Written by Kimmy Sokol
It’s the dream of every athlete to make it to the big time. The quarterback playing high school football on Friday night dreams of making it to the NFL. The power hitter grinding it out in the batting cages for hours long to hit a walk-off home run in Yankee Stadium. For professional wrestlers, it’s the dream to make it to World Wrestling Entertainment and perform at the “The Showcase of the Immortals” — Wrestlemania.
The dream of wrestling fame Chelsea Green for seemed to become reality when she signed with WWE in 2018. However, after suffering two broken wrists during her tenure and infrequent television appearances, she was released from the company in 2021.
Yet broken bones, unemployment, and even the pandemic couldn’t stop the Canadian-born wrestler from realizing her dream of becoming one of the top professional wrestlers in the world in 2022.
“I obviously gave myself a little bit of time to be upset, like um about 10 minutes, but I was thinking of what is something that hasn’t been done and I was not just thinking female I was thinking just in general.”
Chelsea Green spent 2022 defying traditional pro wrestling logic. Instead of immediately signing a contract with another wrestling company, she blazed her own path by working numerous nationally televised promotions at the same time. Green’s success set the landscape for how many former WWE employees are navigating their careers.
She and her husband Matt Cardona have quickly become the hottest free agents in wrestling appearing monthly in Impact, NWA, and GCW. Although taking this route is risky Green is truly having the run of her career right now in all of these companies.
“This is something that I preached Matt to do when he was released, which was go everywhere and Matt wasn’t into the idea at the time he’s obviously very into it now, but by preaching that to him I knew that’s what I wanted to do so I reached out to every company that I could.”
The Canadian-born wrestler, who now calls Florida home, wasted no time as she made a very “honorable” debut at Ring of Honor’s Best in the World pay-per-view. ROH was set to reboot their women’s division and working in ROH was a dream for Chelsea Green and she finally got that chance in July of 2021.
“The bummer of it all is that I broke my arm (for a third time) a month before I was supposed to debut and this was a big deal for ROH that they were going to revamp their women’s division, but I was so thankful that Bobby Cruise and Maria Kanellis let me stick around and still be involved.”
Although she could not compete, Chelsea Green cut a very passionate promo in front of the crowd in Baltimore. She talked about how she had to prove to everyone she was enough, and how under the scars of the cast she truly is unstoppable. This led to a very emotional moment with Kanellis and Green backstage, where Kannellis told Green how proud she was of her and how she shut all her haters up.
“That was a moment I will never forget being able to come out on that pay-per-view and cut that promo. It’s a moment that not a lot of females have in Ring of Honor so I was really proud to be able to do that.”
Despite the fact she couldn’t compete, Green made her presence known throughout the summer-long Ring of Honor Women’s World Title Tournament. She commentated on the matches and gave her insight into what was going on every week. For Green, who is known to be very outspoken, this was a perfect fit for her to still be involved while rehabbing from injury.
“It was interesting for me because I have never been on commentary before. I have never put that headset on, I have never sat at that desk, I’ve only been on the other side in the ring. But I love talking if anyone knows me they know I can talk to a wall, I loved it I’m shocked I didn’t get canceled for anything because that’s usually what happens to me, it was a really cool learning curve and I have so much respect now for everyone on the commentary team that is not an easy job.”
From an honorable time in ROH to making an “impact” six days later at Impact’s flagship pay-per-view, Slammiversary on July 17th, 2021, Green — despite her injury — was a surprise tag team partner with her then-fiancee now-husband Matt Cardona to wrestle Brian Myers and Tenille Dashwood.
“It was amazing. I think people forget that we are so connected on social media and in our regular life that we are not connected at all in our wrestling life. That was the first time we had done anything in the ring together, in five years we only trained once together.”
Teaming with your real-life partner can be a fun and challenging experience — fun because you get to do something you are passionate about with someone you love, but challenging because you never know how two people can flow in the ring together and make the match truly work.
“We didn’t know how each other even handled ourselves at work let alone get in the ring and wrestle and have a working relationship with. Those are two very different things, personal and wrestling, but we really learned how to work with each other’s strengths. I mean we’re still working on it and we got into arguments at Slammiversary about it, and that whole week because we were trying to feel each other out.”
Green and Cardona join a small but elite group of real-life married couples in wrestling who have teamed together. Most recently The Miz and Maryse vs Edge and Beth Phoenix at The Royal Rumble. These two couples are married in real life and got to wrestle with each other on a larger stage.
As the summer started to wind down Green eventually got cleared to wrestle again. She appeared on ROH television weekly and wrestled great matches against the likes of Ashley Vox and Miranda Alize. She also continued to team with her husband on Impact Television for several weeks, as they lost to Deonna Purazzo and Matthew Rehwoldt.
The Canadian native made her presence known in Impact right away competing at Knockouts Knockdown, on October 9th, 2021. This was an all-women’s show dedicated to Daffney, a wrestler who committed suicide earlier this year. She competed in the Knockouts Knockdown tournament losing to Tasha Steelz in the semifinals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1JGlox7cn0
“I think that meant a lot to all of the women, all of us in wrestling have this connection to each other whether we know everyone or we don’t. I didn’t know Daffney but I did know Daffney and for us to put on that show for her and dedicate it to her really meant a lot to all of us and I think she really would have been proud of that show.
Considering how long fans have been interested in women’s wrestling it is hard to make a first-ever in the wrestling business, but Green found a way. She competed in the inaugural women’s Ultimate X match at Hard to Kill on January 8th, 2022. This match is all about the strategy of climbing up the ring post and crawling across the cables and grabbing the signature X. By winning this match you are granted a title opportunity.
“It was really terrifying. I was not terrified until I came out for my entrance and the bell rang. Usually and this is the case for a lot of wrestlers when the bell rings you snap out of it and your nerves are gone and I’ll be honest those feelings never left.”
Having the strength and perseverance for this type of match is the key to success. As Green has been knocked down before, she was able to keep fighting throughout the match and block out the nerves.
“As I was climbing the cables the first time I fell, and when I got up on the cables the second time I had to make sure I wrapped my feet around the cables. It is not easy and I think a lot of people see the guys do it and assume oh whatever, but it’s scary and really high up. It’s also kinda hard. I’ve broken my arm so my upper body strength is not like it used to be and I’m very long and tall so it was a challenge, and one I accepted with open arms, I was able to be a part of history and no one can take that away from me.”
The “impact” Chelsea Green had on the wrestling world would be felt on a show steeped in empowering women’s wrestling — the National Wrestling Alliance’s Empowerrr pay-per-view. This was a huge night for women’s wrestling and Green as she won a gauntlet match beating the likes of Masha Slamovich and Kiera Hogan to be able to challenge for the NWA Women’s championship the next night.
“I don’t cry very often I’m like an ice queen and I shed a tear after I won that match it meant a lot, and it didn’t just mean a lot to win that match, but it meant a lot to win that match in front of my peers, everyone that has supported me, in front of everyone that has been there for me and has been there for the journey and most importantly in front of women.”
All women’s pay-per-views do not happen very often and getting the opportunity to win the main event and make history was truly a breathtaking experience.
“I was given that spot of being in that match and being first out and introducing that main event and the fact that I lasted from start to finish won it and the fact I was able to stand there in front of all of those people that I love just means everything to me.”
Recently Chelsea Green and Matt Cardona found a new company to change the game in, Game Changer Wrestling, also known as GCW. This upstart promotion has had a lot of buzz lately. From competing on TV weekly this may seem like a downgrade as GCW only runs IPPV’s once a month, but Green and Cardona prove why GCW is truly changing the game in wrestling today.
“I have to give all credit to Matt on that one, when I saw the traction he was getting from there I thought it was just Matt doing what he does, but no GCW is a force to be reckoned with. There is no other indy company in the world that has done what GCW is doing right now, it is a new ECW and I think it is the biggest indy company in the world and it rivals with the best companies in the world.”
GCW ran the biggest wrestling show in Hammerstein Ballroom history. The Hammerstein Ballroom is in New York City, the city with the largest wrestling fanbase. The event was called The Wrld on GCW on January 23rd, 2022. The crowd was over 2,000 people and all of them booed Green and Cardona out of the building.
“It was amazing and it was one of the best feelings I have ever had. This moment for me was second to All In [one of the largest independent wrestling shows and pay-per-views in history]. I don’t think anything will ever beat All In and you have to remember All In was triple the capacity. I think what made it feel like All In is that the people got us there. The people sold out the Chicago arena for All In and the people sold out Hammerstein and they have backed GCW since day one and that’s why that show did so well.”
In the past six months, Chelsea Green has grown quite the resume. As she continues to want to hold gold and maintain the status of women’s wrestling’s hottest free agents the future is limitless for her, but one thing is for sure no matter where she goes she will forever and always add a “hot mess” atmosphere for the wrestling world to follow.
