Shaul Guerrero has discussed her run in WWE saying she was told on day one she wouldn’t be allowed to use her family name in case she couldn’t live up to it.
Guerrero is a name synonymous with wrestling in the same vein as Hart, Rhodes, or McMahon. The wrestling dynasty begins with Shaul’s grandfather Gory Guerrero. Gory had four sons who all became wrestlers – Hector, Mando, Chavo, and Shaul’s father Eddie. While all were successful in their own right, Eddie went on to superstardom in WWE where he ascended wrestling’s highest mountain and won the WWE Championship.
With Shaul’s cousin Chavo Guerrero Jr. also an accomplished star in WWE and her mother Vickie going on to play the role of hated General Manager, Shaul had a lot to live up to when she entered the realms of WWE in late 2010.
Joining the developmental territory of Florida Championship Wrestling, Shaul Guerrero made her in-ring debut in February 2011 under the ring name Raquel Diaz. Speaking to Chris Van Vliet on his Insight podcast, Shaul Guerrero revealed what she was told by someone in WWE that led to the name change.
Guerrero explained:
“I remember being told, I’m not going to say by who, that if you suck, we cant drag your families name in the mud. I’m like [shocked expression]. I understood that. Again it’s like they never said I had to be as good as my dad, but there was always little things like that which are hard to ignore. That was day one.”
As Raquel Diaz, Guerrero went on to win the FCW Divas Championship as well as being crowned the final ever Queen of FCW. Guerrero joined the new developmental brand NXT but never appeared for the company again after September 2012 with conflicting reports at the time surrounding her status in the company. It wasn’t until August 2014 that Guerrero herself confirmed she had left WWE.
Credit: Insight with Chris Van Vliet