During an appearance on Busted Open Radio, Raquel Rodriguez (formerly Raquel Gonzalez in NXT) talked about her transition from NXT to WWE SmackDown:
“It was exciting, relieving, crazy, every emotion you can think of. I’ve been at the PC since late 2016 and have been training. I didn’t have my debut until 2020 with Dakota Kai. It’s been a long journey for me. I did college basketball before that and trying to find my way back into this world that I wanted to be a part of so much because my father was a wrestler as well, I’m a second-generation wrestler, it was something that felt like a long time coming, but it was quickly squashed because I know this is not a moment to settle or stop working hard. This is a moment to keep proving myself and prove to everyone that I do belong on Friday Night SmackDown.”
“When I first started at the PC, a lot of the coaches like Matt Bloom always got mad at me for constantly walking around the PC, no cameras, and we’re smiling. He’s like, ‘You have to learn how to stop smiling. You gotta stop smiling and be intimidating.’ I get so excited about being in this position because it’s something I always wanted and I sacrificed and worked hard for. I can’t help but smile. Coming up to SmackDown, I was fully ready not to smile and be this intimidating bad mother trucker and put that on-screen, but the thing they asked from me was to smile. At this point, I feel so comfortable doing both. I can talk to you, look at you, and smile and tell you how excited I am, but I definitely think that if you say anything that is against what I believe, I will bust through the screen and I will find you.”
