Raquel Rodriguez Was Asked To Smile During SmackDown Debut

Raquel Rodriguez has been on a roller coaster lately. After being called up from NXT, the former Raquel Gonzalez was given a new name. Raquel also got some advice that she didn’t expect.

Speaking with Busted Open Radio today, Raquel talked about what it was like when she first arrived at the WWE Performance Center. PC coach Matt Bloom emphasized that Raquel was smiling way too much. She came to the blue brand fully prepared to not smile if it meant getting her on television.

Instead, she was told the exact opposite. In addition to the name change, the new travel schedule, and everything that goes with it, Raquel Rodriguez was now being coached to do the opposite of what she had learned. Fortunately, she is comfortable either way.

“When I first started at the PC, to a lot of the coaches – Matt Bloom always got mad at me, for constantly walking around the PC, no cameras on, it was just practice, for smiling. He was like, ‘You need to learn how to stop smiling. You gotta stop. You gotta stop smiling, you gotta be intimidating. You gotta, you know, this.’

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But I was just – I get so excited about being in this position because it’s something that I’ve always wanted, and something that I’ve sacrificed and worked so hard for. I can’t help but smile. And so coming up to SmackDown, I was fully ready not to smile, I was fully ready to be this intimidating bad mother, you know, and put that on the screen.

But the thing that they asked for me was to smile, so I honestly, at this point in my career, I feel comfortable doing both [smiling and being intimidating].”

Raquel Rodriguez is ready to do whatever the producers of SmackDown ask her at this point. Her long journey to the main roster finally paid off. Now, she is willing to put on whatever face the company needs her to put on.

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H/T Wrestling Inc.