Chelsea Green says she went into the SummerSlam ladder match at peace, blacked out on the way to the ring, and climbed as fast as she did because she was afraid the moment would be taken off her if she paused.
Green spoke to Nikki Bella on the Nikki and Brie Show on Friday afternoon, hours before the SmackDown on which she broke her orbital bone. She had no idea at the time what the show held.
“So I feel like for some reason I wasn’t nervous. I thought I would be nervous when this moment came, if it ever came. I thought I would be so nervous. I felt very at peace. I was like, whatever happens, happens.”
The entrance is where it went.
“But in that moment when I was making my entrance, I do feel like I kind of blacked out and I turned into like a little bit of a pop star, and it felt like my concert, you know. Like as I’m walking down to the ring, and I get into the ring and I’m having so much fun. I’m talking s*** to Tiffany. I’m waving at my mom and my dad. I felt like I was truly so at peace.”
It changed as the match went on.
“And then it changed throughout the match, I started getting more emotional as the match went on because I knew what was inevitably coming. And when I was dangling from the ladder, and Charlotte and Jade took that last bump, I felt electric. Like I was getting chills. I felt just like the whole crowd started rumbling, just like oh my god, this is our moment.”
She went up the ladder quickly enough that Bayley messaged her about it afterwards.
“And Bayley texted me the other day and said, girl, I’ve never seen someone climb a ladder so fast. Part of me in that moment was like, if I don’t get up there and climb that ladder and grab that title down, anything could happen if I stand there. Someone could push me off.”
“Not today. It’s gonna still be my moment.”
At the top, she stopped.
“When I got to the top, you see on my face that I’m almost about to cry before I take the title down, because it did feel like this was all worth it. Thirteen years, all the things I’ve missed. I’ve missed all my best friends’ weddings, their births of their kids, who they all call me auntie. I missed my dad’s wedding. I’ve broken bones. I had heart surgery. So much has led me to scurrying up that ladder.”
She could hear the building, and one voice in particular.
“Every face in the crowd was smiling. Everyone was cheering. Everyone was screaming. I heard my mom from across the ring. Get up, Chels. I heard it all, and I was actually upside down, and a referee was saying sweet nothings to me as I was upside down. I have to figure out who it was.”
“One of them was like, you got this, girl. Look around. Take this moment in. Okay, girl, go. And normally I don’t need those cues, but it was so nice.”
“I forced myself to look around and have that moment.”
Green beat Tiffany Stratton, Charlotte Flair, Jade Cargill and Lash Legend to become Interim WWE Women’s Champion on August 2. She was released by WWE in 2021 and returned in the 2023 Royal Rumble.
She broke her right orbital bone in a tag match on the August 7 SmackDown, five days after the win, and has given no timetable for a return.
