WWE: Lilian Garcia on Her Return to WWE & Her New Role in Company, Lexis King on “WWE Is More Of A Structured Learning Experience Than AEW, That’s Beneficial For Me”, More News

Lilian Garcia Comments on Her Return to WWE & Her New Role in Company

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured WWE ring announcer Lilian Garcia as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Garcia’s thoughts about her return to WWE in October of 2024.

“I knew when they offered it to me to come back, they did tell me, ‘Hey, this isn’t for permanent announcing for Raw or SmackDown. We just really need you right now. But this is a new era. We want to be completely upfront with you, which I really appreciated.’ I said, ‘Look, whatever you guys need.’ I never thought I was going to be back, and whatever you need. I love this business. I love the people I work with. So I’m excited. When they brought me back, I knew that Raw was going to be until the changeover in January, for Netflix, that I knew. They were like, ‘Okay, now we’re going to put you on SmackDown, but we don’t know how long.’ Every week that went by, they were like, ‘I’m so sorry, we need you another week. Is that okay?’ I’m like, of course it is, it’s fine. Do whatever you want. I am loving this, totally loving this. But what was so beautiful that has evolved from it is that even though I’m not going to the full-time SmackDown announcer anymore, they said, ‘You know want? We love having you [be a] part of this. We want to extend. We want you to Saturday Night’s Main Event. We think you’re a perfect fit for that.’ I love it, I get to wear gowns for that, we dress up a little bit…Then they’re like, look, we’ve got a lot of other shows that we know we’re in talks right now on what we can do. So I’m like, whatever you guys need. Again, whatever you need. Just put me in coach, I’m here.”

Garcia also gave her thoughts about how she felt about being back in WWE and her being happy that WWE wanted to keep working with her.

“Amazing. The fans have been incredible, and just the love from that, to the people I’m working with, to even the new talent that’s there, the girls in the locker room. Absolutely incredible. They all reached it to me, they’re like, ‘We’re going to miss you on the weekly basis.’ They know I’m not gone gone, but they’re like, we’re going to miss you on a weekly basis. Working back with Triple H and seeing all of these people that I worked with for so many years and all the agents now, the producers that are there, it’s my family. I don’t have my parents anymore. I didn’t have kids. I’m not in a relationship. So it is my family, and that’s what’s so beautiful. The fact that they said, ‘We really want to work this out to keep you in some capacity here,’ man, that’s music to my ears and to my heart.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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Lexis King Comments on “WWE Is More Of A Structured Learning Experience Than AEW, That’s Beneficial For Me”

A recent episode of the No-Contest Wrestling podcast featured WWE NXT talent Lexis King as the guest. One of the topics discussed included King’s thoughts about when he realized he wanted to leave AEW and how WWE being a more structured learning experience was beneficial for his wrestling career.

“I think things started to look a little grim when they sort of removed Julia [Hart] from [the Varsity Blonds]. I thought she was a very imperative part of it, but at the same time, I was confident in mine and Griff’s abilities, so I thought, why don’t we change course a little bit and get away from the generic babyface and transition into a little bit more of a rock ‘n’ roll, sort of fuckboy kind of group, where we’re sexy guys, so then we were going to do The Blonds or whatever. There was a tag team that we wrestled, and they trademarked the name ‘Varsity’ and stole it from us, so we were no longer the Varsity Blonds, we were just The Blonds. Then it just kind of seemed like they were running out of ideas for us, and then it started to…the writing was on the wall. I think also Griff got hurt at that time, and so I was going a lot more singles on Dark and sort of starting to find myself again. The beauty of AEW too was that when you weren’t being used, you had access to go do the indies and to experiment and try new things. So I took very full advantage of that, and I tried to stay booked. Even if I wasn’t booked on TV, I had something going on on the weekends and stuff, so I was always traveling, staying busy, and that’s where I started to find myself, and again, it might have been a little too little, too late. AEW is very much a sink-or-swim environment, so by the time I found myself, it might have been a little too late. My contract had come up. It wasn’t like I was released prior to it being done with. But it was a little out of the blue, just because I was doing a lot of the, we had started doing house show loops, and I had been performing well. I was in the road with the team, and the time, a lot of the bigger stars weren’t willing to do those shows, so I thought that I was showing a lot of willingness to work and to be for the company, and I did put the company first. I was very much a huge fan of AEW while I was there, and I still am a huge fan, and I wish them all the best. We have to remember, if it wasn’t for AEW giving myself that stage, giving Ricky [Saints] and Ethan [Page] that stage, we might be where we are now. So it was a great amount of exposure. I got to work with Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley and all these great guys. Just by feeling them and just by touching them, you get better. Being in a tag team, me and Griff, we got to wrestle the Young Bucks, and we got to wrestle FTR. So we got to have a nice taste of the whole spectrum of wrestling. AEW is kind of like a melting pot of wrestling. They have so many styles and so many little things you can pick up on. So it’s definitely a different type of learning experience, as opposed to here at WWE, which is more of a structured learning experience, which is more beneficial for me. I’ve always benefited more from structure, but no, it was a very imperative part of my career that definitely helped me grow.”

King also gave his thoughts about how he is a product of his environment in WWE and his praise to everyone who has helped him throughout his wrestling career.

“I am a product of my environment, I am a product of all these amazing producers and agents and the writers here at WWE. They’ve really reined me in and really molded me into a much better performer. Going back to even when I was in the indies, just so many guys, sharing locker rooms with Ricky Morton, I mentioned Rip Rogers earlier, so there has been so much that has gone into getting me to where I am today that I couldn’t have done it alone.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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WWE News & Notes

WWE recently released a preview clip for the upcoming premiere episode of their Stephanie’s Places series on ESPN+.

WWE recently revealed the next match in their on-going countdown of their Top 50 matches in WrestleMania history. The 23rd spot was the CM Punk vs. The Undertaker match from WrestleMania 29.

WWE also recently released one new video to their WCW Vault channel on YouTube. This new video was the WCW World Heavyweight Championship match of Lex Luger vs. The Giant (c) from WCW The Great American Bash 1996.

WWE also recently released two new videos to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was the WWE Championship match of Chris Jericho vs. CM Punk from WWE WrestleMania XXVIII. The second new video was a “Bizarre WrestleMania Matches – Backlot Brawl, Blindfold Match, Boxing and more.”

WWE also recently released two new videos to their NXT Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was the NXT Championship match of Finn Balor vs. Kevin Owens from the March 25, 2015 episode of WWE NXT. The second new video was the full April 3, 2014 episode of WWE NXT.

In a recent interview with The Rich Eisen Show, Seth Rollins gave his thoughts about Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson being a great boss for WWE and him being a “really kind and generous man.” Rollins stated “He was kind enough to invite us to Hawaii to watch the premiere of ‘Moana 2’, so we got to see it on the lawn, with the sunset in the background. She’s too young to remember it, but it was a really incredible experience for our family. He’s been a great boss, I will say. In the ring, we’ve had our ups and downs, but he’s…people say a lot of things about him, he’s a really kind and generous man.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

As noted before, The Natural Disasters will be getting inducted into WWE’s Hall of Fame as a member of this year’s class of inductees. The family of the late John Tenta, also known as Earthquake, recently reflected on Instagram about Earthquake and Typhoon’s induction into WWE’s Hall of Fame. Tenta’s family stated “We are BEYOND excited to be able to officially share that our dad, alongside his friend and tag team partner, Fred Ottman, will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. It’s an unbelievable honor to say that they’re both a part of the Class of 2025, and we are truly so grateful that our father’s lifelong dedication to this singular craft is being recognized on the world stage. Thank you for all of your love and support for our dad – you all made this dream come true. We are so grateful. To think “John from West Virginia” will be cemented as one of the top heels in the business is surreal… and we are so, so proud of our dad.“

As noted before, Saraya signed a contract extension with AEW this past September that was later revealed to be for an additional one-year in length. In a recent interview with The Hall of Fame with Booker T & Brad Gilmore podcast, Saraya gave her thoughts about the potential of her returning to WWE in the future. Saraya stated “Yeah, so I love WWE and I don’t have any negative feelings towards them, I mean they raised me, they saved me a lot. I just appreciate them so much and the idea of going somewhere else was only because of the potential of my brother being there. That was like a big thing, I just wanted him to be a success in wrestling, you know? I love WWE and I would absolutely — if there was something that they needed from me which was exciting, I would definitely go there. Yeah, absolutely, it would be silly not to. If there’s an opportunity to do something fun, hell yeah, I’ll jump on board.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with the RAW Recap podcast, Big E gave his thoughts about his belief that Chad Gable is the identity of the mystery new El Grande Americano wrestler in WWE and his evidence to prove his claim. Big E stated “Let’s not go down this route. I know Chad Gable’s body. I’ve seen that man in many locker rooms and many wrestling rings. I could pick that body out of a lineup of 1,000 men, and don’t make it weird, okay? Don’t make it weird. I know who that is. I know who that is and don’t insult my intelligence by telling me it’s anyone other than Chad Gable. Let’s stop this whole charade. Let’s take this man out the mask. I know who you are. Let’s end this, all of it. Every little bit of it. Let’s kill it right now. Let’s be done with it, okay? I know every every square inch. I know how it all lays out. I see how the lats taper to the waist, okay? It wasn’t intentional, okay? I spent a lot of time around half-naked men and also naked men. This was not what I intended when I started out in this journey, but it’s a byproduct of this profession, okay?” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)