• SmackDown Champion Credits The Rock For Saving Her WWE Dream
Zelina Vega says she was ready to give up on her WWE dreams, until Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson stepped in. During an interview on the Lightweights podcast, Vega opened up about a turning point in her life when rejection after rejection had pushed her to the edge. After being told “no” multiple times by WWE, she was ready to walk away from professional wrestling altogether. “I think I’m just done,” she recalled texting The Rock. “There’s just so many times I got told no, it was like my 8th no at that time… clearly, they don’t want me, they don’t want anything I have to offer.”
Just a few hours later, The Rock called her with unexpected news. “Dwayne called me literally like three hours afterwards and he’s like, ‘Hey, I got this idea. You don’t even have to audition for it, I already know you can do it.’” He was talking about the film ‘Fighting With My Family’, where Vega ended up portraying former WWE star AJ Lee. The opportunity came just days after a failed audition had crushed her spirits.
“I’m still kind of processing it,” Vega said of the call. “He’s like, ‘This is usually where people say I’m so happy, thank you so much.’ I started crying ‘cause I just had no idea. It was all this emotion kind of built up.”
She credited The Rock’s belief in her as the spark that kept her going. “He was like, ‘I trust you completely, I know you can do this, and you’re my Divas Champion.’”
Zelina is now the current Women’s United States Champion in WWE.
• Why Christian Cage & Cope’s Planned Reunion In AEW Hasn’t Happened Yet
AEW originally had big plans for Adam ‘Cope’ Copeland’s return to TV and those plans included a reunion with Christian Cage. According to Fightful Select, the company had mapped out a storyline where FTR’s heel turn would lead to a major angle with Copeland (fka Edge). That angle would have eventually reunited him with Christian, possibly setting up a marquee match at AEW All In 2025.
Cope was supposed to return sooner, with talks of bringing him back at Double or Nothing. But the idea was scrapped when it became clear that Christian Cage wasn’t done with his ongoing storyline involving The Patriarchy and Nick Wayne. Cage said on Collision that he, along with Wayne, wants to be the first father-son duo to become AEW World Tag Team Champions.
Christian reportedly wanted to see that angle through before pivoting to anything else. Interestingly, FTR’s heel turn wasn’t even originally meant to involve Cope. It was first pitched as a turn against The Outrunners. The plan shifted when AEW saw an opening to tie the story to Copeland instead.
Now, there’s no word on whether the reunion is still in the works or if AEW has quietly moved on.
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