Zelina Vega prides herself on wearing many hats during her time in WWE, from wrestler to manager to jumping in on commentary.
But she feels she can be something bigger than that now as a member of the reformed Latino World Order (LWO) as she’s set to face SmackDown women’s champion Rhea Ripley at Backlash in Puerto Rico on Saturday (8 p.m., Peacock).
The 32-year-old Vega, whose Puerto Rican heritage runs deep throughout her family, will be taking part in just her second pay-per-view singles match for a world title in WWE’s first major show on the island since 2005.
The Queens Village native believes she will be representing more than her faction and the family members in attendance — many of whom will be seeing her wrestle for the first time — when she steps into the ring at Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot.
“I feel like with the LWO, it’s cool because you’re fighting for people who haven’t gotten opportunities, who haven’t gotten their right chance,” Vega said in a phone interview. “They haven’t had the opportunities that they deserve and have been respected for the hard work that they put in. Being that beacon of hope really. I feel like that for me, I’m hope for other people. It’s crazy to say that’s how people view me now. It’s something I’m very, very thankful for that they believe in me that much.”
It’s all part of the new chapter in her career after being off WWE television for six-plus months due to rupturing an implant during a match. She returned in October alongside the newly promoted Legado Del Fantasma faction of Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde and Cruz Del Toro.
She mostly served as a manager for them early on.
The group, and Escobar in particular, then became involved in Rey Mysterio’s WrestleMania storyline with his son Dominik, and in late March the legendary luchador reformed the LWO, which was founded by Eddie Guerrero in WCW in 1998.
Vega, who grew up loving lucha libre, is the group’s first female member.
All the twists and turns have allowed her to reinvent herself a few times over after being Queen Zelina upon winning the first ever Queen of the Ring tournament in October 2021.
The former women’s tag team champion needs to be something totally different now as she moves into a babyface role for the first time in WWE.
Queen Zelina is in the past and not coming back.
“When I first came back I was platinum blonde starting in Legado where I’m the heel obviously,” said Vega, whose hair is now white, red and orange. “Now, breaking into this babyface character, it’s a new version of Zelina. She’s LWO, she’s more colorful. She’s getting to show her anime side. She’s getting to show her gaming side. It’s all different evolutions of me and I never stop growing and creating because I love that part so much.”
Vega, who has become known for her creative attires, makes it a point to never do anything halfway, no matter what she’s given in WWE.
“I’m always going to have the best of the best,” she said. “I’m a star a hundred percent of the time. It’s not like, ‘Oh, 20 percent of the time she’s off and she’s like a scrub.’ No, this is me all the time.”
Her current situation in WWE has allowed her to display all of what she brings to the table as Vega never wants to be labeled as “just a manager.”
She feels the LWO, and Legado before that, allowed her to be “a wrestler wrestling with other wrestlers.”
“There’s so many different parts of my career that don’t fall under one label or one category,” Vega said.
Being a babyface in WWE, however, is a new label for her and she was shocked with how quickly the audience took to her in that role as she stood up to and got physical with Ripley in the lead-up to the match.
Some of it she credited to how much vitriol Ripley and Dominik Mysterio have built up with the fans.
That has made the transition a lot easier.
“I’m not the normal kind of babyface that’s like, ‘Yay, cheer for me because you’re supposed to.’ ” Vega said. “I feel like it’s because people relate to me is the reason why it’s happened so quickly. … They relate to me because they also love anime or gaming or they’re smaller in stature like me or they’re Latino or they have someone like a Rhea Ripley in their life that they realistically want to punt in the face.”
Vega caught a lot of people’s attention when she brought a blue flip-flop sandal for Ripley during the segment where she requested the match at Backlash.
In Latin culture, the sandal, or “chancleta,” is something a mother may threaten her misbehaving children with.
Vega said the original idea was for her to bring it for Mysterio’s wife Angie to use on Dominik, but plans changed.
“Days went by and things happen between Rhea and I and I felt like she was a little bit more deserving,” Vega said. “It’s really just whoever was gonna be the first. It’s definitely something that strikes fear in a lot of people and they definitely know what I mean when I see it.”
Vega sees being in the LWO as a chance to bring even more of the Latin culture into her presentation.
Her family already has an influence on her character.
Vega, whose father died in the 9/11 attacks, said her brother’s New York accent and phrases work their way into her promos from talking to him.
Her mom’s fieriness, attitude and sometimes snarkiness are also evident.
“I feel like I’m bringing both sides, Puerto Rico and the rich culture there and also being a Puerto Rican woman from Queens, New York,” Vega said. “There is a lot of culture in that too that I bring forward and I think combining it is so important to me.”
Being in the LWO also brings the challenge of working with new performers in Escobar, Wilde and Del Toro.
Vega said in the past with Andrade, who is now in AEW, she had to serve as his primary mouthpiece.
She could just look at him and “know exactly what was coming next.”
They had a once-in-a-lifetime bond where she didn’t have to try because everything “seemed very organic.”
Escobar is already a strong promo without her and she said the two – along with Wilde and Del Toro – are still cultivating their chemistry.
“I can’t read his mind,” Vega said of Escobar. “It’s a slower progression but we’re starting to build that relationship, especially now because it’s not just one person with Santos. There’s Joaquin (Wilde) and Del Toro also.”
Vega said he is a bit spoiled now creatively.
She has the benefit of bouncing ideas at home – which includes seven cats — off of her husband Malakai Black and says they “feed off each other.”
Vega now has the benefit of having Mysterio by her side at work and is cousins with legendry Puerto Rican wrestler Amazing Red.
The biggest influence fans may see from Black is the changes to her approach in the ring.
“People haven’t gotten to see me wrestle that much recently, but my style has changed a lot because of him, whether that’s psychology-wise, whether that’s striking-wise, submission-wise,” she said.
It’s all part of things really falling into place for her early in 2023 on all fronts.
She got to wear a Street Fighter cosplay at the Royal Rumble after announcing she will be an in-game commentator for Street Fighter 6.
Vega was also a presenter at the Crunchyroll Anime Award in Japan and has recently returned on Twitch after WWE agreed to allow its performers back on the social platform that is huge in the video game world.
She said she got such a warm welcome back and is enjoying getting to blend the two worlds she loves.
“We’ve all come to a good place,” Vega said. “We all see the benefits of it and we are ready to work together and that’s all I ever wanted was to be able to work together and now that it’s actually happening … Here’s just another thing. I wasn’t expecting this to happen how it did with Twitch.”
Beating Ripley for the SmackDown women’s championship in Puerto Rico of all places for her first world title would be the “cherry on top and a dream come true” with 2023 “not even been close to being over.”
“That’s just really were the snowball effect comes in for me is trying to achieve all my things,” Vega said. “I said it from the beginning, 2023 I wasn’t going to be playing around.”