NXT women’s champion Raquel Gonzalez recently spoke with DAZN about a variety of different topics, including her big win at Takeover: Stand & Deliver, how she envisions herself at a WrestleMania, and her relationship with Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
On her relationship with Bianca and Rhea:
Yeah. I would say it’s not even so much just the new athlete, but I think it’s the new powerhouses. I think the women’s division has always had maybe one or two women that are considered powerhouse athletes, powerhouse sports entertainers. Now you have multiple ones but powerhouses that are different in their own styles as well because Bianca as we know is very agile, and she can flip, and she can jump. She’s strong, she’s powerful, and she can throw. Then you have Rhea Ripley, and she’s quick, she’s swift, she’s vicious, and she’s brutal with everything that she does. Then you have someone like me who’s taller, strong, and developing a more big man type of style. But at the same time, we all find our similarities amongst each other. I think that’s what pushes us to be the new kind of athlete, like you said, of the women’s division in WWE because we all came into the Performance Center it was something that was more unspoken, but it’s something that you develop when you’re a part of a team, and that is you push each other in a good way, you push each other to work harder, you push each other to make the other person want to work harder for themselves by being your best, but you also want to see them succeed. I think that’s what all three of us have in common is that we kind of share that as a group and as family and as friends.
How she envisions herself at a WrestleMania:
This weekend, I was definitely watching the performances. I will say for some of the other matches, I did envision myself. But because I do know Bianca and I do know Rhea, I mentally wanted to put myself in a position where I could enjoy their work, where I could enjoy what they were doing and enjoy it to the point of where I felt like I was celebrating with them at the end of both of their matches. I felt like I was up there with them. But I definitely will say that sitting at WrestleMania this year, I was envisioning myself being there one day as well and envisioning myself reaching new heights, new limits then and telling myself that I’ve come this far in four years since signing with the WWE and just expecting the unexpected for the next year to come especially because next year’s WrestleMania will be in Dallas with your precious Cowboys.