Victoria Reveals Why She Wasn't In 2020 Royal Rumble

Arguably one of the most successful women's wrestlers in the early part of the 2000s was Lisa Marie Varon, thanks to her stints in TNA/Impact Wrestling as Tara, where she was a 5-time Knockout's Champion, and WWE as Victoria, where she was a 2-time Women's Champion. But despite her WWE success, it would take Varon over a decade to show up in the promotion again when she appeared in the 2021 Women's Royal Rumble match.

In an interview with Steve Fall of NBC Sports Boston, Varon talked about her Rumble appearance and why it took so long for her to return to WWE after she left in 2009.

"A lot of people ask me that and I'm like 'If I did something, I'm not aware of it,'" Victoria said. "I finally went back to the Royal Rumble last year. It was supposed to be in the works the year before that, but I was already booked on Jericho's cruise. And they were like 'Can you get out of it?' I was like 'I'm already advertised. I don't do that, back out of something that I already committed to.' I don't think I did anything wrong. If you guys know if I did anything wrong, please let me know. Or maybe I don't want to know, actually!"

Varon was in fact on the second Chris Jericho Rockin' Rager At Sea, appearing as a special guest during the cruise's five-day voyage from January 20 to January 24. The voyage featured a special episode of "AEW Dynamite" that aired on the boat from the Bahamas, which involved Kenny Omega and "Hangman" Adam Page defeating SCU to win the AEW World Tag Team Championships. Varon didn't appear on any AEW-related content while on the cruise.

It should be noted that the 2020 WWE Royal Rumble event actually took place two days after the Jericho Cruise wrapped up, emulating out of Houston, Texas on January 26.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit NBC Sports Boston and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription