{"id":112698,"date":"2022-04-08T21:38:34","date_gmt":"2022-04-09T01:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=112698"},"modified":"2022-04-08T21:38:34","modified_gmt":"2022-04-09T01:38:34","slug":"raquel-rodriguez-smackdown-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2022\/04\/08\/raquel-rodriguez-smackdown-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"Raquel Rodriguez, FKA Raquel Gonzalez, Makes Friday Night SmackDown Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

As noted here at Last Word On Pro Wrestling<\/em>, April 8\u2019s Friday Night SmackDown<\/em><\/strong> promised a new era<\/a>. This included the debuts of NXT 2.0<\/em> stars Gunther and Ludwig Kaiser<\/a>, <\/strong>as well as Raquel Gonzalez. <\/strong>Like Kaiser, formerly known as Marcel Barthel,<\/strong> Gonzalez has been rebranded. Now, as a member of the SmackDown<\/em> roster, she will be known as Raquel Rodriguez.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Raquel Rodriguez Makes SmackDown Debut<\/strong><\/h2>\n

What to Know Following Debut of Former NXT Women’s Titleholder<\/strong><\/h3>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWE\/status\/1512593484007579653?s=20&t=1Qc7Aq1AMV5yUcI7kpsMew<\/p>\n

Rodriguez\u2019s first SmackDown<\/em> appearance was a backstage interview segment, in which she was harassed by Los Lotharios,<\/strong> Angel, <\/strong>and Humberto. <\/strong>Rodriguez kept her cool and dismissed her erstwhile suitors.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez\u2019s apparent SmackDown<\/em> debut comes just days after the end of her second reign as an NXT Women’s Tag Team Champion alongside on-again, off-again partner Dakota Kai.<\/strong> Although they regained the titles at NXT: Stand and Deliver<\/strong>, <\/em>Kai and Rodriguez lost the tag titles to Toxic Attraction<\/strong> on the April 5 episode of NXT 2.0<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

For most of her time on NXT and NXT 2.0, Rodriguez portrayed a tough as nails and unassailable heel character. Dubbing herself \u201cLa Chingona\u201d, her persona borrowed aesthetically from towering and formidable World Wrestling Entertainment<\/strong> stars of the past such as Kevin Nash, the Undertaker, <\/strong>and Chyna <\/strong>with her mien of motorcycles, leather, an unflappable attitude and a punishing powerlifting-based in ring repertoire.<\/p>\n

She first appeared for WWE in the inaugural Mae Young Classic, <\/strong>in 2017, and the second installment of the event in 2018. In 2020, she reemerged as Kai\u2019s bodyguard. The two formed a villainous tag team, whilst Gonzalez also pursued the NXT Women’s Championship. Kai and Rodriguez\u2019s star rose quickly, as they emerged the victors of the first women\u2019s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic<\/strong>,<\/em> and claimed the first women\u2019s NXT tag team titles. Rodriguez achieved the NXT women\u2019s title at NXT Takeover: Stand and Deliver<\/em> <\/strong>in 2021.<\/p>\n

The dawn of NXT 2.0<\/em> saw a transformation in Rodriguez\u2019s character. She lost the NXT women\u2019s title to Mandy Rose <\/strong>during 2021\u2019s installment of Halloween Havoc<\/strong>. <\/em>Throughout the remainder of 2021, and into 2022, Rodriguez was a babyface mentor figure paired in a tag team with newcomer Cora Jade<\/strong>, before allying once again with Kai.<\/p>\n

The new incarnation of Rodriguez didn\u2019t have much to do on April 8\u2019s SmackDown<\/em> besides defend herself from Los Lotharios, but her presence on the SmackDown<\/em> women\u2019s roster may lead to a collision with fellow NXT<\/em> alumnas Shotzi <\/strong>and Aliyah.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stay tuned to the\u00a0Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/a>\u00a0for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can check out an almost unlimited array of WWE content on the\u00a0WWE Network<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Peacock<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As noted here at Last Word On Pro Wrestling, April 8\u2019s Friday Night SmackDown promised a new era. This included the debuts of NXT 2.0 stars Gunther and Ludwig Kaiser, as well as Raquel Gonzalez. Like Kaiser, formerly known as Marcel Barthel, Gonzalez has been rebranded. Now, as a member of the SmackDown roster, she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4152,"featured_media":112706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2192,26,4],"tags":[5398,3413,8337,6991],"class_list":["post-112698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wrestling","category-smackdown","category-wwe","tag-angel-garza","tag-humberto-carrillo","tag-los-lotharios","tag-raquel-gonzalez"],"modified_by":"Robbie Sutter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}