For Zelina Vega, the April 25, 2025, episode of WWE SmackDown will always be remembered. Not only did she win the WWE Women’s U.S. Title, her first taste of singles gold, but also witnessed her husband Alistar Black make his surprise return to the company after years away. Speaking to Steve Fall on Ten Cont, Vega gushed about the special night.
“I’ve had so many dreams of like ‘It’ll be so great to become champion, it’ll be so great if he came back’… and you always wake up from those dreams, but this one I didn’t wake up from.”
The surreal experience began before SmackDown when Vega learned of her impending title win. Even with mere hours between learning of her victory and the win itself, Vega was surprisingly subdued as she awaited her moment of glory.
“I actually didn’t know until maybe 3 hours before the show started. I wasn’t nervous surprisingly. Normally I’m always nervous… I get like hawks. I’m very much a nervous person.”
The reason for her calm? Her mind was elsewhere, namely with her husband.
“My husband was coming back and I think I was so fixated on that, seeing him at work again and traveling with him again. I think my brain was just so focused on that that I didn’t have time to get nervous.”
The double celebration created what she describes as a dreamlike experience which Vegas added was “mind-blowing.” Now, the reunited couple is traveling together again, restoring their routines that were in place prior to Black’s previous exit from WWE.
“Even now still, sitting next to him on the plane, I’m like ‘You’re really here right now? That’s really a thing?’ So I’m still getting used to it, but in the best of ways.”
As Vega settles into her role as champion and the couple reestablishes their travel routines, including their “car ritual” of listening to City and Color while driving between venues. With her title and her husband, Vega concluded that everything feels right in her world again—a perfect alignment of personal and professional dreams realized on a single, unforgettable night.