Rosemary on Management, Laurel Van Ness’ Departure, Creative Freedom

Sportskeeda held a recent interview with Rosemary discussing Impact Wrestling’s newest change in management, Laurel Van Ness departure from the company, and having creative freedom for her character.

On the topic of Impact Wrestling’s management changing once again, Rosemary stated everyone backstage has a very positive reaction towards Scott D’Amore and Don Callis’ plans for the company’s direction. She also mentioned about feeling excited for the upcoming changes to make Impact Wrestling better in the long run.

“To anyone who’s concerned about it, these past tapings that we just did in January, were possibly the most positive feeling in the sense that it felt very fresh and it felt like we had a direction, which I can honestly say was the first time in a year. This new direction under Scott D’Amore and Don Callis … I know that Impact and TNA have constantly, through the years, asked fans to give them a chance. As a personal feeling, I honestly believe that if you were going to give Impact another chance, now’s the time. I felt the difference backstage in one taping block. And I think there’s really something there, going forward. And I’m excited about it. So, I hope other people can feel excited about it as well.”

On the topic of Laurel Van Ness’ recent departure from Impact Wrestling, Rosemary praised Van Ness for being very talented as a wrestler and for the friendship developed during their time together in the company. She mentioned others in the Knockouts division are ready to fill the void left by Van Ness.

“Laurel’s an amazing character and an incredible friend of mine. I know that she simply wants to go and expand and grow. She’s still very, very young in the business, she has so much more to offer and she’s already this good at doing a character, which is amazing. And I love her so much. She’s so talented. Wrestling is fluid. It never stops moving and it’s circular. There’s never an end. There’s no reason that down the road Laurel might not return to the Impact Zone. It’s that right now her part of the story is over and she might show up at a chapter down the road. It’s wrestling. Never say never. It’s definitely a loss not to have her as such a strong character in the division. But there are strong characters waiting to debut and waiting to come up as well. And we will fill the void as we always have with every departure. Same as we did with Maria’s departure. And we’ll keep doing so.”

On the topic of having creative freedom for her character, Rosemary stated she loves the amount of trust and freedom given to her by Impact’s Creative team.

“I really love the amount of trust Creative has in me, to bring this character to life since they don’t really tell me what to say. They tell me what point needs to come across in the promo. They tell me to say it like I would. They don’t give me any lines. And that kind of trust is huge in that they know that I know my character best and how it will come across organically. If you try to force the way Rosemary talks, it’s going to come across as very fake. … I would say 95% [of the lines are from me]. I definitely ask for advice and ask for help, if there’s something maybe I can’t figure out how to say. I never feel like I can’t approach somebody in Creative for a suggestion. That’s the openness of communication. You can ask for advice but they trust you to do it the way you would.”