Zelina Vega Talks Advice She's Received From The Rock And Paul Heyman
Zelina Vega has been with WWE for over two years now and made her jump to the main roster a year-and-a-half ago. She still has to pinch herself at times just at the thought of her journey to reach this point and Vega talked about being in WWE for a while when she joined the Cheap Heat podcast.
"It feels incredible. I've been doing this since 2008 in September, so it's pretty crazy to think that it took me about seven years to get to WWE but I was super focused. I wanted to do this all of my life. Seeing my face when they run ads for an upcoming Raw or SmackDown is pretty insane," admitted Vega.
Vega has had many supporters in her corner since joining WWE including Paul Heyman. She talked about the guidance he has given her to take her character to the next level.
"I remember when I had my initial tryouts, I remember him saying to me that he saw my work and he loves it and to keep fighting," recalled Vega. "He said that one day he wants to bring the real me out. That was 2013, maybe? I remember thinking, wow, I think he has me confused with someone else but that is still really cool. Later on, he was like, I think we can bring a Rosie Perez out of you. There is so much we can do here. I think the last promo that I did recently after Carolina attacked me, Paul said that he wants me to just be me and bring out the anger that no one has seen in me. Just be me. It was crazy to say that I have the guidance of Paul Heyman out of all these people. Eight-year-old real me is like, is this real life?"
Vega got to work with The Rock during the filming of Fighting with My Family and she also talked about advice he gave her.
"The Rock has always said that this is something that I have always wanted for so long but that I need to feel in the present moment," said Vega. "Feel how grateful I am and just focus on that because you are not going to have many moments because you are going to be running around crazy, being pulled in many different directions. But take a moment to be in it and feel like the eight-year-old self that you were and appreciate it."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Cheap Heat podcast with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.