Roxanne Perez looks back on her WWE SmackDown debut
Perez, who rose to prominence as Rok-C in Ring of Honor in 2021, signed with WWE in April 2022. She debuted on NXT in April, and she has quickly become one of the most buzzworthy stars on the brand. Perez won the Women's Breakout Tournament, and she also captured the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship with Cora Jade. But Jade turned on her, so the former friends became bitter enemies. As part of this rivalry, Perez ventured to SmackDown to pick an opponent for Jade, and this trip led to her in-ring debut on the blue brand. On the October 14 episode, she teamed up with Shotzi and Raquel Rodriguez in a losing effort against Damage CTRL (Bayley, Dakota Kai, and IYO SKY).
Speaking on El Brunch de WWE, Perez described how her experience on SmackDown was surreal. She noted that her debut match was a full-circle moment, as SmackDown was the first live WWE show she ever attended. Perez also explained that she knew Shotzi and Rodriguez dating back to her time on the independent scene, and Bayley was one of her childhood idols.
“That was very surreal. SmackDown was actually the first live WWE show that my dad took me to, so I was maybe like 11, and he surprised me. He’s like come on, we’re going somewhere. I was like, where are we going? We get to the arena, and I walk in, and they have all the WWE merch, and I was like, we’re at a WWE show, and it was SmackDown. So to have my debut on SmackDown and then be able to be in the ring with such amazing women, I actually know Raquel and Shotzi from the independent scene. Shotzi, I had a match with her once on the independent scene, and then Raquel, we never wrestled, but she was on the same show that I was in my debut, when I was 14. So I’ve known her for a very long time, so that was really cool to be paired up with them. Then being able to wrestle one of my childhood idols, Bayley, everything was just so perfect. It was a really full-circle moment, and my mom was there as well. She was in the crowd, and she was so happy, so yeah, that was surreal," Perez said.
Perez previously looked back on the beginning of her time in WWE NXT. Check out her comments here.
In a recent interview, Cora Jade recalled how she texted Perez the day the ROH shutdown was announced. More information is available here.
Catch up on our coverage of this week's episode of NXT here.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
