Raquel Rodriguez Reflects On Her Walmart Announcement, Her Father Being A Wrestler, Ronda Rousey, Liv Morgan
Raquel Rodriguez joined Chris Can Vliet on his popular INSIGHT podcast for an in-depth interview covering all things WWE.
During the discussion, the WWE Women’s Tag-Team Champion spoke about being a three-time tag champion along with Liv Morgan and how they are compared to Shawn Michaels and Diesel, her father being a wrestler, joining The Judgment Day, her Walmart announcement, working with Ronda Rousey and more.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where she touches on these topics with her thoughts.
On being a 3 time Women’s Tag Team Champion with Liv Morgan: “Well, not just me, but greatest. Well yeah, me and Liv are the greatest female tag team ever. I mean, you can’t deny it. We’re the first three time. Look at us work like a team. I mean, the past two matches, we’ve had tag matches with Dakota and Iyo, banger, the one we just had the other day when we won these bad boys back, banger, we can’t help it.”
On her father being a wrestler: “Yeah, his name was Rick Desperado Gonzalez. He went by Speedy Gonzales for a little bit. He mostly worked the territories down in South Texas, Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana. He came up to Ohio a little bit. But yeah, that’s what his main area was, like the NWA era.”
On Raquel and Liv being compared to Shawn Michaels and Diesel: “I love it. I love it. I absolutely love it. I feel like Dakota and I had those comparisons in NXT too when we were tagging and so I was calling myself Big Mommy Cool for a while, because I love it. I don’t know if Rhea Ripley’s gonna like that. No it’s really, really cool and what a comparison to be compared to Diesel. He was just known for his swag and his attitude and his confidence so I tried to bring that. Especially coming back from my illness. I was like I want to come back and I just want to exude confidence. I want to exude machismo to quote a little bit of WWE there with Razor Ramon. But machisma. So yeah, I love that comparison.”
On becoming a part of The Judgment Day: “I had my connection with Liv, of course. So I had that beautiful connection with Liv. So when I was getting healthy and coming back, we talked a little bit and she was like, I think this is something that would be beneficial for the Judgment Day, especially just having her at the forefront with Dominik and I think it just brought another element to the Judgment Day. So it really wasn’t hard for me. I think I was just born in.”
On her Walmart announcement: “You know what’s funny is they put that meet and greet on us last minute. So Liv and I got up early, and we’re like just around. We’re just having our little fun morning, and we go to do this meet and greet, we’re waiting, we’re just being us, having fun, getting ready, and we’re excited. We walk out to the Walmart through the back door where they have the table and everything set up, and I see the phone with the intercom, and the guy’s like, ‘Hey, I think I’m gonna make an announcement just so people in the store know we’re about to start the meet and greet.’ I was just like, ‘Can I do it?’ I don’t know why, what came over me, but I was like, Can I do it? I just wanted to be on a Walmart intercom. So I was like, this seems like a prime opportunity. And also I don’t think I was on that meet and greet with Liv. I think I just showed up with her because I was staying with her. I was like, I have nothing else to do, let’s go together. So we did, and I wanted to introduce her, and I got to introduce her as the greatest women’s world champion of all time. I got to introduce her as the first-ever Crown Jewel champion. And we had a really good little meet and greet.”
On how Liv and Raquel were paired up: “I have no clue to be honest with you, no clue. They put us together when I had just gotten called up, I was still pretty new to the main roster and we were getting ready for WrestleMania. They were talking about an eight woman tag, and I think they needed tags at the time. There weren’t too many actual tag teams. So I think we just were in a random match together and we had really good chemistry. To be honest, we weren’t even really good friends then, she had her friends and her crew that she kind of hung out with, and I had mine, so we worked together and we did really well together and things just kind of like grew from there. Then Mania happened in LA, that was my first Mania and I got to tag with Liv, and we had the cool Powerbomb move. I think that was something that opened people’s eyes to what we were able to do. Then the Monday after Mania they were like, You guys are tagging again. It’s funny, because that Monday too, I remember we were in completely opposite matches, she was in a triple threat with two other people, and I was in a triple triple threat with two other people. Literally as the show’s about to start, the doors are opening, people are coming into the arena they’re like, scratch that, putting you guys into tag. So it just kind of went from there. I think what makes Liv and I work really well too is that we want to really elevate the tag division, we want to elevate any match that we’re in together, and we want to elevate each other. So when we talk about what we want to accomplish that night, or what we want to do with these tag titles, it’s always being on the same page with each other. So that comes with building a relationship with each other too. Because if we want to show people how good our chemistry is in the ring, we should have that outside too. So we really took the time to bond and become friends and yeah, it’s been so much fun ever since, because we really are good friends. Sometimes you have people who aren’t friends that are tag teams, and they’re great, and you’d still never know. But Liv and I, we really just got along, and we had a lot of the same values and beliefs, and it just worked. And so it was really, really fun getting to tag with her the first year, the second time we won it in London at Money in the Bank. Yeah, it’s been amazing.”
On working with Ronda Rousey: “When I first got called up to main roster to work with Ronda, I was like I felt the pressure, for sure, and when I talked to people about being able to work with her and how amazing she is, it’s always mind blowing to me still that I got that opportunity to be in the ring with her and work with her and know her and put on what was a really good match. It was a really good mix up that we had.”
