Former WWE Superstar Mandy Rose Reveals Her NXT Halloween Havoc Gear Was Inspired by an Iconic Video Game Character

Amanda Saccomanno (WWE’s Mandy Rose) was with WWE for seven years before she was fired in 2022 when it came out that she was running a FanTime account on the side. At the time it was stated that the explicit content she was posting was “outside the parameters of the WWE contract.” The exposure caused her revenue to skyrocket and she has put that into other ventures, such as her podcast. Though she hasn’t wrestled for WWE or otherwise in over a year at this point, she still speaks fondly of her time in the company. 

While appearing on McKenzie Mitchell’s new YouTube show Threads, Saccomanno talked about a variety of topics and showed off a few of her ring-worn gears. Mitchell brought up the gear that Saccomanno won the NXT Women’s Championship at NXT Halloween Havoc in and it turns out it was largely inspired by one of the most recognizable video game characters of all time: Tomb Raider‘s Lara Croft.

“Obviously, when I won the title right before that is when I came back to NXT, and I went with the dark hair look,” Mandy Rose said. “I just had kind of a different vibe going; I just wanted to be a little edgier, I wanted to be taken a little more serious because it was always the “Golden Goddess,” and I wanted to switch it up. I always loved the red and black combination, but this is actually inspired from Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. She had that like sexy look, but also like badass look.”

The gear she’s referring to consists of a red corset-like top that resembles the one Doppelganger was pictured in for the Underworld game. Instead of the jeans, Saccomanno switched it out for Croft’s iconic shorts with the thigh harness. She would debut an all black version at one point, as well however the red and black would become somewhat of a signature for her in the later months of her WWE career. Another eye-catching piece largely resembled Nikki Bella’s with the red and black and backwards cap. That gear would eventually be sold by Saccomanno after her release and it made her a pretty penny in the process. 

Saccomanno held the NXT Women’s Championship for 413 days after defeating Raquel Rodriguez, the third longest reign in the title’s history. This would be her first and only in her tenure with WWE. During her time as champion, she had successful title defenses against Alba Fyre, Dakota Kai, Zoey Stark and Roxanne Perez, though Perez would be the woman that eventually defeated her in her final match.

H/T: WrestleZone