William Regal Contacted WWE NXT Star During Waning Days Of ROH
At the age of 21, Roxanne Perez has established herself as the future of WWE's women's division, becoming "NXT" Women's Champion and appearing in the Royal Rumble match all within a one-month span. Coming to WWE in March of last year, the former Rok-C started to create a name for herself in Ring of Honor prior, becoming the youngest female champion in company history at 19 before the company shut down in late 2021.
Speaking on her time with ROH and eventual tryout with WWE, Perez detailed that the company had informed her during the end of their tenure that she was out of contract and wouldn't have a job with ROH just like everyone else. She said that was a hard pill to swallow, but detailed that ROH's Head of Talent Relations at the time, Gabe Sapolsky, had asked her to give him her phone number because William Regal, who was heavily involved in "NXT" at the time, was going to give her a call. Perez said Regal himself later called her, offering a tryout with WWE after the company had heard what was happening with ROH.
'Perfect Timing'
"It was just like crazy, perfect timing," Perez said during an interview with the "Cheap Heat" podcast. "At the time it was still early December, my contract ended in late December so [Regal] was like, 'We want to bring you in in early December.' I didn't think I was going to be able to do it because my contract still lasted till the end of December but I talked to Maria [Kanellis] about it and she was so happy."
Perez explained that Maria Kanellis-Bennett's goal from the beginning when she helped revive ROH's women's division was to create more opportunities for female performers. Perez said Kanellis-Bennett was like most of the ROH staff and locker room in sharing her excitement about the chance to try out for WWE and actually let her do it while she was still under an ROH contract.
"It was so nice to see how supportive all of [the talent in ROH] were, cause when I did tell them, it made them so happy."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Cheap Heat" with an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.