[5] Final selections for the team to travel to Toronto for the 2011 Roller Derby World Cup were released after a final training and selection bout between the "Probables" and the "Possibles" in New Plymouth in conjunction with the AoteaRUMBLE roller derby training retreat.

As roller derby is a young and rapidly evolving sport, this considerably restricted the pool of candidates for the position as most of the people with the best understanding of the rules, tactics and other requirements of the current state of the game were active skaters with a reasonable expectation of being selected to play.

On 24 October 2014, New Zealand's television 3 News published an interview with Marcia "Meat Train" Taylor about a discrimination complaint she had filed with the Human Rights Commission directed toward the team's head coach.

When the situation received attention from international blogs, the NZRDA removed their statements and associated comments from all social media channels; a move that many felt made matters worse.

[19] The statement was then displayed on the NZRDA's website, where visitors were unable to leave any public comments or feedback, leading to accusations of censorship.

[20][21] On 27 October, a Change.org petition was started that called for the immediate dismissal of Stacey Roper as the head coach of Team NZ Roller Derby.

Taylor was invited to join one of two International Vagine Regime (LGBT) teams playing an exhibition game at the World Cup.

[26] (Skaters' league affiliations as of the time of the announcement) New Zealand was named as one of the 40 teams to compete in the 2018 Roller Derby World Cup to be held in Manchester, UK.

[27] With no national body or group set up to manage the 2018 Roller Derby World Cup campaign following the collapse of the NZRDA, Team New Zealand veterans Terror Satana and Justass For All began the process of organising volunteers to create an executive group to oversee the campaign, including management, coaching, and selection.

Try-outs to select from an initial pool of 50 skaters were held in Auckland, Palmerston North, and Christchurch in December 2016.

(Skaters' league affiliations as of the time of the announcement) After a Team New Zealand training in June, the 32-skater squad, the Coaching & Selection Committee, and the executive committee collectively agreed to rename the team from 'Team New Zealand Roller Derby' to 'Aotearoa Roller Derby.

'[citation needed] The executive committee released a statement about the decision, saying that "roller derby communities here and abroad have led the way in terms of progressive inclusivity [and] New Zealand’s roller derby team are proud to continue that tradition by fully embracing our country’s indigenous name".