Roxanne Perez Reflects On Her WWE Royal Rumble Experience

Roxanne Perez participated in her first Royal Rumble match this past weekend, and she talked about the experience in a new podcast appearance. The NXT Women’s Champion was a guest on Busted Open Radio and discussed how nervous she was leading up to the match, but added that when she got in there it felt natural to her.

“The Royal Rumble, I was so nervous in the days leading up to it,” Perez said (per Fightful). “Growing up as a kid, the top two pay-per-views that I always wanted to be in were the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. So, I was like, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to do it, I’m going to walk out as the countdown ends, crying my eyes out.'”

She continued on to say, “I walked out and I didn’t cry at all, which I was proud of myself. When I won the championship, it was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this is real.’ When I walked out at the Royal Rumble it was more of, ‘Wow, I belong here. I’ve worked so hard for this. I’m here and I did it and I belong here.’ Yeah, I think it’s changed a little bit from — obviously, I’m still a fan at heart and I’m always gonna be, but it’s changed from getting signed and being like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe it,’ to ‘Wow, I can believe it.’ I don’t deserve it, but I worked hard for it.”

Perez is set to defend her NXT Women’s Championship against Jacy Jayne and Gigi Dolan on Saturday at NXT Vengeance Day, which airs live on Peacock and WWE Network.