Chelsea Green reaches her mountaintop at WWE Money in the Bank event

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Make no mistake, Canadian World Wrestling Entertainment star Chelsea Green knows exactly what awaits her on Saturday at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto when she participates in the women’s Money in the Bank ladder match.

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The match, she said in a Zoom interview with the Toronto Sun, is the culmination — her reward, if you will — of a decade of busting her ass, paying her dues, biding her time, working hard, remaining humble and most of all, believing in herself, even when many others didn’t.

“I feel like this, these past 10 years, have led me to this moment,” said Green, a Vancouver Island native and one six women slated to square off in the match on Saturday night. “There have been times in my career where I’ve kind of thought: ‘Oh, maybe it was all worth it for this moment,’ but truly, being able to be back in WWE, be at a (premium live event), have it be Money in the Bank and have it be in Canada, this is it. I’m sorry, but it just does not get any better than coming home for a PLE and possibly being able to show off a Money In the Bank briefcase to my friends and my family.”

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Every now and again, even 10 years into her career, Green admits she still has to pinch herself.

“It’s been the craziest journey,” she said. “You guys have followed me through so many ‘no’s,’ so many broken bones, so many failed character attempts and successful character attempts and all sorts of things. I think that coming to Toronto this weekend, it makes it all worth it.”

Green, who is absolutely one of the best characters in the WWE at the moment, admitted she used to chase the high of showcasing her wrestling skills in an attempt to prove to companies, fans and herself that she could do it at the highest level.

“For the first five years of my career, I felt like I was just chasing the carrot that was always dangling in front of me and I was never able to catch it,” she said. “And then, once I calmed down and I looked back and I realized it’s not necessarily about where I’m trying to go, it’s about all the things that I did along the way, that’s when I just slowed down and realized: ‘OK, WWE may not open the door for me right now. Because WWE didn’t open the door for me, I was able to be a part of the amazing shows and these amazing companies and now that I am here, that’s what makes me unique.”

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But a shift in her thinking came when she realized that her true gifts might be in her character development and storytelling. The transformation has been incredible, with fans clamoring for as much Chelsea Green as they can get, particularly with her current persona.

“I worked 10 years to showcase my wrestling ability and now I feel like I’m at this place in my career where I actually don’t care because I realize that I’ve touched more people with this character than I ever could have with a wrestling move,” she said.

“I go back and forth because we’re narcissists, we love to get in the ring and have everybody tell us we’re amazing, so of course I want to do the Canadian Destroyer in Canada, I want to show people all the moves that they never got to see me do in WWE. But on that same front, I’m so proud of the character work I bring to the table because nobody else can be a character the way I can and I know that and I’ve found my niche and I’m grateful that I have that because not everybody has that. It’s a little bit of both, you know.”

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After an initial run with WWE between 2018 and ’21, Green was released and joined Ring of Honor and returned to Impact Wrestling before she made her WWE return at the 2023 Royal Rumble. With the WWE brass focused on long-term storytelling and in-depth character development, Green has been able to shine during her current tenure, as evidenced by her spot in the Money in the Bank match in Toronto, where the  winner earns a contract for a championship title match, any time, any place, for a year. Opportunity knocks.

“I think with my character, as much as we’re going week-to-week and we’re building this character week-to-week, sometimes there’s something to be said about not rushing things,” Green said. “WWE and wrestling fans, they’re very smart, very smart. And when you have something shoved down your throat, you don’t like it, and you tell us that. That’s the beauty of the long-term storytelling: We can really decide where we want to go and we can play with all of the avenues to how to get there and we don’t have to force anything down your throat, we don’t have to tell you what to like and what to dislike because you tell us and then we can evolve from there and we can make sure that the end result is something that we wanted while you guys got us there. That’s the beauty of long-term storytelling.”

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Backstage, she said, the talent is enjoying the new era of WWE immensely, which has created a lot of camaraderie.

“We have to have great chemistry with the people in our locker room because we are going back and touching on storylines from months ago or last year and we need to remember what made this connection special,” she said. “What did we do together that the people liked? What did we do together that the people didn’t like?”

Green isn’t shy when asked about the long and arduous road she took to reach the top.

“Oh my gosh, I could write a whole document on all of the things you could do, but at the end of the day, it’s as simple as if you want something, you’re going to do it, you’re going to get it no matter what,” she said about what advice she’d impart on today’s aspiring wrestlers. “I don’t believe in excuses. My parents don’t believe in excuses.”

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Green said she knew what she was signing up for.

“I knew I was going to have to pay a lot to go to wrestling school,” she said. “Storm Wrestling Academy (where she trained) is not cheap. I was going to have to wake up really early and I was going to have to go straight from wrestling school to my bar job and I was going to up till 2 in the morning and I was going to do it all over again. That was the only way that I could pay my bills, go to school, pay for wrestling school, pay for new gear and I continued to do that all the way for the first five years of my career. I was trying to kind of juggle that work/wrestling balance and there are so many other people who’ve done it. We saw Britt Baker do it with dental school, we’ve seen Deanna Palazzo do it now, she just got her history degree. We saw Nikki Cross get her masters. It is possible, but you have to want to do it.”

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She also dismissed any notion that there aren’t opportunities for wrestlers in Canada to chase their dreams. She, after all, is living proof.

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“A lot of us in Canada say it’s like the black hole of wrestling. You can wrestle here and you can be successful, but its really hard to get out,” she said. “It’s not. It’s not. If you want to, let me tell you something: I packed my bags and I drove down to America and flew to England and I went to Mexico, all while saying that I had bachelor parties and bachelorette parties (to attend) … Is it legal? Absolutely not. Am I telling anyone else they should do it? No. But I did whatever was necessary to get in these countries to shake hands, to meet people. I found out every single person in WWE’s email and I spammed them until they gave me a tryout. I didn’t get these things handed to me. I just kept not taking ‘no’ for an answer and figuring out another way. There’s always, always, always a way. You know what, Kris Jenner says if you’re getting a ‘no’, you’re speaking to the wrong person and I totally agree. Someone else is going to say ‘yes’, you just have to bug them hard enough.”

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On Saturday, when she walks down the ramp to compete in the biggest match of her career so far, Green said she plans to soak it all in.

“That was one thing I tried to do in January when SmackDown came to Vancouver,” she said. “I really tried to look around and hear what people were saying and find my mom in the crowd and find my girlfriends up in their box and listen to the reactions. I did that and I’m so thankful that I did because it’s a moment that I will never forget. When I step out there, when I make my entrance, I’m absolutely going to take a couple of more seconds to just take it all in. Not many people get these opportunities to wrestle on a PLE for the best company in the world in their home country. I’m very, very excited and if you see me doing my entrance extra slow, that’s why.”

And she’ll do so proudly as a WWE superstar and as a Canadian success story.

“I’m very proud of my story. I’m proud that I didn’t give up,” Green said. “I’m proud that I got a ton of ‘no’s’ and I just kept going and I’m proud that you guys witnessed that with me. You were there for the journey, because now look at this. This is it. We’re at the top of the mountain.”

[email protected]

x.com/Jan_Murphy

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