Raquel Gonzalez wanted to pay tribute to her roots with her name, but she did run into some trouble.
Most performers who sign with WWE are asked to submit a list of names for them to use. Raquel was no exception and she submitted her real name, Victoria Gonzalez, as one of the name, but WWE didn't want her using the name Victoria.
Fortunately, she was able to keep Gonzalez.
“The one [name] that they did push back on was Victoria, my actual name, because it had been used a couple of times, but González wasn’t a problem,” González said in an interview with Yahoo Sports. “It was very important for me to keep it because my father went by Speedy González and Rick ‘Desperado’ González. I wanted to keep those initials. It was important for me to have a first name that started with R. I think that they loved the González part because it added something different to the women’s division at the time.”
Raquel is the face of the NXT women's division right now as the NXT Women's Champion and switched from being Dakota Kai's heel bodyguard to being a dominant babyface who can stand on her own.
Speaking about the shift Gonzalez said, “I think the transition from heel to babyface hasn’t felt too different. I feel like I am still being true to myself. Another big change is being more vocal. When I was a heel bodyguard, I was silent and kind of kept to myself. Now, I can open up about me, my character and who I am.”
Gonzalez successfully defended her NXT Women's Championship against Franky Monet on the September 28 episode of NXT.
She is currently feuding with Mandy Rose and Toxic Attraction.
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