WWE star and former NXT women’s champion Raquel Rodriguez recently joined Ryan Satin’s Out Of Character podcast to discuss a number of different topics, including what one of her biggest struggles was since joining the main roster, and how Scott Garland played a huge part in her success. Highlights from the interview are below.
One of her biggest struggles when first coming into WWE:
Right now, there’s a really good amount of my real true self [in my on-screen character]. I know a lot of people have said that they like the Raquel from NXT that was always serious and didn’t smile and I think I’ve only told this story once but when I first started at the Performance Center, they could not get me to stop smiling and I’m supposed to be this big and tall and intimidating character and that was my biggest struggle really was trying to stay serious when you’re just having fun and that’s what it was and it always has been to me is I’m out there, I’m doing something I love, I’m having fun doing it, I’m doing it with my friends, why wouldn’t you wanna smile? Right? [Rodriguez laughed]
Credits Scott Garland (Scotty 2 Hotty) for helping her progress as a wrestler:
I got to work with Scotty 2 Hotty and Scotty is a huge entertainer and he really brought out something in both Rhea [Ripley] and I. We’ve said it multiple times, he brought something out in us that we were missing and that was the entertainment part and he helped us with our movement in the ring and the aspects of our characters and stuff like that. It was really, really insightful to be in his class and to be able to work with him and with some of the athletes that were in there as well.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling
)