The Art Of Creative Pitches & What Chelsea Green Hopes To Learn From WWE Unreal On Netflix

“I'm equal parts nervous, excited," Green told The Takedown on SI. "I haven't watched it. So when the rest of the world sits down on July 29th to watch Unreal, I will also be sitting down to watch Unreal. Or I will be getting a margarita and ignoring social media. I haven't decided yet, but I'm excited.”

Pulling the curtain back and giving fans an honest view into her daily life is nothing new for the inaugural Women's United States Champion. Chelsea Green has long been an open book when it comes to her relationships, family, home life, her dogs and cats (shout out to Waffles who made multiple run-ins during our conversation), but everything is bigger when it's done on Netflix.

The streaming giant teamed up with Omaha Productions to dive into the lives of these amazing performers during some of the most stressful, rewarding, painful and sometimes heartbreaking weeks of their careers.

Still an avid fan of Total Divas, which saw its stellar nine season run on E! come to an end back in 2019, Green felt right at home in the reality TV setting and could not have been more complimentary of the production crew tasked with capturing her life on film.

"They just ended up being my friends that I talked to that hold a camera. I really have gotten to know all of them. I love them. They've been to my house, they've been on the road with me. They've watched me break my nose, they've watched me cry. They've watched me win a title.”

Green captured her first singles championship on December 14 of last year when she defeated Michin at Saturday Night's Main Event inside of a packed Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in New York.

Winning the Women's United States Championship was the culmination of a 10-year journey for Green that was filled with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, including having to overcome numerous injuries and her release from WWE in April of 2021.

If there's anything Chelsea hopes gets fully captured during her arc in WWE Unreal, it's all the hard work, pain and disappointment she endured, and the sacrifices she made, just to call herself a champion.

“I truly feel like once you watch it, you are almost going to respect how the cake is made tenfold and you're going to understand where we're coming from as performers,” Green said. “You're gonna learn the rigorous travel schedules and the amount that we work and the effort we put into that three minute match that you might see.”

While the series may give wrestling fans a new appreciation for what it takes to be a successful WWE Superstar, the same may ring true for the wrestlers when it comes to learning more about those who control their creative fate.

There have been many times that Chelsea Green has found herself wanting to be a fly on the wall of a creative meeting. Now she and the rest of the world will finally get to hear some of those conversations firsthand.

“I asked so many of the writers, what was it like when you sat down and you all decided that I was gonna be the first ever United States Women's Champion? I need to know. Did you vote on it? Was it split 50-50 and one person had to make the call? Did you flip a coin? Did you fight over it? Was it unanimous? Does everyone love me so much that I had to be the choice? Like, I wanted to know.”

While genuine curiosity will be more than enough to garner Green's attention, it's also a safe bet to say that - in addition to her margarita - Green will have her notepad on standby during Tuesday's premiere. Ready to jot down any piece of information that could be useful to her in the future.

“Know that I am just throwing s— against a wall when I send in my pitches. I have no idea what they like or don't like. I have no idea when I write it, should I keep it to one sentence? Should I keep it to three paragraphs? Should I write an essay? Like, there's no right answer, but maybe once I watch this there will be.”

Whether she's home watching TV, working out at the gym, trying to relax on vacation or lying in bed at night, Chelsea's mind is constantly churning out ideas. And she doesn't allow many of them to go unheard.

At least once every single month, often multiple times, Green will compile a list of her best ideas and get to work on her three step process of getting them in front of the decisionmakers in WWE.

“I first start out by planting the seed with creative. I like to tell a couple people, ‘This is what I'm gonna pitch, just you watch out.’ Then I send an email. The email is proofread, it's beautiful looking, it's aesthetic. There's the bullet points. Then there's the long form… maybe a photo in there. And then I hit 'em the third time with a text and the text usually goes out to the top dogs.”

That text message includes brief bullet points that allows the recipients the option of not diving into the full breakdown if they don't have the time, or if they don't want to, but the hope is that those main details will entice them to want to read further into her idea.

And it's never just one proposal that Chelsea sends into the creative team. They always come in batches of three.

One recently successful pitch came back in March, when Green saw an opportunity to add a new member to her Secret Hervice. As Alba Fyre became creatively available, Chelsea and Piper Niven hopped into action to recruit their old travel partner and roommate.

Green admittedly has been getting the greenlight from WWE a fair amount recently, so her creative ideas have not been coming in as hot and heavy as they have in the past. But there are still those 'what could have been' ideas that did not make it to television, that still eat away at her.

“Oh my gosh, there's so many,” Green said. “The ones that I can really harp on right now would definitely be my pitch to become Lilly, Alexa Bliss's doll. Someone has to do it. Someone has to do it. She has to do some wizardry and make this doll come to life and be her tag partner.”

The irony of that particular pitch is that Charlotte Flair, the woman who once tore Lilly to pieces, is now Alexa Bliss' tag team partner.

It was also well-documented that Chelsea Green really wanted a match against Nikki Bella at WrestleMania 41, and perhaps that could particular pitch will be a storyline that plays out on WWE Unreal.  

“I really wanted it. I offered to do a hair versus hair match and it never happened. And that's one that… maybe it's a good thing that I'm not a peanut head with no hair, but I would've done it for Nikki Bella.”

Green did finally get to wrestle Nikki Bella earlier this month on Monday Night Raw, in what was the WWE Hall of Famer's first singles match in seven years. It was an absolute honor for Chelsea, who considers Nikki to be a true trailblazer for women's wrestling.

You can hear more about Nikki Bella, WWE Evolution and finishing her match against Zelina Vega with a broken nose when our full conversation with Chelsea Green premieres Friday afternoon on our YouTube channel.