Zelina Vega’s love of anime is hardly a secret, but the Superstar struggled to explain one of the most popular series ever to Vince McMahon.
Vega’s time in WWE has been somewhat mixed and in late 2020, she was fired from the company minutes after expressing support for unionization.
Rehired in the summer of 2021, Vega would win that year’s Queen’s Crown Tournament and the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships.
Crunchyroll? Is That Sushi?
Vega has been able to incorporate her love anime and Japanese culture into her WWE character, and can often be found cosplaying on social media.
Recently, Vega discussed how she was able to have an entrance inspired by Naruto’s Madara Uchiha for the 2022 Women’s Royal Rumble match.
Vega told I Hear Voices hosts Will Friedle (Batman Beyond) and Christy Clark Romano (Kim Possible) that explaining the concept to Vince McMahon proved to be quite the task.
“I told him ‘I want Neil Kaplan [English voice of Madara] to do my entrance for the Royal Rumble.’ Vince was like, ‘why? Well, he is the voice of Madara Uchiha. ‘Who’s that?‘ I was like, OK. Do you know what Crunchyroll is? He’s like ‘it’s sushi, yes.'”
Zelina Vega
Vega realized that for McMahon to understand her ideas, she would need to speak his language.
“[I said] Crunchyroll is like the Netflix of anime. He’s like ‘okay, I get that.‘ So Naruto is like the WWE of anime. He’s like ‘okay, I like Naruto. This is good.‘ Madara is kind of like what Paul Heyman is to Roman! He was like ‘okay, we need it.'”
Zelina Vega.
Zelina would get her Naruto-inspired entrance and would last over 17 minutes in the match, scoring one elimination (Sasha Banks) before being tossed out by Rhea Ripley.
