Long before she got the opportunity to call herself a singles champion on WWE Smackdown, Zelina Vega received one of the best homecoming moments in the history of the WWE at the Backlash 2023 premium live event. It was the first time that a WWE Pay-Per-View/WWE Network/Peacock Specials went down in Puerto Rico since New Year’s Revolution in January 2005 with the anticipation being high.
Being a hometown favorite among the audience, Zelina Vega was picked to be the challenger for the WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship, held by Rhea Ripley to produce a memorable match that rocked the audience present at the host venue Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Revisiting that night, Zelina Vega recently spoke about it as she was interviewed on HOT 97. Mentioning that it was a highlight moment in her career, she also revealed that Backlash 2023 in Puerto Rico was originally set to offer a shorter bout over the WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship.
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WWE Smackdown women’s title match at Backlash 2023 got changed due to Zelina Vega’s popularity
It’s to be noted that for the very first time, Vega was challenging for the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship in a PLE show against a dominant force like Rhea Ripley of Judgment Day. Vega stated that she remembers hearing the original plan was for the match to be ‘super quick’ as she was about to put over the brutal force who was coming off a major championship win over Charlotte Flair at Wrestlemania Hollywood, earlier that year.
“It (WWE Backlash 2023 versus Rhea Ripley) honestly is one of the most amazing feelings. Not just in my career but in my life, and I didn’t even know that it was gonna be that,” Vega remembered her WWE Smackdown women’s title bout against Ripley.
“That’s also why I think it was, like, one of those things that were meant to be. I remember hearing, okay, the match was gonna be super quick. Whatever. ‘You’re just there to, you know, put over her strength’ and whatever…” (quotes courtesy Fightful)
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Several months after the PLE, Fightful Select reported that the WWE Smackdown Women’s Title Match was always supposed to be a quick match to establish Ripley as a powerhouse figure in the women’s roster. But things changed after Vega became more popular with the audience, especially coming back to her roots in Puerto Rico, and thereby she got to put up a strong performance.
Almost two years after that match, Zelina Vega hit a milestone in her career following Wrestlemania 41 when she won her first singles championship. On the April 25th edition of WWE SmackDown, she ended up defeating Chelsea Green in a shocking outcome to become the second-ever WWE Women’s United States Champion.