Chelsea Green On Being US Champion, Michael Cole Hating Her, Wrestling Against Penta, Matt Cardona

On wrestling under her real name:

"I’m blessed, and I think about that often. Let me tell you, I think about that so often, because when I got into wrestling I so badly wanted to change my name. I wanted an alter ego. I thought that was the whole point of wrestling. You have an alter ego and you turn it on when you get to the ring. Then I realized that some of the best wrestlers are just themselves turned up and then I couldn't imagine being anyone else but Chelsea Green. I really, really despised the name Laurel Van Ness to my core. When people call me Laurel I was like, Oh God, and that's why I never related to that name. I related to all the characters I played, but the name I was like, no, please just call me Chelsea. I couldn't change my Instagram to Laurel. I just couldn't do it. And all my girlfriends were doing it. Allie was doing it, Sienna was doing it. Rosemary still does it. But I just wanted to be Chelsea Green, and I wanted people to know who Chelsea was."

On the inspiration for Laurel Van Ness:

"I will give Madison Rayne all credit for that name in terms of we put a lot of thought into what we were gonna name me. We knew I was gonna be some sort of rich girl that was bratty and snobby. The very typical girly heel, snotty, bratty, daddy's girl. So we kept coming up with different names that were very rich-sounding. I really liked the name Whitney. I thought, if I could call myself Whitney, I thought that was so giving Bratz dolls or Barbie and so I really liked Whitney. I tried for it to be Whitney. I can't remember why that never happened. Then we had a couple of other names, and then we were really stuck on a last name, and we kept going back to it had to be two names, like really rich names, or I don't know, like Van DeBilt."

"Then we were gonna go Van DeBilt and we couldn't get it approved. It was too convoluted with everything Van DeBilt. So last minute I walked out, I looked back on the Tron and I'm like, Laurel VanNess, and it was one word, and then I realized, no they had got it wrong. The Tron people had got it wrong, and it was supposed to be Van Ness. I don't know why I just spoke about that for so long, but I didn't like it. It's a great story and every little bit of me has been defined by a character. You know, my indie run was at the beginning, was Jaida, that was my very first name, and then Laurel Van Ness and Reclusa and the hot mess, I like that. It's boring if it just all meshes together."

On her WWE release in 2021:

"So I was in my kitchen with Santana Garrett and I got a call from Johnny Ace, who was in the office at the time. He was very sweet and told me we wish you the best, blah, blah, blah. I immediately got out a pen and paper and I was like, What do I want to do? Where do I want to go? What are the things that I didn't do the first time around that in hindsight when I got to WWE, I was like damn, I wish I had that on my resume. I wish I could say that I had done that. It was NWA, Ring of Honor, and then I think a couple of countries maybe, but mostly NWA and Ring of Honor were two companies that I was like, if I had just had that on my resume I could have been one of the only girls to say I did it all. Because I worked for TNA, I worked for Lucha Underground. I had worked All In, which was AEW, then NWA and Ring of Honor. Maybe now you could say New Japan, because they have the girls, but you couldn't say that at the time. So if I just could do that, then I've done everything. So I set out on my goal to do those. And I think I did those even before my 90 days was up, I called the office and asked to be released in my contract early, stopped getting paid early so I could do those shows. Then I did that and I'm like oh, boy. Okay, so now I've done it, how do I make an impact and get back to WWE?"

On a possible Matt Cardona return to WWE:

"We're waiting. It’s gonna happen, I hope. Honestly, I could go on a whole podcast rant about all the things he's done and why he deserves to be back, there's nobody who has recreated themselves like him. Cody did a great job of recreating himself, but at the end of the day Cody is Cody. Matt was a babyface for almost 20 years in WWE. His career was just all him being a babyface. Nobody believed he could be a heel and then he went out and became the biggest heel on the Indies ever. Well, I actually think the biggest star the Indies has ever seen, period." 

On why Matt Cardona hasn’t worn the Women’s US Title for an indy match:

"So what happened is he found out. When I was winning it we kind of found out maybe right before, and he went and tried to get one sent to him. Before they were even released, they were only going to be dropped that night when I won the title in Long Island. So we contacted Fanatics. We tried to get one early because he had a GCW show at 8 pm on the West Coast. So if I won around eight to nine, if he had that title, he could come out with it, and I would have won with the time change. But it never got to our house in time. So then he was like the buzz has kind of worn off, you want to do it right when it happens. He really didn't have a show, then it was Christmas, so he didn’t have a show for a couple of weeks. One thing about us, we're gonna do things right when it happens. We're gonna try to be topical, or else you don't really trend the same way." 

On the original plan to win the Women’s US Championship at Survivor Series:

"I was supposed to win it at Survivor Series in, not only in Canada on the West Coast. And do you know how many tickets I bought for that show? [You had to buy them?] Oh, well, that's a whole other conversation. But keep in mind when I say bought [tickets], I had like 30 friends and family there. I had every bridesmaid and I had like 12 bridesmaids. I had every bridesmaid there, all of their partners. I had their babies there. I had all of my family, my mom's friends, everyone was there. I don’t know when the plans changed, but when I found out was probably a week before."

On fans wanting to see Chelsea Green win Money in the Bank in 2024:

"That was how I felt, too. I was just hoping and praying it was gonna be Money in the Bank. But when it was Tiffy I was like that makes sense. Also I feel she's such an amazing champion, she's so young. She has so much time ahead of her. She's gonna be a champion over and over and over again and possibly go on to be in the Hall of Fame. So I think this is a perfect start to her story. Give her something, and let's see how she rolls with it. Let's see how people latch on to that. It was great, and then it left this open for me. That's perfect." 

On a Trish Stratus dream match:

"When is it gonna happen? How many times does she have to come back and not wrestle me? What the hell? Trish, I could have been your tag partner in Toronto. Hello, I was there. She didn't choose me, but that's fine. I still love her. I really have always pushed for a Trish versus Chelsea versus Nattie match. I think that could be kind of amazing. It needs to be in Canada, of course."

On finding out she would win the Women’s US Championship:

"So the funny thing about WWE is they never really want to tell you something, because card subject to change is real. That's what they always say, card subject to change, because anything can happen outside of the ring, inside, on social media, public perception, anything can change. I can't tell you how many times I have shown up to work thinking I was going to do one thing and we have gone completely the other way. It's happening right now, my phone is going off, Change of plans. We're always rewriting the show, and it goes all the way up until we're live. Even then, things change as we're live. So they kind of started telling me, people kept acting like I knew I was gonna win and talking to me like I knew I was winning, so they're just talking to me like, okay, and then we're gonna do this and this. And I'm like, Okay, so I think I'm winning, but I don't want to ask anyone because that's embarrassing. 'Um, hey, by the way, am I winning?' What if I'm not? What if I'm totally misinterpreting all this? So they did this to me for I would say a month of talking to me like I was winning without actually knowing. Michin also kind of told me, 'Hey, by the way, it looks like you're winning so let's plan this match with that in mind.' We kind of spoke about that a week before and I was like, okay, but I want to build the match not like that. I want to build the match so that anyone could win at the finish, and then whoever wins we just sneak one out on the other one. So I think we did a good job of that, but as we were walking to the ring to go through things I was being filmed. So that's a big telltale sign, you're being filmed for something WWE. So they had me walk to the ring, and then they had this very, very, very awkward moment between me and Shane Helms where he basically told me that I'm winning, we were just all downplaying it big time and it was very awkward. I hope that footage comes out, because Triple H is sitting there watching us have the conversation, but he's not telling me. But obviously he decided it, and I'm like this is so weird that he's watching me react, so I'm trying to be excited, but I've also kind of known and hoped that this was gonna happen, and then I'm also like but if I react too big is that kind of icky? I'm so excited I'm winning, do you know what I mean? A lot of emotions were going through me and I'm not a very emotional person too, so that doesn't help the reaction. So it was very awkward. So I hope that moment airs somewhere. I hope you guys all get to see that."

On her US-inspired gear:

"So again, when I found out that there was going to be this path to the United States Championship, Matt and I sat down and we're like okay, if I was the winner of this inaugural title, I can't have the title make me, I have to make the title. What can I do? I knew I wanted to take some inspiration from King Booker and stuff like that. We kind of went through all these different iterations and it all came so quickly. I truly hadn't come up with a game plan, because you're not gonna really come up with a game plan for this hopeful thing. So I kind of had floated a bunch of ideas by and then all of a sudden, oh my gosh, here I am. It's Long Island. I won it, now what? I had to make a decision very fast because creative asked me, What do you want to do for your celebration? That was my entry into this is what this title is going to be. This is what Chelsea is going to bring to the table as the first-ever United States Women's Champion. It had to be something special. And I'm like I'm going to be the President. I'm going to be so delusional, but topical, this is what's happening right now in America, let's be the president. Let's not call it a celebration. Let's call it an inauguration, and I need a stamp. I need a presidential seal. So I designed the Presidential seal and from there, it just snowballed. What I like to do with these characters is I don't flesh out the entire character. I like a good backstory, but I just know this is kind of what I want it to look like somewhat. Then every week someone gives me a new idea, just like the hot mess, like with the bride every week someone gave me a new idea and I was able to incorporate that into the character. And then with that you have your future laid out, so you've got your backstory already, and then you start to go from there and build the blocks to the future of this championship or this character."

On Michael Cole’s commentary on the dumpster match:

"I never know what's being said about me. I don't go back and watch my matches. I cannot watch myself. I give myself the ick so I can't do it. But when people sent me the clips of what Michael Cole was saying I was like, my god, you are a legend. I sent him a card, a pop-up card thanking him for doing commentary on the match where I won the United States Championship. The card was so obnoxious. It opens and it's a pop-up American flag, and I said, 'You're the greatest. I love to hate you.'" 

On fans wanting a match between Chelsea Green and Penta:

"I did not realize that that would [gain traction]. I mean, it got some traction when it first aired but not the way it has now. Oh my goodness, it's crazy to see how much steam it has picked up in the past couple of years. And then obviously, when he signed with WWE, we ran into each other in the hall in Toronto, and he was like, 'You and me, rematch?' I'm like, I don't think so, pal. I think we're good. We did our one match, and everyone loves it, let’s not. But I do remember having the match and coming back, and everyone at Lucha Underground was so kind to me, so kind. I was hired at the end of the season, I came in, I killed Sexy Starr off, and then I teamed up with Marty and me and Penta had this crazy match. That's what dreams are made of. I didn't even have to put the work in. They worked all season to make this unbelievable show and I just came in and had this match with one of their top stars. I would have hated me, but they were so kind and so sweet to me and they all gave me these big hugs. I'll never forget John Morrison being like, ‘Chelsea I've never seen you wrestle like that, ever. I've already texted Matt and told him how incredible that was.’ I was like, oh, okay, wow, thank you. That's very nice. I thought he was being dramatic. Then of course, I never watched myself, so I see clips, but I never watched the match. Now I've basically watched it because my God, people this year have been showing me every single move I did. I'm like, damn."

What is Chelsea Green grateful for?

"The support of my husband, the fans, and having this job long enough that I can take care of my family."