There aren’t as many names as revered in professional wrestling as Guerrero, and that’s certainly not a fact lost on third-generation star Shaul Guerrero. The daughter of Eddie and Vickie, cousin of Chavo, and granddaughter of the legendary Gory Guerrero has been vocal about honouring her families legacy at every opportunity both inside and outside of the squared circled.

However, despite both the personal and professional reasons that utilizing her legendary last name would be beneficial, instead, Guerrero was rebranded as Raquel Diaz while under the NXT and FCW banners. While changing a wrestler’s name is nothing new in WWE or any promotion for that matter, this particular instance was certainly a curious one when considering the circumstances.

“Honestly, when I was there, I was under the impression that I would be wrestling under Guerrero,” she replied when I asked about her nom de guerre as part of our upcoming interview. “Because I mean, let’s be real. That’s what got me the opportunity. But, I was told I had to earn my last name. And so I was like, holy shit!'” 

Admittedly, her last point was one that left me a little bewildered. “Seriously, how did you feel about that?” I asked her.

Guerrero paused before answering. “Honestly, it’s like a layered – there’s a lot of layers to how I was feeling, because I was like, you know, I’m in WWE! I was like, ‘you know what, just shut up and do whatever they want. Do whatever they want, you know what I mean?”

I nodded in affirmation.

“And then,” she continued, “there was also a part of me that understood that’s a very old school mentality. Where it’s ‘you’ve got to earn the name, you’ve got to earn the name.’ I grew up with that mentality, whether it was doing my chores, my grades in school, or now wrestling, so yeah, I guess I always was understanding of that. And then, on a personal note, me taking it personally, I was like, I already earned the name Guerrero when I went through all that shit with my dad and our family. I was like, I am a motherfucking Guerrero!”

She laughed.

“But honestly,” she continued, “I, strictly speaking in wrestling, like I understood.” Again, Guerrero paused to collect her thoughts. “But I feel like – I don’t know, now I’m so excited to not necessarily be tied to anything. I’m going to go into wrestling doing what I want. I’m going under my name, I’m going to be like – if I shit the bed, I shit the bed, and I’m gonna go down, I’m gonna go down swinging, but whether it’s a good match, or whether it’s a great match, I’m going to be giving you guys everything I have. I’m going to be paying homage to my dad and my mom all the time and my entire family.”

“So people can say whether I’ve earned my last name or not, but I have to go in there knowing I’m a Guerrero, because that’s the energy you have to bring.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used.

The first time that Chelsea Green and I spoke, a large focus of our conversation was simply the abundance of Canadian talent currently signed to the WWE. Since then, it’s seemed as though the Canadians spread throughout the WWE have been pushed to the forefront, with Kevin Owens, Kyle O’Reilly, Tyler Breeze and more all receiving pushes to some degree. I brought that up to her when we recently spoke for Love Wrestling.

“I don’t want to say you and I spoke it into existence, Chelsea, but it seems like there’s a bit of a Canadian revitalization in WWE!” I laughed.

“I agree! I totally agree.”

However, there are some frustrations with being from above the 49th parallel, she was quick to mention.

“Well, I have a little bit of like, a bone to pick with the wrestling community, because I feel like everyone is hyped that they’re from different countries except Canadians!

Why is that?” Green pointed out. “Like, why does not everybody know that Bobby Roode is Canadian?

Do you know what I mean? I just don’t get that. Everyone knows that Natalya is because she’s a generational wrestler, but like, what about the rest of us?”

“I’m so proud to be Canadian,” she continued emphatically, “and I’m so proud to not only represent Canada, but represent the island that I’m from. Not many crazy things happen in Victoria, BC, but one of them would be that there’s a professional wrestler from Victoria! I wish that we spoke about that more and put it out there more because I think all of us are so proud.”

The conversation then carried specifically to Kyle O’Reilly, who at the time Green and I chatted, was coming off of his first critically-acclaimed match with Finn Bálor for the NXT Championship.

You guys were around in ECCW and around the Pacific Northwest around the same time,” I asked her. “How cool is that been for you to sort of watch him grow into, really, where I think a lot of Canadians saw him in the grand scheme of things?”

Green was quick to agree. “I know, and that’s the thing. He always should have been in NXT or on the main roster. He’s amazing. I remember when I first started and everyone was saying like, ‘oh, Kyle O’Reilly is coming. Kyle O’Reilly has a match. And I’m like, who the hell’s Kyle O’Reilly?’ I saw him wrestle. And I was just like ‘oh wow.’”

SL: “Oh, THAT’s Kyle O’Reilly.”

“The great thing about Kyle is he’s never changed. He treats me the exact same way that he treated me in ECCW when we first met. He’s the same like, awkward, funny guy. And I love that about him.”

Of course, it’s impossible to talk about great Canadians in professional wrestling without bringing up the Harts, and specifically, Natalya. Green is on record as saying that Neidhart is a dream opponent of hers, and the two finally got the opportunity to lock up on an episode of Main Event in January 2020.

“Oh, man, that was something that I’ve been looking forward to since I started wrestling, and I wish I could do it so many more times,” she espoused when I asked her about the match. “She’s such an amazing human being and such a leader in and out of the ring. I was really excited to feel that leadership in the ring.

I already knew that she was like that outside. You can just tell from her social media presence and everything, but to build that in the ring. Both of us kind of come from the same background where, you know, we were trained in Calgary and we have the ground layer and the foundation of our training is similar.”

“It was really cool just to be able to get in the ring and roll around with her. I didn’t care about the wins or the losses. I was just really excited to have that opportunity and I hope I get to have many more of those opportunities.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used.