, the people who know me well, know that from time to time I-I can have the odd panic attack here and there and during the year and a half that I was out, I-I had more panic attacks than I had ever had in my life leading up to that point."
"Was it because you were scared that you wouldn't be stepping back into the ring again or because of something else?"
"I think I was petrified of that ever happening again and whether or not I would get any better. During the first couple of days, I was having issues with mobility. I would try and stay away from meals that would need utensils for the first couple of weeks because I would have difficulties holding them and since I couldn't hold them, someone would have to feed me. Thankfully, Dean was there every step of the way even though he was the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. He knew that I would be too stubborn to admit that actually needed help, so he had to one more than occasion take the utensil out of my hand and help me out. After all of that, I was also quite petrified that I was going to die from a blood clot or something. Knock on wood."
"Yes, knock on wood. Did the feelings go away as you got better?"
"In a way it did and in a way it didn't, if you get what I mean. I was happy to be advancing and everything, but in the back of my mind that was always another hurtle that I had taken that could mean nothing if something worse to happen. In all honestly, if it was for my family, Jon and all of our friends helping me through it, I probably wouldn't have gotten even half as far as I did."
"Don't sell yourself short, Christina, you got yourself where you needed and wanted to be."
"A person is only as great as the people that support them or the people they choose to spite, thankfully, I chose the support."
"When everything came out about those two stage-hands rigging the ring, did it help you with trying to figure out what had gone wrong?"
"At first it was like, 'Oh my God, how could they?' And then all I felt was relief because the biggest worry in both mine and Cassie's minds that it had been something that we had done. The last thing we would want, contrary to popular belief in THWA Nation and on the internet, is to hurt one another or put each other or anyone else that we end up working with in even more danger, so it took a lot off of our minds. And then I felt anger."
"Anger?"
"For a long time, I had been ignorant. I've never had deal with that kind of thing in my life. I've had my fair share of relationships, one of them ending on a bad note, but I've never had my life threatened because I had refused a date. I don't mean to get preachy on your show, Chris-"
"It's no problem. I-I'm glad you're saying something. I've got two daughters."
"And it's for the younger girls and boys that I need to say something. We are all living in a world that needs to change. If men and women are getting raped, physically assaulted, sexually assaulted or even killed for rejecting dates, we as a society need to change. We need to teach our children that while rejection hurts, it's not something to hurt or kill people for. I shouldn't have to rely on my fiancée to reject someone for me when I'm perfectly capable of doing so myself."
"The anger aside; when you found out what happened, did that help with the panic attacks?"
"Slight, the panic attacks did subside, but then Cassie and I had gotten into one of the work-out rings together, trying to work off my ring rust after that charges against the two men had been laid and about five minutes into our impromptu match, I ended up in the corner, tears streaming down my face. Dean had to actually carry me out of the gym, out to the car and drive us back to our house."
"How did you eventually get over that?"
"It wasn't easy, but slowly, I came to the realization that I was fine and I was always going to be in a little bit of danger considering what I do, but the steps we take to prevent the other getting hurt is what helps. That ending to the match in 2016, while it was a deliberate act, it was also a freak accident and it is not going to happen again when the THWA as well as the WWE, TNA and a lot of the other wrestling promotions were going to make sure that it can never happen again. I began getting through the training matches a little while after I came to this realization. Once I could get through a match without freaking myself out, I started to get ready for return, and when the THWA Creative Team approached me about storylines and feuds, I did have one condition."
"And what was that condition?"
"I needed someone that I could trust for my first feud back; someone that I knew how they worked and what they could and would do."
"And that's how you and Ronnie G ended up in your current feud."
"Exactly, as much as I had loved working with Cassie before our accident, I needed someone that hadn't gone through something like that and most importantly I needed someone who wouldn't treat me like I was made of glass. Two women fit those requirements."
"Two women? Who was the other woman? And if there was two women that fit those requirements, how did come to be that you would be feuding with your one time tag team partner?"
"Mistress Psyche was the other woman. I had previously worked with her in the lead up to Harbour Wars 2016 and we've known each other for even longer than I've known Ronnie, but sometimes the Board and the Creative team have to make tough decisions. And sometimes those decisions are that they have to break an on-screen friendship to give someone the opportunity to get to the next level and give the fans something that they'd never seen before. Ronnie and I fighting over the Bombshell Championship is just that."
"So, what happened once it was decided that it was going to be you and Ronnie at Harbour Wars 2018?"
"Well, the moment that I was cleared and the decision had been made that it would be Ronnie and I, Creative's masterful brains wrote this amazing storyline about how she had orchestrated our accident with the two stage hands to take the title for herself, which was okayed by both Cassie and I, and how she was tired of being overlooked and I couldn't be happier with how this is going and where it's going to go. They always say that good friends make great enemies in this line of work and getting to work with Ronnie like this had brought our careers to amazing heights."
"Given the chance would you participate in another TLC match?"
"Um, not in the near future, but you know I wouldn't completely turn down the idea of having another one."
"How did your family and Jon feel about you returning?"
"My grandparents were against it, kind of still are, but my parents and Lyke realised that I needed to get back in the ring. They realised that even I could get hurt again, I took the risk of getting hurt every time I stepped in between those ropes before the accident and this was my career ad what I was happy doing. Jon, well he and I got into it on New Year's over it, actually."
"Why was that?"
"We were getting so close to my return date and he really didn't want to go back."
"Why not?"
"He was petrified just like I was. He had been there for me through it all and he didn't want something lik that to happen again, because he felt like if it were to happen again, he was afraid that he would lose me. People are right when they say that Dean is very protective of the people that he loves and he hated the fact that I needed to almost risk my life and career again when I had him, but I had to make him see what it was like for me when it comes to him; that even though it makes me cringe every single time he gets involved in those hardcore matches, I don't say anything because I know that he built his career on stuff like that and he loves doing those kinds of matches."
"So, is that what your relationship is like?"
"It can be like that. Um, Punk and our wrestling careers may have brought us together, but they're not what keeps us together. I'm not sure how people will believe this, but it's the little fights, it's the things that we have in common, it's the things we don't, it's the fact that we enjoy coming home to one another and spending our down time together. It's because at the end of the day, it isn't our work or the outside world that matters, it's him and it's me in those very moments."
"I mean, I knew that you two were together for the longest time, but why did you two wait until you were almost engaged to reveal the truth to your fans and the rest of the world?"
"Dean and I enjoy our privacy; we didn't see the use in making people aware of something that didn't concern them. As much as people like to think that we're owned by our fans when we're public figures, we're not. Our friends were told, the people we consider family were told and neither one of us felt like a secret that the other was keeping, so that was all that really mattered to us during that time."
"So, like I mentioned before, you're engaged now, any wedding plans being made?"
"I think that's my cue…"
"I think you're a little late on the timing there, I thought your cue was when our wonderful host-"
"Aww shucks…"
"-was asking me about our relationship."
"People have already heard me talk about it. Hey, man."
"Hey, so, Dean, now that you're here with your beautiful fiancée; wedding plans? Is anything set in stone yet? Do the two of you have a date? How did Dean propose? Christina, do you have your wedding dress? Have you chosen your wedding party yet?"
"Whoa, whoa, Chris, slow down. We can only answer one question at a time…"
"Right, sorry, I just this is big news for a lot of my sexy beast listeners. You two are working for competing companies and you're engaged. How is it being engaged to somebody working for a competing company?"
"It isn't easy that's for sure."
"No, it's not, but I guess because we've both become fans of the other's company and the fact that both companies have this sort of weird agreement-"
"And the two of you were the reason behind that agreement, right? I know it started after the Sun, Sand & Slams accident, but you two were the main reason behind it?"
"I don't think we were the main reason behind it, but the fact that he and I can now appear with one another for the sake of a storyline and no matter what both of our companies are getting advertised is definitely one of the reasons."
"Definitely, uh, I mean it helps when we have a storyline that might need a little help. Like when I got kicked in the face last month by Ronnie because the THWA wanted to add even more emotion to the feud between two former friends; and when Christina took that kick from Owens for the sake of ferocity in my feud with him back in October."
"That was on your birthday wasn't it?"
"It was. Uh, not the best way to spend it, but I got to spend it with my amazing fiancé, so…"
"Alright, alright, so back to what it's like being engaged to someone in a competing company. Can the two of you talk about work or-"
"We can talk about work. We're not afraid that the other will go running to their creative team or whatever, but what we like to do or more specifically what Dean likes to do is-"
"I like to make her squirm during my matches."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I won't tell her who is going to win and when it comes to her matches, she won't tell me. Like we'll warn the other if we're going to be scheduled to be in a match for an up coming pay-per-view or in a specialty match, but we'll never tell the other if we're going to win or not."
"And what about the differing schedules?"
"Those are a little harder to deal with. He could be across the world just getting out of a show and I could be just on the other side of the province sleeping, so it's not easy, but if I hear the phone, I'll pick it up or-"
"We'll send little texts to the other throughout our days, so the other has something nice to wake up to. Our differing schedules are never easy, but we will always be there for the other when we're needed. Birthdays, anniversaries, family functions, pay-per-views, we will always be there for the other."
"Now, we got to talk about this wedding."
"What do you want to know, Chris?"
"How did Dean propose?"
"Don't look at me like that, Christina, you tell the story way better than I can."
"Yeah, but it's your story…"
"Fine, so, uh, I was originally going to take her to this restaurant where I was supposed to take her for our first date, but they had lost the reservations, whatever, anyways. I had this huge plan in my head. We were going to walk along the lakeshore like we usually do anyway when we have a moment and we were going to walk to the restaurant since it wasn't that far, but then we get to this point along said lakeshore and the sun is setting and she-she just looks beautiful. She always looks beautiful, but the way she looked at that point, I, uh, I couldn't wait until the restaurant. So, I pulled the ring out of my pocket, I got down on one knee and I, uh, I asked her to marry me."
"So, I guess it's safe to say that Dean Ambrose does have a bit of romance up his sleeve."
"He does, aww he's blushing."
"No, I'm not."
"Yes, you are, but it's okay.
"Alright, well, let's leave the man to his blushing. Have the two of you made any actual wedding plans yet? Have you chosen a date?"
"We have chosen a date. Um, we're not going to say what day, but we are definitely getting married this summer-"
"It took me six months just to get the ring on her finger, I'm not waiting more than a year to get married to this amazing woman beside me."
"Well, aren't the two of you just adorable. So, besides the wedding date, have you made any concrete plans? Have you chosen your wedding party?"
"We have chosen our wedding party, um, our goddaughter Jessie Lopez is going to be one of our flower girls along with Roman's daughter Joelle and Christina's second cousin, Grant is going to be our ring bearer."
"Roman's going to be Dean's best man and uh, Ronnie's going to be my matron of honor, while Seth and Cesaro are going to be our ushers and Paige and Psyche are going to be the bridesmaids. We do have a couple of venues in mind for the actual ceremony and reception."
"Outdoor, indoor, church?"
"Providing that the weather holds up we are going to have an outdoor wedding, but my beautiful fiancée is also very smart, so even if the weather doesn't hold up we might still have an outdoor wedding."
"And I guess, my last question is the most important question. Christina, do you have your dress?"
"I do have my dress. I bought it back in January when we were in Georgia for the Royal Rumble. My next fitting is in a couple of weeks, but Dean is going to have to wait until this summer to see it.
"It's only because your superstitious."
Alright, thanks to Christina Rose and Dean Ambrose for talkin' about life, love and their upcoming summer wedding. A lot of interesting stuff that Christina brought up during our time together and they both definitely know what they're talkin' about. And I, thank you for joining me and I want you to come join Fozzy as we go out on the road with Slash starting May 18th in Chicago. Go to for all VIP and Ticket information.
Thank you for rockin' with me today. Thanks to Christina Rose, thanks to Dean Ambrose and I thank Burger King, Nature Box, DDP Yoga, Amazon, all of my sponsors and thanks to all of you guys for shoppin' through my Amazon links. It's the easiest way to support the show, so we can keep doing this free for you guys twice a week. Go to the Amazon links at and click the support our shows banner at the top of the pagey-wagey. Click on Talk is Jericho – all three of my Amazon links will be there; UK, USA, Canada-eh.
We'll see you next Wednesday when I talk to Toronto Harbour's JC and JFree.