Two-time NXT champion Roxanne Perez took time for some Q&A with The Post’s Joseph Staszewski before defending her title against former STARDOM and Marigold star Giulia star from Japan as the brand’s weekly show moves to The CW (Tuesday, 8 p.m.) at Chicago’s Allstate Arena.
(Edited for clarity and length)
Q How do you and the locker room view this opportunity to be going to CW now, to be on broadcast television, to be in more homes, and hopefully get more attention on the product?
A: I think it’s really cool, because we’re definitely going to be reaching a larger, younger audience. And I think what’s cool about that is that not only our women’s division, our men’s division too, we’re all so diverse. With that being said that we are going to have a younger audience, I think every single little boy and little girl is gonna have some representation to watch on TV.
Q: What would it mean for you to beat Giulia and put her in her place as she enters NXT for the first time?
A: I think it would put a stamp on my reign. I think everybody assumes that Giulia’s gonna come all the way over here from Japan and take my championship and take my spot that I’ve been working hard for for almost three years. I’ve been with this brand, NXT 2.0, since the very beginning. I’ve helped build it up, and I’m not just gonna let someone come in and destroy all that, I’ve definitely been overlooked, because people are very excited for Giulia. She is definitely one of the best women’s wrestlers in the world so I think it’s going to be awesome to mix it up with her. But the end is going to be the same.
Q: Does it feel like with this move to CW and the ramp-up to it, we’re moving into a different era in NXT, as far as the way the roster is going, where 2.0 was kind of all these fresh faces from the Performance Center, now we have Giulia, we got Stephanie Vaquer, Ethan Page is here. You have a few more of established people kind of coming to the brand.
A: It’s definitely a whole new era, and I’m excited to be leading it. I came from the indies. I think it’s really, really awesome that, you know, we’ve been hiring athletes (from other sports), and they pick it up so fast and they fall in love with it and they’re so talented, and they’re coming from all these different college sports, and I think that that’s what makes our division so unique and different. But I think it’s also awesome to be able to bring in independent wrestlers that, you know, these are two of the best women’s wrestlers from around the world.
Q: These next two shows are outside the Performance Center. Would you hope to get to the point where NXT is traveling for TV, either often or every week?
A: I would love that. I think that’s definitely what everybody is shooting for. That’s the dream, right? You know, traveling all around the world every Tuesday. So, yeah, hopefully. That would be amazing. But I also love our NXT crowd, you know, it’s very like intimate, and it’s usually the same people, and they love it, and they’re so into it.
Q: Obviously, the main roster is the goal long-term, but what has it meant for you, especially as a young performer, to be handed the ball here, where you’re the person wrestling Jordynne Grace when the TNA partnership starts? And you’re obviously the first opponent for Giulia coming in, and Stephanie is lurking.
A: It definitely shows me that all of the hard work that I’ve put into this was so worth it, because obviously I started training at 13, and obviously you’re not going to be able to get a lot of opportunities in wrestling at 13. I had, like, what, four or five more years to go, and I knew that, and it definitely was a little hard because other people around me were getting opportunities, and I knew that I couldn’t get those just yet.
But I also knew that if I put in those 10,000 hours I trained, put in the work when nobody saw what I was doing, I knew that one day I was going to be so undeniably good that I would be the leader of the brand. You know, I would be running the brand. I would be champion. I would be put in these matches, these big, big matches, and deliver as well. So, yeah, it’s a really good feeling at 22 years old.
Q: What was the transition like for you from this really true babyface to now being a heel? It kind of happened gradually on camera, but it felt like when it did happen, everything was there and clicked for you.
A: It was uncharted territory because I had never been a heel, ever, not even on the independent scene. Maybe once or twice, but I was always a babyface. It felt very natural to me. And then when I was going to do this change, it definitely was a challenge. But I love challenges, especially in wrestling, I love being able to learn new things and trying new things, and I think that’s like the magic of wrestling, trying new things, seeing if it works, seeing if it doesn’t. And I feel like this definitely worked for me.
I feel like it brought the moniker “Prodigy” to a whole new level. I called myself the Prodigy, but did I believe it? Did I really, really believe it? I don’t feel like I did until my second reign, and now other people are believing it to everybody around.
Q: Where did you go to find what you wanted to be as a heel?
A: I’ve watched wrestling my entire life, you know, studying the greats. Shawn Michaels was a great heel, CM Punk, A.J. Lee, The Rock. Learning from them, watching them, studying them, and taking bits and pieces and just creating, making it my own.
Q: Was it something that had to happen when Cora Jade got injured and they needed to go in that direction with you?
A: I’m not exactly sure how exactly everything was going to go, but I was ready regardless, regardless of whether I was the first option or I wasn’t, I was ready. And now, a few months later, I’m still here as your NXT world champion, putting on some of the best matches that I think the women’s division has had in a long time.
Q: What was the feeling like being in the ring with CM Punk and getting to do that segment with him last week?
A: That was, oh my gosh, I mean to have an in-ring promo with, like, the best promo I think ever, was so insane. It definitely was like a pinch-me moment. But the fact that I’ve been able to create a friendship with him and sit under his learning tree for months now, I think being able to have that relationship definitely made me so much more comfortable.
I do remember getting in the ring and starting to say my lines and just really feeling it because I was just like, wow, this is insane. I’m standing in the ring with someone that I looked up to my whole life. A part of me was like, well, I can’t believe this but another part of me was like, wait, I can believe this, because this is everything I’ve ever worked for. I felt like I definitely stood my ground. I gave him a little bit of attitude, something that he would have done a few years ago.
Q: What type of a resource has he become for you and some of the other performers?
A: Promos weren’t always my strong suit when I first got here, and he’s been able to help me so, so much with that and, you know, speaking and finding my own voice. I think he’s been like, so awesome, just giving me advice on, you know, how the business works and and how to keep my mind sane.
I’m really grateful for him and all the help that he’s given to all of us in NXT because he doesn’t have to come to the pay-per-views and watch us and watch every match and give us advice after every single match. He doesn’t have to do that, but he does because he cares about the future, and I think that is so cool to see.
Q: Does it feel like you’re at the point in your career where it’s like, ‘I’ve worked for this, I kind of deserve this’? Where maybe years before it was maybe like, I don’t know, or I’m still kind of figuring out?
A: I definitely feel like I have just put in so, so, so, so much work for this and and I think that that’s what gives me that confidence now is to know that I’m doing all of this for not only 10-year-old me that was just dreaming and dreaming of making this dream come true one day, but also for all of the future generations, the people, the young, little girls and boys that are looking at me right now on TV and and thinking, “Oh, I hope that one day I can do that. I don’t know if I can, but I hope that I can,” and I hope that I’m a representation to show them like, yes, yes, you can, if you just keep going, like, you just keep going, just keep going.
Q: When you’ve already been one of the few two-time NXT Women’s champions, you’ve been in two Royal Rumbles, what do you hope your legacy in NXT will be?
A: I hope that I’m remembered as the greatest NXT Women’s champion of all time, and then I definitely think that I’m on my way to that. All I ever wanted to do was just inspire another generation and also put on some of the best matches, not only for the women’s division but just for the brand in general.