When WWE decides it wants to make you a star, they’ll make you one. And I feel like I never got that opportunity. But whenever I was on television, whether I won or lost, I would take advantage of those 10 minutes, those 20 minutes, those 15 minutes. I would sell myself because I would think, ‘The audience is watching me, and I’m still relevant.’ That’s how I thought about it, but no, I wasn’t given the opportunity.

Yes, I did win a championship in WWE and all that, but no. I saw other guys who were given opportunities, and they continue to be given opportunities. And with the Mexicans, that’s somewhat what they’re given—the opportunity.

It’s that simple. I tell you, they have Humberto and Garza. They’re very good friends of mine. I say, ‘They haven’t been given the opportunity.’

When I was in WWE, the second time I came back, they told me, ‘Hey, we want you for AAA.’

I told them, ‘I signed with WWE. I don’t want to go back to AAA.’ I know AAA is a great company, but it’s at a national level, at the Mexico level. I mean, there are one or two places around the world where they know about it, but it’s not WWE.

You want to be a star in WWE. You don’t want to be a star in AAA.

I mean, it’s about the work here. But if you go to Saudi Arabia, they don’t know what AAA is. If you go to, let’s say, Scotland, they don’t know AAA either.

But I see that they have Berto and they [Angel and Berto] both have good physiques. They look good, they have height, and they work well.

And I tell them, ‘Both of them have charisma, they have everything it takes to become superstars in WWE, why aren’t they being given the opportunity?’

They haven’t given them the chance. Santos Escobar never got the opportunity either. I mean, there are a lot of them who haven’t.

Maybe this is going to sound bad… you talk about the Samoans, but a lot of them—the majority, not all of them, right? Roman Reigns, obviously, he did achieve it. He made it. But there are several of them who don’t, and they keep getting opportunities, and they’re there, they’re there, they’re there.

I tell them, ‘This guy has been doing this for 20 years. and he still hasn’t gotten it.'”

And everybody’s just there having a great time, loving wrestling. Tony Khan’s there. He’s super excited about the show. You know what I mean? High energy, positive vibes. It was amazing. And it really took a long time. I mean, it probably took until the plane ride home yesterday for it to really settle in. You know, it was such a whirlwind.

You talked about it being like the worst kept secret. But the funny thing is, it didn’t really solidify and become official until less than 24 hours before the show. We didn’t sign until like less than 24 hours before. We know what we wanted, we know what everybody else wanted, but it wasn’t like officially official until very soon before the kickoff time, you know what I’m saying?

It was incredible. We’ve wanted to mix it up with all these tag teams for a very, very long time. And to see it all come to fruition, it’s like I said, just like a weird, bizarre dream, but the best dream possible.”

Crown Jewel will pit Champion against Champion in both the men’s and the women’s divisions, with last year’s event seeing Seth “Freakin” Rollins and Stephanie Vaquer triumph to become Crown Jewel Champions, recipients of a title made up of 50 carats of diamonds signifying the best of the best.

Tickets for Crown Jewel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will be available soon at www.webook.com.

WWE’s partnership with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia began in 2018 and has since brought some of the biggest WWE events to the Kingdom including Crown Jewel, Elimination Chamber, King & Queen of the Ring, Night of Champions and Royal Rumble. In 2027, Riyadh Season will play host to WrestleMania 43, marking the first time the event will be held outside of North America.

Crown Jewel will broadcast in the U.S. on the ESPN app with an ESPN Unlimited plan, and on Netflix internationally.

Luckily, I’m retired now, so it’s definitely a little bit different, but yeah, we met at work.

I was a professional wrestler, so it’s like I can’t wrestle anymore. I’m a mom. I have kids. So that’s kind of like, I’m retired.

My 2-year-old does not understand, because my husband travels so much for work still. And I’ll be like, ‘Okay, I have to go work.’ And he’s like, ‘But you’re going downstairs.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, but that’s Mommy’s work.’ I know he doesn’t understand, but funny.”

And all the NXT people, it was pretty tough. A lot of the audience left after the AAA show. It was like a Collision, where people are just leaving after the thing.

They said that maybe half the people were left for the main event. The Mexicans were all way, way, way more over than the NXT wrestlers, other than Zilla Fatu. They said Zilla Fatu was so over in that building, but nobody else. Not Kendal Grey, not Tony D, or Myles Borne or anything like that. Even Nattie, who they figured would be super, super over, and really was not.

It was a Mexican audience that came to see lucha libre, and some of them stayed. But the thing is, the learning thing is, if you do this, you should probably put NXT first, rather than put them in three hours into the show.”

Have the courage to be a face or a heel, because being a face isn’t easy. Let’s just admit, socially, it’s way easier to get people to dislike you than it is to get people to like you.

‘Cause you’re going out there and trying to smile and, you know, make friends and shake hands and kiss babies and do your best work so people go, ‘Hey, I like this guy.’ You can come out there and just, ‘everybody in this building can kiss my ass.’

So technically, it’s easier to be a heel. Now, in terms of talent and execution, that’s a different conversation. But to be presented as a babyface and to get over as one is more difficult than to get over as a heel.

As a heel, yes, you want heat. You want to do things that make people dislike you. You don’t want to do things that will make people cheer for you. You want to do things that will make people go, ‘I hate this dude, man.’

I remember Arn Anderson taught me a long time ago. He was teaching me little nuances of being a good heel, and he was showing me where there are certain things you can do as a heel that it’s not against the rules, but everybody just looks and goes, ‘Man, that’s messed up. You ain’t have to do that.’

[William] Regal taught me, and I remember when you hook somebody for a pin and they kick out, I’ll hook the leg again, but this time I put my forearm across their face and put my elbow in their jaw. That’s not against the rules. It’s just kind of messed up.

And then they’ll kick out again and I’ll put my knee on their face to hook their leg, you know. No, I’ve had referees, inexperienced referees, young, who go, ‘Hey, you can’t do that.’ Well, I’m just a pin, man. Such a dumb— get out of here.

There’s just the little things that you can do. And I try to tell—and here’s a message for young talent watching this: Stop turning your back on your opponent to go address the crowd, to gloat. Stop doing that. Don’t do that, because you’re wasting effort.

If you have a babyface that you just knocked to the dirt and he’s on the ground, or, you know, it applies to whatever gender you subscribe to, you stand over them, ’cause why would you walk five feet away to go, ‘Hey, look at me’? The person visually—think about it, television—they’re watching you on television. It’s way more impressive to have this babyface at your feet and you’re standing over them, hitting a pose or just, you know, looking around. You ain’t got to say anything. You just knocked this person down. They’re on the ground selling, and you just stand over them. Just look around.

Something I used to like to do, ‘This your man right here? This your guy right here on the ground at my feet. Your champion. This your champ. This your guy right here. This your man right here.’

You want to get heat. You want to be disliked, and now you’re tough. But as soon as something happens and that babyface catches you with something, bam. ‘Whoa. Let me get out the ring.’ Classic MVP calling timeout.

‘Oh, you’re a coward. Yeah, you’re scared. You suck.’

No, I don’t. I’m exceptionally good at my job. That’s getting heat.

A lot of today’s talent are scared to be real heels. They want to be cheered. They want to be liked. They don’t really want to go all in and be a real bad guy.”