Madusa, fondly recognized as Alundra Blaze in WWE, is a pioneer for women’s wrestling and truly left her mark during the traditional era of the sport.
A WWE Hall of Fame inductee, Madusa carved her path to success by bagging the Women’s champion titles in both WWE and WCW. The ex-wrestler made headlines when she publicly discarded the WWE Women’s Title in a trash can on WCW Nitro after a significant move to the promotion.
In recent times, on her podcast named “Paving the Way”, Madusa shared her experiences attending the AEW women’s training sessions, where she was invited to offer her valuable insights.
Madusa spoke about how she noticed a lack of true talent at the sessions. It came as a surprising revelation to her later that these sessions, led by Dustin Rhodes, were actually voluntary.
She described, “When I first visited AEW, I discovered that they were conducting optional training sessions that Dustin [Rhodes] was leading. He invited me to join. Initially, I thought I would just observe the training, but then he asked if I wanted to contribute to the girls’ training. I was truly honored.”
“Despite being ready to come forward and take charge, I felt that would not be appropriate. So, I decided to communicate with the girls and welcome them to come to me for advice or mentorship. I believe that sitting outside the ring, observing, and absorbing can prove to be a great way to learn. But to my surprise, when we were about to start, there was hardly any trainee present. The fact that training led by an experienced professional like Dustin was happening free of cost and yet there was a lack of enthusiasm among the new talents baffled me.”
Madusa highlighted, “I tried to make sense of the situation and questioned Dustin about the need for mandatory presence especially when most of them were on contract and being paid. Given the situation back then, the quality of work was poor, and a need for learning was evident. It left me wondering as to why anyone wouldn’t want to capitalize on such resources.”
“During my subsequent visits, I interacted with the trainees and found out that some of them did not feel the need to attend practice sessions. On one such occasion, a team member told me that she did not need to attend as she was part of the injured list. Surprisingly she looked fine and fit, proving that you never truly know what’s happening on the inside.”
“When questioned further about her non-attendance, she defended herself by stating that practice was optional for her, thus revealing a casual attitude towards the training. This experience made me ponder over the motivations of current-era female wrestlers – whether it’s purely a source of income or are they genuinely respectful towards the sport.”
Here’s the video: https://youtu.be/kqO9jB0HGr0