Thea Trinidad may be charging into her new era as Xelina, but she admits that leaving WWE has haunted her in the most literal way. Speaking to D.S. Shin of Ring The Belle, the former Women’s United States Champion revealed she has been plagued by nightmares about her WWE exit every single night.
“I’ll be honest, I’ve had nightmares about leaving WWE every single night. Like it’s, it’s trash. Like it is,” she said — a strikingly raw admission from a performer who has otherwise thrown herself into her reinvention.
Zelina Vega (Credits: WWE)
“My Life Was Tied To That”
Vega explained that outsiders can treat a WWE departure as simply the end of a job, but for her it ran far deeper. She spent nearly a decade with the company, and her wrestling dream had become entwined with the most personal parts of her life.
“There’s such a mental health part of it, because it’s not just, ‘Oh, you’re leaving WWE.’ It’s like my life was tied to that,” she said. Part of that tie was her late father, whose memory motivated her wrestling journey from childhood — including the September 11 attacks that took his life, which she has spoken about as the driving force behind her career.
“I was there for almost 10 years. My dad and his memory and the wrestling thing there was all tied to there. So it was very difficult to go,” she admitted.
The “New Era” Video And What Comes Next
The emotional weight of the departure is also the engine behind the cinematic “A New Era” video she released after leaving — a six-minute vignette that walks through the different versions of her character, from Rey Mysterio-inspired beginnings through Queen Zelina, her Backlash Puerto Rico homecoming, and lifting the Women’s US Title in memory of her late father.
“I wanted to go and see it, feel good about what we did there, and then close the door on it and be ready for the next thing,” she explained. The video was her way of confronting those past selves rather than pretending they no longer mattered — processing childhood depression and denial and turning them, finally, into something positive.
The clip ends with her stepping through a pair of doors into a new look — teasing a fresh chapter with a light purple and turquoise aesthetic — but with no specifics yet about where Xelina will land next. Wherever she goes, she’ll be arriving with nearly a decade of WWE history behind her — and, it seems, still being worked through night by night.
Also Read: Xelina Wishes Triple H Had Let Her Defend the WWE Women’s US Title Across TNA, AAA and STARDOM | Vince McMahon Completes One-Year Probation for July 2025 Car Crash
Source: Ringside News — read the full story there.