Thea Trinidad, known throughout her wrestling career as Zelina Vega, Rosita and now Xelina, paid tribute to her late father Michael on the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Xelina took to social media to share a special animated video honoring her father, who was killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center.
As previously reported, Xelina also reflected on the bond she shared with her father through professional wrestling during a recent interview with The Takedown on SI. She recalled attending wrestling events with him as a child, including WCW Halloween Havoc 1997, where they watched the memorable Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero match.
She also remembered her father buying her a Hardy Boyz T-shirt as a child.
Years later, during her reign as WWE Women’s United States Champion, Xelina brought the title to the 9/11 Memorial in honor of her father. However, she remains determined to eventually return with a World Championship.
“Even though I got to bring the United States Championship to the 9/11 Memorial, I still have this urge to bring him a World Title,” Xelina said.
Following her latest WWE departure, Xelina acknowledged that she doesn’t know where the opportunity to fulfill that goal could ultimately come from.
“I don’t know where that title comes from — I don’t know if it’s WWE. I left WWE in 2020, I came back, and now I’m gone again, and who knows what happens. But if it’s not with WWE, that doesn’t mean it can’t be with House of Glory, or TNA, or AEW, or CMLL, or wherever.”
Xelina also spoke about how professional wrestling helped her through one of the darkest periods of her life. While she struggled to fully process her father’s death as a child, she said the reality of what happened truly began to hit her when she was around 15 years old.
“It was the only thing that pulled me out of a dark depression. It really hit me when I was about 15,” she said. “I used to go with my dad every weekend, and even after 9/11, as a kid, I’d pack my bags thinking I was just going to go see him — like somehow he’d have gotten out of there.”
That grief eventually led Xelina back to something she and her father had shared together — their love of professional wrestling.
“By the time I was 15, it really hit me, and I asked myself, okay, what was the thing he and I shared the most? Professional wrestling.”
Xelina decided to pursue a career in the business as a way of chasing both her own dream and the dream her father had for her.
“So I thought, I think I can do this — for me, and to live his dream and mine at the same time,” she said. “I made a promise back then: I’m going to bring him a championship. That gave me a distraction, but it also gave me something to fight for.”
More than two decades later, Xelina says fulfilling that promise remains one of the things that drives her during her most difficult moments.
“I go into survival mode when I feel my lowest — tunnel vision on one thing. For me, that was it: I have this promise to keep, and I’m not going to feel fulfilled until I do.”
On this 25 year anniversary of 9/11.. I wanted to share my Mother’s StoryCorps video. A way to get a glimpse of that day thru our eyes. pic.twitter.com/YrIKG9EcnH
— XELINA (@ZelinaVegaWWE) September 11, 2026
