Chelsea Green thought her title defense against Nia Jax was a banger. The online reaction was different, and she says she’s made her peace with it.
Green successfully defended the WWE Women’s Championship for the first time on the September 11 episode of SmackDown, beating Jax in Mexico City. Speaking on Notsam Wrestling with Sam Roberts this week, Green said the reaction in the building and the response online were two completely different things.
“Yes, I did break my orbital bone, and then I wrestled Nia. And I thought it was a banger of a match, but the internet told me otherwise,” Green said. “One thing about them, they stay humbling me. For 13 years I can’t get a big head.”
The criticism centered largely on the finish. Green was working with a protective facemask, Jax controlled most of the match, and the closing sequence drew notice for a botched finisher and an assist from Tiffany Stratton, who cut off Lash Legend at ringside before she could interfere. The result stood and Green retained, but the sloppiness at the end became the talking point rather than the win.
Green said her husband, Matt Cardona, reminded her that nobody tweets about a good flight, and that she has chosen to weigh the opinions of people she actually trusts. She pointed to Jordynne Grace as someone who would tell her the truth either way.
“My friends are also very real with me. Jordynne Grace is very, very real, whether I want to hear it or not. She told me she liked the match. That’s who I trust,” Green said. “Oh, she would tell me in depth if she didn’t like it.”
Green said she is aware of the contradiction in her own position.
“The problem is, is that I always preach if I’m gonna believe the good stuff, I have to believe the bad stuff. And I do stand by that,” Green said. “But then it’s like, okay right now, oof, I better not believe anything.”
The gap between the live reaction and the online one is what she found hardest to square.
“It feels real personal, especially when Mexico City tells you that it was amazing, and they are loud the whole time. And you come back feeling like, ‘Yes! I just entertained the s*** out of them!'” Green said. “And then you get a whole different opinion elsewhere. It’s very jarring.”
Green, who left X in early July after being harassed over false claims about her political views, said stepping away from the platform is what keeps her sane. She has said in other interviews since that she will not return, and that the account was affecting her relationships at work.
“No, it’s deafening. So at the end of the day, you just have to touch grass. But I’ve always preached to touch grass,” Green said. “That’s why I don’t have X anymore, because I have to stay touching grass, or else, seriously, you will spiral.”
The Jax match was Green’s first defense, and it came under unusual circumstances. She won the championship at SummerSlam on August 2 in what was the biggest moment of her career, then broke her orbital bone five days later in a tag match against Fatal Influence. SmackDown general manager Nick Aldis asked her to relinquish the title, and she refused and was instead given thirty days to get cleared and defend it. She was cleared on the September 4 episode on the condition that she wear the mask at all times, with Jax booked as her challenger for the following week.
WWE retroactively removed the interim designation from the championship on September 11, so the Jax match stands as her first defense as undisputed champion rather than as interim titleholder.
The wider point Green is making is one a lot of wrestlers eventually land on. A live crowd and an online audience are two different rooms, and a performer in the first has no reliable way to know what the second is saying until afterward.
