WWE star Roxanne Perez used a stop in Las Vegas to send a gentle but clear message to fans: love the wrestlers, but respect their downtime.
Perez was in town for a shot at the AAA Reina de Reinas Championship at Triplemania 34 Night 1 on Friday night. Before the match, she spoke with OutKick Dropkick about the intensity of fan attention wrestlers face away from the ring, particularly at hotels and airports.
“First off, I love my fans so much,” Perez said. “I love all of the fans. We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without the fans. And I think being a fan myself, growing up as a fan, I can see it in a different light. I think these fans, they love what we do, they respect us so much. They admire us. It is a big deal when they get to meet us and they get their picture signed. But it’s also, like, we just gotta be careful on where we do it and when we do it.”
She said arenas remain the right place for meet-and-greets, but hotels are a different matter entirely.
“We obviously have the arenas. The arenas are where we show up. There’s an exact location where you go and meet and meet the WWE superstars. That’s always what I did when I was a kid. But also, when we are on the road, our hotels are our home. When we’re running late for a plane and trying to catch our flight, and it does break my heart to tell people no, but at the same time, we do have to respect everybody’s privacy.”
Perez added that despite the fame, wrestlers are still ordinary people trying to balance their public and private lives.
“We are just humans. We are WWE superstars but we are just humans. We’re trying to live our life while also trying to make the fans happy. But there’s gotta be some line. That doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate our fans at all. I just think there needs to be a little bit of a line. But we do love you guys, OK?”
Perez did not point to any specific incident that prompted her comments. She joins other wrestlers who have raised similar concerns in recent months. Paige has previously described being approached by autograph seekers while trying to catch connecting flights at airports, and Major League Wrestling star Scarlett Bordeaux told OutKick Dropkick earlier this year that she coaches other female wrestlers on keeping their home addresses off the internet.
