Roxanne Perez reflects on highlighting mental health struggles during a storyline on WWE NXT.
Perez successfully defended the NXT Women’s Championship against Meiko Satomura on the “Roadblock” special episode of NXT on March 7. She collapsed after the match, and the champion was taken away on a stretcher.
Over the next few weeks, NXT featured a storyline where Perez underwent testing, and it was revealed that she was dealing with exhaustion and crippling anxiety. Perez then had a disagreement with Shawn Michaels, who questioned whether she could handle returning to the ring. In response, Perez opened up about her struggles with anxiety and asked Michaels to let her compete so she could show everyone that they could overcome these obstacles.
Speaking with Alistair McGeorge of Metro.co.uk, Perez reflected on the storyline and emphasized that she has always wanted to incorporate mental health into wrestling.
“It’s so cool. I’ve always wanted to bring mental health into wrestling somehow and never thought it was possible. It’s really cool to be able to change people’s lives. I feel like that’s the most important thing that I’ve always wanted to do. If I can be that voice that helps someone else know that they’re not alone, then that means the world to me.”
Perez emphasized that mental health is important to her, as she has struggled with it, and she has watched people in her own family have their own battles with it. She stated that getting to talk about it on WWE Tv was special, and she had been hoping to do so since she first arrived in NXT.
“Just talking about mental health at least, that was something when I first got to NXT and told them, I would love to do something with this,” Perez said. “They were like, ‘Alright, we’ll see.'”
The former NXT Women’s Champion also noted that she believes seeing WWE stars speak about mental health could have an important impact on younger fans. Se noted that it would have changed her life if she had seen what she spoke about when she was a kid.
Perez will compete in the semi-finals of the NXT Women’s Championship Tournament on the May 23 episode of WWE NXT. More information is available here.
