Zelina Vega lost her father when she was only 10 years old. While her father’s story ended in tragedy, however, his last words and actions left his family with a lot to be proud of.

Vega was a guest on the most recent edition of Lillian Garcia’s “Chasing Glory” podcast and told the tragic story of losing her father in the September 11th, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.

She spoke about how her father was an amateur wrestler and a big wrestling fan. When Zelina told her father she wanted to be a wrestler, he was supportive. Vega said she knew from the time she was 4-years old she wanted to be a wrestler and her father played a big role in that.

“He took me to ECW and that scared the hell out of me as a kid,” Vega recalled.

Vega kept a lot of mementos from going to wrestling events with her Dad. A Hardy Boyz T-shirt from her childhood still seems to be one of her prized possessions.

“We didn’t have a lot of money but we were always at the events,” she continued.

Such an emotional day for ??

Hear @Zelina_VegaWWE open up like never before about her father’s untimely death during the 9/11 attacks, and her father’s heartwarming message to her stepfather. #NeverForget https://t.co/h0gytOv7k9

— Lilian Garcia (@LilianGarcia) September 11, 2018

Zelina Vega Recalls Losing Her Father In 9/11 Attacks

Vega recalled the emotional story of her experience of September 11th, 2001. She had stayed home from school that day and her father phoned from inside the second tower after it had been hit but before the building collapsed. He worked inside the World Trade Center on the 103rd floor.

Vega’s mother and step-father were taking turns speaking to him on the phone. She recalled overhearing him coughing and the coughing growing louder.

Vega then overheard her father say something very touching to her step-father through the phone. “When he got onto the phone with my step-dad he said ‘honestly Kermit, I don’t think I’m going to make it out of here. I know you’re a great man I need you to be a father to my kids,” Vega said. “Love them like I would.”

Garcia posted part of the conversation to her YouTube channel below:

– Paige isn’t the only WWE star to change up her look this past week as Alicia Fox did as well.

After accompanying Alexa Bliss on Raw last Monday, Fox bleached most of her hair blonde. She showed off her new look at live events over the weekend and on Instagram.

https://instagram.com/p/Bnc_i-Pgu95/

https://instagram.com/p/BnhJjG2hWAO/

– Maria Kanellis revealed on Instagram on August 9 that she suffered a broken wrist while training for her in-ring return and would be in a cast for six weeks. In an update on the situation, Kanellis revealed on Friday that she is no longer wearing a cast.

https://instagram.com/p/BncYatuAosf/

Kanellis has indicated that she would like to wrestle at WWE’s first all-women’s pay-per-view event, WWE Evolution, on October 28.

– Zelina Vega is Lilian Garcia’s next guest on Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia and the interview promises to be emotional. You can listen to it today via LilianGarcia.com.

Girlllllll, I can’t wait for everyone to hear your story tomorrow on #ChasingGlory @Zelina_VegaWWE ! Not sure there will be a dry eye in the world ?. SO powerful. Thank you for opening up as much as you did! ???? https://t.co/GjG3JrneCe

— Lilian Garcia (@LilianGarcia) September 9, 2018

Here’s a reminder about tomorrow’s special and emotional episode with #LaMuñeca @Zelina_VegaWWE as she is my next guest on #ChasingGlory ! Real, Raw & Inspiring doesn’t even begin to describe it. So fire up your #podcast apps and join us TOMORROW!! pic.twitter.com/eTuKXF5jRv

— Lilian Garcia (@LilianGarcia) September 9, 2018

• What happened to Lex Luger?

Thea Trinidad, who now goes by Zelina Vega in the WWE, has wrestled worldwide and made a name for herself in the world of professional wrestling.

Trinidad has made it known through her social media that she was in a relationship with Austin Aries at one point but it seems the nature of their relationship has come to light.

https://twitter.com/Zelina_VegaWWE/status/1028027551632056320?s=19

While Trinidad did not disclose when the couple broke up, she has confirmed that she’s moved on and does not want to be associated with Aries.

Role In WWE

While many remembered her as Rosita in TNA, Trinidad always dreamed to wrestle for the WWE and that dream came true when she got signed last year with the company. When she arrived on NXT she was put into a manager role managing Adrande Cien Almas throughout their NXT run.

Currently, Trinidad and Almas are on Smackdown Live in which they are in a feud with Rusev, Lana, and Aiden English. Trinidad has wrestled Lana twice in the past couple of weeks where she was victorious in both bouts.

We officially have a women’s match for tomorrow’s episode of SmackDown Live.

SmackDown Live General Manager Paige has confirmed Zelina Vega will make her in-ring debut on the main roster against Lana:

https://twitter.com/RealPaigeWWE/status/1023968424043659271?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1023968424043659271&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mandatory.com%2Fwrestlezone%2Fnews%2F981305-paige-announces-grudge-match-for-smackdown-live

“Well. @Zelina_VegaWWE and @LanaWWE have certainly been … ahem… vocal about their feelings this weekend. SO let’s take this off the internet and bring it into the ring. I am making it official. Zelina vs. Lana TOMORROW NIGHT on #SDLive”

Lana & Vega’s In-Ring Careers

Both women are primarily featured in managerial roles on WWE TV, so this is certainly an interesting pairing.

Vega, of course, is a lot more decorated in the squared circle. She is a former TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champion and has competed in NXT. Lana has also had some in-ring experience, but not to the degree of Vega.

“The Ravishing Russian” was a part of the first ever Women’s Money In The Bank (MITB) Ladder match. She also competed in the Mixed Match Challenge with her husband, Rusev, and is a former SDL Women’s Title challenger.

Lana appears ready to get back in the ring. The 33-year-old has been on house shows lately but hasn’t wrestled a match on television since the women’s Money in the Bank ladder match last month.

She took to Twitter to challenge Zelina Vega to a match on Tuesday’s Smackdown Live!

What do you say @Zelina_VegaWWE ????? 😎 pic.twitter.com/yh6ahzuxeE

— CJ Perry (@TheCJPerry) July 30, 2018

“Lana is the best! Lana #1” – Rusev (and some others)

Lana Challenges Zelina Vega

Lana has only wrestled 16 televised (Raw, Smackdown, WWE Network, etc) matches during her WWE career. It took until her 10th match for her to get a victory.

Lana’s first victory in WWE came in the Mixed Match Challenge held earlier this year. Rusev and Lana defeated Bayley and Elias in the first round of the tournament before losing to Bobby Roode and Charlotte Flair the next. She won her first single’s match back in May. She defeated Billie Kay in a MITB qualifying match.

Zelina Vega’s First Main Roster Match

Assuming she accepts Lana’s challenge this will be Zelina Vega’s first match on the WWE main roster. Throughout February and early March this year she teamed with Andrade “Cien” Almas and wrestled Candice LeRae and Johnny Gargano on NXT house shows.

Vega’s only televised match so far in WWE was a single’s match loss to Candice LeRae on the April 11th edition of NXT.

Andrade “Cien” Almas defeated Rusev in single’s action last week on Smackdown. It was his 6th televised match on the main roster thus far. He is 5-1 since being called up. His victories have been over Jake Constantinou, Kevin Bennett, Sin Cara (2x), and Rusev. AJ Styles defeated Almas 2 weeks ago on Smackdown, giving Almas his only loss on the main roster thus far.

Almas has also been using several mannerisms from his Los InGobernables faction from CMLL. Tetsuya Naito re-invented himself a few years ago when he also joined the stable and then brought it to New Japan Pro Wrestling.

Zelina Vega Teases Andrade Almas’ SDL Debut

Tonight (Tues. May 15, 2018) former NXT Champion Andrade “Cien” Almas will make his main roster debut on SmackDown Live. Almas’ manager, Zelina Vega, took to Twitter and noted she has Almas “focused and ready” for his debut tonight:

https://twitter.com/Zelina_VegaWWE/status/996344111576829953?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mandatory.com%2Fwrestlezone%2Fnews%2F954731-zelina-vega-has-andrade-cien-focused-for-tonight

Nicholas Posts YouTube Videos

Former RAW Tag Team Champion, and son of WWE referee John Cone, Nicholas has been uploading WWE-related videos on YouTube.

He first created the channel a few years ago for video gaming, but now he has been posting WWE-related content including showing off his WWE t-shirt and looking at some wrestling figures he has. Check it out here:

Nicholas was selected as Braun Strowman’s WrestleMania 34 tag team partner out of the audience. They took on The Bar (Sheamus and Cesaro) for the RAW Tag Team Championships and wound up winning the titles.

The following night on RAW, Nicholas and Strowman relinquished the titles due to a scheduling conflict with Nicholas (he’s still in school).