Ahead of her WrestleMania Showcase Match in SoFi Stadium, WWE Smackdown Superstar Raquel Rodriguez spoke with Fightful for in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the chat, the former NXT Women's Champion, two-time NXT Women's Tag Team Champion and WWE Women's Tag Team Champion discussed her friendship with fellow WWE Smackdown Superstar Shotzi.
Check out the highlights below.
On sharing a WWE tryout with Shotzi:
“You know what’s so funny? Shotzi was actually in my tryouts. So we both had our tryouts with NXT, I believe it was in 2016. She looked completely different. She was the only girl there that actually had wrestling experience at the time because I had just started out, my father was only letting me roll around and train with a select few. So my knowledge of wrestling was very, very minimal. So I’ve known her since then... Then getting the opportunity to know that I would go with EVOLVE and have my first gimmick—a street fight is what it was. So we were using chairs, we were using my bull rope, we were using ladders. That was the first time I ever had a match like that and it was against Shotzi. She was already known for being this hardcore super ready to do whatever and take whatever type of person. I was like, ‘Alright, this is where you really get tested if you want to do this. ‘Cause you gotta shut up or you gotta put up, and we’re gonna do it, dang it.”
On working with Shotzi on Smackdown and in NXT:
“It was really, really fun because I felt like we built a good friendship, a good bond, a good amount of trust where we could now bring that into NXT. My first ladder match was with Shotzi in NXT. I feel like our friendship has really grown over time and getting to tag with her on Smackdown and work against her on Smackdown. It’s been really, really fun to have those moments with her.”
Rodriguez will team with former Smackdown Women's Champion Liv Morgan at the "Shpwcase of the Immortals."
WrestleMania 39 goes down on April 1st and 2nd in Inglewood, California and airs live on Peacock and WWE Network
