WWE Superstar Raquel Rodriguez, currently one-half of the Women’s Tag Team Champions, recently appeared on the Battlegrounds Podcast to promote tonight’s WWE Raw event in Omaha, Nebraska. During the interview, Rodriguez discussed her historic championship reign and the importance of her cultural identity.
Historic Championship Reign
Rodriguez and her partner Liv Morgan made history by becoming four-time WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions the night after WrestleMania 41, cementing their status as the most decorated women’s tag team in company history.
“It feels so good because it just affirms everything that Liv and myself have been saying this entire time that we are the greatest women’s tag team champions of all time,” Rodriguez said.
“We made history by becoming the first ever three-time tag team champions and then having that little upset at WrestleMania, but getting them right back the night after and becoming the history making, record-breaking four-time women’s tag team champions.”
Embracing Cultural Identity
The champion spoke passionately about her Mexican-American heritage and how it influences her wrestling persona. Born in South Texas near the Mexican border, Rodriguez made a conscious decision to maintain her Hispanic surname to represent her cultural roots.
“It was a big decision for me when I was coming into the business that I wanted to try and keep my legal last name or a last name of Hispanic heritage because I want people to know that that’s where I come from and that that’s who I am,” she explained.
“We spoke Spanish. A lot of my co-fellow students in high school would cross the border every day to come to school.”
Rodriguez highlighted how she uses the term “chingona” as a form of empowerment, particularly for Latina women.
“Chingona means badass. And that’s how we use it. I find it an affirmation. I feel like it fires me up,” she said. “I love using that for people as a word of empowerment because women, especially Latinas, we should use that as empowerment. And we can be beautiful and we can be strong.”
Excitement for WWE-AAA Partnership
The superstar also expressed excitement about WWE’s recent partnership with AAA, Mexico’s premier wrestling promotion. As someone who grew up watching both WWE and AAA, Rodriguez sees tremendous potential in this collaboration.
“It gets me so excited. Honestly, it made my heart just like explode with happiness,” Rodriguez enthused.
“I grew up watching Triple A, too. I think it’s a beautiful style of wrestling and just the intense passion that they bring and the crazy moves and just the creativity from the masks to the moves. It’s just so cool.”
Future Plans for the Champions
While her partner Liv Morgan will soon be busy working on a big movie project, Rodriguez remained tight-lipped about the details, telling fans they would need to tune in to find out more. Despite this potential side project for Morgan, Rodriguez emphasized that their partnership remains rock solid, with both superstars focused on being fighting champions while still pursuing individual accolades.
“We both definitely want to conquer everything and anything that we can while we’re pretty much doing the best work that we have done together overall,” Rodriguez said, adding that she has her sights set on singles gold in the future, including potentially challenging for the Intercontinental Championship.
Fans attending tonight’s Raw in Omaha can expect to see the champions in action, with Rodriguez encouraging the crowd to chant “Rack them up, Raquel” when she makes her entrance.