Vince McMahon Wants To Turn Female SmackDown Wrestler Into A “Star”

Mr. McMahon

Back in 2015, Vince McMahon pegged Lana as WWE’s next breakout female star. The WWE Chairman wanted to do big things with “The Ravishing Russian” after breaking her character off from Rusev, but her momentum came to a standstill when she injured her wrist from wrestling training and revealed to TMZ that they had gotten engaged (despite being at odds with Rusev on television).

Similarly to Lana, McMahon now sees SmackDown LIVE competitor Mandy Rose as WWE’s next breakout female star.

“Vince is also very high right now on the idea of making Rose a star,” Dave Meltzer wrote in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter published today.

“Basically, it’s the similar mindset they had earlier with Lana, with the big introduction, before she faded into becoming another woman on the roster and then was put back with Rusev.”

Rose’s character is what McMahon wanted Emmalina to be. According to former WWE employee James McKenna (who now writes for Pro Wrestling Sheet), when management realized that Emma was a bad fit for the character they envisioned, McMahon insisted that Rose would be perfect for the role.

It looks like Rose will be entering a feud with Naomi. On this week’s Christmas episode of SmackDown LIVE, Rose tried to get Jimmy Uso under the mistletoe but instead felt the wrath of a furious Naomi.