Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Dasha Fuentes on her WWE release, acting robotic, AEW, getting back in the ring

Episode Date: July 12, 2019

Dasha Fuentes chats with Chris Van Vliet in Fort Lauderdale, FL. She opens up about why she was released and how she was released, the criticism that she acted robotic on camera, her thoughts on AEW, wanting to get back into the ring as a wrestler and more! Audio equipment provided by Samson Technologies: bit.ly/CVVSamson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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this is the Chris Van Vleet show ladies and gentlemen Chris It's Chrisomania brother It was so cool Every time I hear that It was so cool when Hulk Hogan did that in our interview That was awesome

Welcome to the Chris Van Fleet show Coming into your ears right now however and wherever You might be listening And I appreciate you hanging out with us and the interesting guests that we've been having, this episode is no different, my friends. You'll know Dasha Fuentes as a backstage interviewer from WWE, but she is so much more than that.

She was actually hired as a wrestler and started her career as a superstar in training before transitioning into the role of ring announcer and then interviewer. She got a lot of criticism for being the Dasha bot and sounding robotic when she did air interviews. And I'm not making fun of her. She does that in the interview herself, you'll see, okay? She's very aware of that.

We talk about it. It's all good. Before we get to all that good stuff, the Chris Van Vlee show is brought to you by Green Roads, and you've heard a lot about CBD, and for me, it's been such a game changer. Green Roads has the best ingredients because they're a pharmacist-founded company that's focused on making the lives of their customers better. There's CBD oil, gummies, tea, cream, capsules, their other stuff, the CBD oil for pets. It's all great.

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Samson Tech is where you can see their entire lineup. So Dasha lives in Orlando. I live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It's like a three-ish hour drive. And Dasha happened to be taking a trip to Miami for an event with her husband. And they were passing right through Fort Lauderdale on the way. So we wanted to do this interview. And I'm like, that is perfect timing.

It was meant to be. It's actually the first interview I've ever done inside my house. So if you want to be creepy, you can watch the interview on my YouTube channel and see what the interior of my house looks like. And just because I have a grand piano, doesn't mean I'm good at playing it. but I do play it, just not well. Dasha Fuentes is so charismatic, so full of personality that we didn't get to see on TV. So please enjoy this chat with the one and only, Dasha Fuentes. Were we dancing here?

We're dancing. All right. I like to dance. I like to go to a good time. Well, welcome to my house. Thank you. Your gorgeous house. Well, thank you.

I've actually never done an interview here. So, yeah. I'm the first. You're the first. I'm honored. the first that, you know, people are getting a look inside my house. Yeah. Letting them in. Yeah. So, well, thank you for making this happen. Uh, no, thank you for making this happen. Okay. Well, you know, the true story is like you came down here from Orlando. Like, I'm usually

doing the reverse. I'm usually driving three hours to Orlando to make this happen. So thank you for, you know, coming to my home. Happy to come here. Thank you for welcome me in. And I think that, you know, anyone that's following you on Instagram probably saw the video about a month ago. You've, You're officially not with WWE anymore. Yes, that is correct. Fortunately, we have parted ways. How are you feeling about this? I actually feel really good.

You know, I usually, it was a shock to me being let go by them, but it's not the end of the world. It's crazy because I dedicated five years of my life to them. And you stopped thinking I was injured last year for a good chunk of it. I got injured July 27th and had surgery August 3rd, and I still. managed to have and work over 115 shows. How does a backstage interviewer get injured? Well, I have another life other than WWE. Actually, a lot of people don't know. They do know that I started as a wrestler. And I was a swimmer, diver, national competitive gymnast, competed in Marine Corps, JRTC in school. And I'm always very active. Prior to getting signed by WWE,

I had my own personal training company. So that's one thing. I'm like, just because I'm a backstage interviewer on TV and I'm a host and announcer at live events doesn't mean that the camera doesn't see how you look. You look at Byron Saxon, okay? The man is jacked. He is ripped. So you have to look aesthetically pleasing even as an interviewer. So, you know, and you never know. I used to always tell them all the time, I can take a bump. That's true. Yeah. If I accidentally take him, I got to be in top optimal physical conditioning in order to hold the microphone. So you got hurt in the gym? Is that what happened?

Yeah, I was working out at the performance center, and I was like really pumping iron getting ready for like a fitness competition because I wanted to do something for me. And I wasn't listening to my body and it's always on the last one. Always. The last one. Well, it has to be the last one because you end up getting injured afterwards. Yes, this is true.

No, actually, I stood up and kept walking and kind of kept going. Oh, jeez. It felt a little weird. But I think that's the gymnast in me. You don't feel the pain. You just kind of push through and you just keep, on going. I mean, that's what the wrestlers do in the ring and stuff like that. And a lot of people don't know. I wasn't just an interviewer on TV. There's a handful of us that actually

are hosting announcers for live events. We don't just show up to TV and possibly do stuff at the studio once a week. And that's it. We literally work live events Friday, Saturday, Sunday, TV, Monday, come back Tuesday if you work for Raw and shows Saturday, Sunday, Monday, TV Tuesday for Smackdown. So is this kind of like a blessing in disguise? Your schedule's not nearly as crazy now? I like to view it that way. I'm an optimist. So I truly enjoyed working for the company being able to travel to 47 out of 50 states. I got to see all sorts of different towns that I'd never even imagined. I never imagined I'd ever go to New Mexico or Phoenix or Washington State. I was born to in Orlando, Florida, lived within a 10 mile radius my entire life. Went to school at UCF,

like did everything there. So it was pretty crazy. My first taxi ride, my first train ride, my first flight over the Atlantic Ocean was all with WWE. So I, I like to look back at all of the experiences that I had with them over any of the negative that could have happened. I think it's important to know which three states you didn't go to. Oh, yeah. So, okay, I'm still a little bitter about this because when we had the tour where we went to Alaska, originally it was scheduled for Smackdown to go to Alaska. Last minute, they changed it to Rome. Mike Rome, yeah, that's you. You got to go to the North Pole and I didn't get to go. Thanks a lot, man. And then they were posting pictures and stuff like that all over everywhere. Of course. See it.

And then the second one, SmackDown went to this place. But at the time, they weren't sending two hosts and announcers. Greg Hamilton got to go to Hawaii, and I didn't get to go. It's okay. He is the ring announcer for SmackDown Live, but I still didn't get to go to Hawaii. Those are the freak states, though, Alaska and Hawaii. Yeah, but I was so pumped to go. Well, you can go now.

But in hindsight, they can say, well, we didn't speak Spanish, so we didn't get to go to Argentina and Chile and Peru and Panama and Puerto Rico and all these other places. Wow. I don't know. It just comes out. Jeez. And then the last one. Okay. For some reason, what do you think it is?

If you had to guess. If I had to guess. Yeah, it's a very rare state that probably a lot of people don't visit unless you're going to go ski. Wyoming. No. You've been to Wyoming? Yeah. I haven't even met a person that's been to Wyoming.

Oh, it was beautiful. It was gorgeous. Where else would you not go? It's on the east side. Delaware. Oh, everyone's been there. What are you talking about? Okay.

Start to the V. Vermont? Uh-huh. Oh, okay. Yeah. Everyone's been to Vermont. Not me. Not yet.

Vermont, I'm coming for you. Wow. Okay. Well, it's so amazing hanging out with you because you do have so much personality. Thank you. That we didn't see on TV. I promise people, I am not a robot. That people.

Coolest thing I have ever seen. somebody took the time out whoever you are I hope you're watching this they took the time out it was an interview I did with Shinska Nakamura they literally changed my skin color silver and they put a voice modulator so it was like Shinske Nakamura how are you feeling about this it was the coolest thing and I can't find it I saw it on Twitter and somebody needs to like retweet it to me or something Wow. I literally died. Died when I saw it.

But it's crazy. What's the instruction that's given to you so that you sound like you have zero personality on TV? Well, that's the thing. It's trying to oddly find that balance of not showing too much personality, which, as you can see, it kind of got a little bit of it. And showcasing the talent. Because at the end of the day, it's about the talent. And what it is that they have to say, they don't want to. us to skew any opinions or create or form any biases about what's going on.

So for me, it's a hard part because I'm the type of person that's like it's all or nothing. Either you get all of this or you get, hello, thank you. Which is so interesting because if you went into an interview and an audition with them and you were like, I'm really happy to be here. Thank you. You'd never get the job. So how is it like that you can show off personality, show off charisma? And then once you get the job, they're like, all right, just dial that.

down. You know what? I don't know what goes on in their minds up there. One day something is a hundred percent what they want. Then the next day they wake up on the other side of the bed or a butterfly flaps its wings and this butterfly effect happens and it completely changes. So it's one of those things you have to take any sort of criticism or critique that you get with a grain of salt and just know and be flexible. And that was kind of one of the hard parts for me. Like I'm a kinesthetic concrete sequential learner like I love schedules I like this being a certain way like even today I was like I'm 30 minutes out I'm 10 minutes out I'll see you in five I'm pooling in like that's just the type of person that I am just out of respect to other people so that was one of

the hardest things for me is and it was a blessing because now I'm a little bit more flexible and so like because before I'd be like that's not on the schedule this is not the way that this is and like I would get all bent out of shape and I was just I got to the point I was like yeah whatever you want Just let me know. Just tell me right before. Yeah. You became a company person. Yeah.

I was learning, you know, because wrong wasn't built in a day. It takes a little bit of time. And like I was saying, like, I started as a wrestler. My dream was to be a superstar. And then I was given the opportunity to host and announce and build this other body of work and hone my craft in a different way. And I wanted to wear so many different hats within the company. So if in the event, they needed me to, I could just do whatever.

I could do whatever they wanted. I was just happy to be there. And so that was for me one of the hardest parts being let go because it felt like I dedicated seriously five years of my life to this company. And then it was just like I got thrown away like a piece of trash. I got erased off of dot com. I was like Dasha Fuentes never existed. And that was for me the hardest thing just because I was so passionate about what I did. And, And I built so many great relationships. And I built, as, you know, Dusty Rose, the American Dream always said, this body of work.

And it felt like they just wanted to pretend like it never happened. Who was it that reached out to you to let you know that they were letting you go? Oh, my manager at the time. Yeah, my manager. I don't really want to say too many names. My manager called me. And that was another thing, too. They literally, they called me on a Tuesday.

day and I was told after the events that occurred on Monday Night Raw we are taking you off TV and you're not going to WrestleMania. What events? Thank you. I literally went back I watched the interview. There was a tiny little blip that happened but it was live

it was with Roman and I figured it was a pretty good interview and I could see the growth and consistency that was happening from week to week and I was like a series of events and I literally was just taken aback and I was like, okay, well, I'm going to just relax, not freak out about this, you know, not a big deal.

Maybe they're going to send me back to NXT because a lot of people don't know I rang announced for NXT and that's my passion. I loved ring announcing. And so I was like, okay, no big deal. I'll have a week to relax. And I was told you'll be called next week and we'll figure out the game plan of what's going on. Well, the following Monday after Mania, I got a phone call literally lasted like a minute and a half.

they just called me and said, we're letting you go. Wow. And I was like, all right, well, thanks for five years. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. That's it. And, you know, you're not the first person to tell me a story like that.

And it's crazy how just when they're done, they're done. Yeah, they're done. Yeah. And no hard feelings. No hard feelings at all. Because like I told you, it was a blessing working for them. But at the same time, it's like, I also put in time, effort and dedication and gave you my all. So for me, that was like I was just saying, the only thing for me that was just like the biggest, like, punch in the gut was just being trying to be erased.

Is there something that you didn't accomplish in WWE that you look back on and go, oh, I wish I had a chance to do that? Oh, debuting as a wrestler, either on NXT, Raw Smacktown, any of them, because that's what I, that's what I went there for. Like, a lot of people don't know in my group, it's pretty crazy about half of the people are left there. I was in the same tryout as Nyadjax. Okay. And Dash Wilder. Who else was in my class? Riddick Moss.

Drake, the ref in NXT. Oh. I think who else was there? In our orientation session, Finn Baller was there, but he didn't start until a couple months after, but he was in orientation. So it was pretty crazy to think out of my tryout, which happened December 12, 13, 14 of 2013. They selected four females. and only two were left.

And it was Nyjax and I. Wow. And then the crazy thing is Sarah Stoff, Dark Angel, as a lot of people know her in the Indies. She was in our tryout. She actually had a match in our tryout. She didn't get signed, unfortunately. But then she came back as an agent two or three years later.

So it was like weird full circle kind of about that. How did you find out about the triad? Had you been working indie shows? Had you been training at all? No. So a lot of people won't like how I got. Like, I used to watch wrestling and stuff like that casually as a fan during the attitude era. My mom was, my mom, not was, is extremely conservative.

So I wasn't allowed to watch any of that. Same here. But we'd play hooky from church and we'd watch like reruns with my dad and stuff like that. And we'd pretend we'd like Sunday night Smackdown. And like I was watching Total Divas one day. And I've always, I always wanted a profession where I could be physically fit and active. I could be a positive role model to both men, women, children of all ages. And, um, and WWE was just there.

So I actually was working out of the gym one day. And I saw a gentleman who I knew was a pro wrestler in the Indies. And I asked him, uh, Jason. Oh, I know Jason. Yeah. And I asked him, hey, Jason, uh, what does it take to, to be a wrestler or, you know, work for WWE? And he's like, we'll go to www recruit.com. sign up a profile. He goes, no offense. He goes, it might be a little easier for girls.

And he was brutally honest. It was great. He was like, no offense. It might be easier for girls, especially good looking ones like you. Not that he sounds like this, I don't know why I'm doing that. That's a good guy impression now. But just upload your profile, put your pictures and this and that. Now I went totally hood. Just keep going. Yeah. So I did that. And I uploaded my profile, added my pictures. And I had a pretty impressive resume. I went to college. got my bachelor's degree and competed in molecular biology and microbiology. Of course, yeah, as one does. And then I played all sorts of sports, and I competed in pageants in the Miss America

System to fund my undergraduate education. And so I had a pretty good-looking profile. Plus, I lived in Orlando already, so they didn't have to fly me in. And it was funny because I remember submitting it in August, the profile with all the pictures. I think they wanted like, you know, a full body picture, headshot, whatever it was, a couple paragraphs of why you want to be a wrestler. That superstar. Superstar. My apologies. Yes. Why you want to be a super star? My apologies. Yes. Sports entertainers. Not wrestlers. Unless you work for AEW. And they are professional wrestler, right? Yeah. This is true. So, so I uploaded that and it, and

it was funny because my now husband, but my boyfriend at the time, he was like, hey, do you ever hear anything? back from WWE. Does he have the same guy voice as Jason? Yeah, they all do. Yeah. He was like, hi, I'm happy to be here. Maybe not that deep. I don't know. But he was like, Jeffrey heard anything back from them. And like he works in, in business in the industry. And I just remember him, like he went on like super defensive mode. He's like, me as a manager, as somebody who works in this field, they would be silly. Obviously he didn't use those choice words. I just don't like to curse. He was like, they would be silly if they didn't even give you a chance. It's not like they have to fly you in.

They don't have to pay you. Like, I'm just looking at this from a business standpoint, and you will be a good person to bring in. And I was like, you're right. Thanks, hon. And I kid you not. It's like we put it in the universe. And I got a email from Canyon Seaman, like two days after he had mentioned this in August.

And he was like to invite you to audition. Please respond to this. He has a different voice. Yeah. little more, you know, Canyon, I don't know if you've ever met him, he's like 6-5, and he's very tall and very stoic. He played volleyball. And it was funny because I go to Jason, I was like, Jason, you ever heard this dude named Canyon? Canyon Seaman? And he was like, yeah, yeah, he's legit. He's legit. And I was like, okay, because you never know these days if like random people,

I trust nobody, I trust nobody, I trust nobody. And so I responded back and then December 12, 13, 14, we did it. And that was your first time ever getting in a ring? Yeah, pretty much. Wow. You should have been like, hey, Jason, I'm going to have this try out. Well, I did. I did. I like ran the ropes like once or twice, which is way more painful than people realize. Tell me about it. I trained for a couple months and like the first time you hit the ropes, you're like, I mean, you're being super dramatic. It's not that much. It hurt. You wake up the next day and you have a giant wealth. Boys don't have the same pain tolerance as females do. Oh, okay. You know? Yeah. You're right.

We can't have children. Well, we did. It was funny because like the first two months that I trained, I literally had because the top rope and the middle rope, no, not the top rope, sorry. The bottom rope in the middle rope, I'm vertically challenged. They hit me right in between my shoulder blades and then my glutes in the back. So it was funny because I showed my sister. I'm like, yeah, check this out.

It's like black and purple. Yeah, yeah. Literally like a meat tender eye or somebody was like hitting me. And she's like, why are they? You need to stop that. You can't do this anymore. I'm like, man, it's cool, but everyone says it toughens up after a while. And it did.

But side shuffles, the arches of my feet, like the hardcore training drills that we did, like the Hamburg rolls, like that's my jam. Like, I'm an athlete. I loved every minute of being in the ring. Does this mean we'll see you get back into the ring? I hope so, but I'm still recovering from my Achilles rupture. I did quite a number on that. I had a complete oblique tear.

So literally the doctor said not to be graphic, but he's like, you know when you take a piece of chicken and you kind of like pull it apart? He's like, you did that on multiple levels, but just like oblique from like the, I went big.

And then I went home. You had to. I went big. That's how it's always been. And literally he's like, I had to repair that thing. Like, yeah, really. Well, so if that all heals up,

And in a perfect world, would you like to get back in the ring? Oh, I would love to. I would love to. I'm not a spring chicken anymore, so I probably couldn't do the whole, every single weekend. But I would love to have, you know, some matches here and there. So what is your persona in the ring and what's your finishing move? Ooh, it has to be something aerial. I was a gymnast.

I'd be like a luchador. I remember when we were in NXT, I used to joke around with Calisto all the time because we're actually the same height and kind of have similar. body types. I was like, you're Calisto, and I am your twin sister Calista. So you didn't get to a point in training where you had signature moves or a finisher? I did not know. I had a couple matches, and it's crazy that my last match was actually on my birthday at a PC show three years ago. So, and then who was it in the team? And it was a tag match. It was Nia Jacks, who actually was in the process of getting her name, the name like Mia Kai or something like that.

was tinkering. So that's what she was, and I don't know if people know, what was Britney's, what was Britney's ring name, Devin Taylor. It was a tag match. It was Dasha and Carmela, and we were the baby faces versus Mia Kai and Devin Taylor. And man, it was so funny because I got to watch it back and stuff like that and silly Ricky mistakes of like, man, I get a leg drop and I'm like selling my back around like that. And then I like get up too quickly and going for the hot tag, like to because it was it was everyone that watches is like for it being like one of your first matches it wasn't bad but i'm like after now watching thousands of matches sitting ringside because i was the ring announcer that didn't just like sit there like i would sit there and i'd get

into it and like i i truly loved my job and i figured as a ring announcer sitting ringside i'm equally as a part of the show as you know what is going on in the ring and i feel like you could bring so much more to what's going on and make it seem more real if you're a part of it. And it was cool because I learned so much sitting on the sidelines. And I feel now if I were to get back into the ring, I now know a little bit more of the production side of it all. And I know a lot more of the psychology just from learning from the greats,

like AJ and Carl Anderson and Luke Gallows, like, and Daniel, Brian, all those guys and girls. too, from Naomi to Natalia and just everyone that truly loves the business, they're willing to share their knowledge with you as long as you're willing to be open to it. And it was pretty crazy because I remember one time I was at the Performance Center and Scott Dawson was there and I was training and I was like, man, I really can't wait to be in there. And he just gave me like the coolest compliment. He's like, when you finally make it in there, you'll be one of the great. And I never, he goes, you're just so determined.

Because I had asked him, because, you know, sports entertainment, wrestling is all about respect. And like, for me, I grew up with a Puerto Rican mom who, like, if you didn't show any respect, he'll have to translate this for us. You know, she would give you a coquettazo, you tapaboka, you know, you, you get put in place, essentially. That's the gist of what I got there. The fear, like, she didn't even have to say nothing. never had to hit me or nothing it was just the so you've got that's where the respect can yeah that's where the respect came from so it was it was one of those things that like i always shook people's hands

and was very grateful but also too for me it was one of those in order to get respect you have to give respect and i figured i wanted to immerse myself and learn as much about it because you see people like scott dossin dash wilder they truly love the business and if they see that you are interested and you love it as well, they share all their knowledge with you. And then that internally just made me fall in love even more with the business. Now, there's different aspects of it. But, you know, at the end of the day, like, it's entertainment. It's, it's cool. You get to be physically fit and active and throw yourself in the air and do things that you didn't dream were imaginable that, you know, you could do. You get to put people through an emotional roller coaster. Like,

It's the coolest thing. And my husband would tell me all the time, he's like, I have a thankless job. He works in service. And he's like, people bring their cars in and they're angry. It's broken. They don't know what to do. And I get yelled at all day long. He's like, people pay to come see you.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you have management that's, you know, harping on you to do certain stuff. He goes, but at the end of the day, people pay to see you. You guys put butts in seats. And you give them. an evening to forget whatever their problems are because they can just enjoy what's going on. And that is what I constantly reminded and told myself when I was tired of being on a European tour for two weeks or things like that.

It's treat every show like it's that one little kid all the way up in the balcony. It's their first show. It's the only show they'll probably ever get to see in their life. And even though they only see you like a little aunt down there, they're going to remember it forever. Yeah. So if it was your dream to wrestle. What was your reaction when you were told, we're going to take you out of the ring?

We're still going to keep you employed, Joe. That's a whole other story. So what happened was at the time, Lillian, I believe, had like knee surgery, Brandy, who many, you know, as Eden, she got moved up and Jojo, who trained in the ring as well, and then was ringing out. She was on Tupper.

She was covering a lot of Smackdown, pre-taped, because at the time it wasn't live, shows, and they needed somebody, and Greg Hamilton, who was the first, host ring announcer like started it he knew me from training in the ring and when I had gotten injured the first time he I ring announced because I was like I don't want to be sitting here doing nothing utilize me I want to do something and I don't know if it was the pageants or whatever being articulate or whatever the case was he said you have a

great voice you have a great personality and he literally took me under his wing and taught me everything about hosting and announcing so I told them they're like well we need somebody, we'd rather have somebody to transition internally than bring somebody from the outside who doesn't know the industry. Because then they're stuck learning 30 years of history that can take a while. And so I was like, sure, no problem. I love to do this, but I still want to wrestle and I still want to train in the ring. So I got to a point where I was doing everything. I was going into the PC in the morning, training, going to shows, hosting, announcing, going into the VO room trying to learn to calm matches to learn psychology going to school sessions

doing all that stuff and then it got to a point where we hired another male announcer to the team and i remember till this day sarah motto and matt bloom i could just feel them coming in to the performance center and i was in the female ring and i could just feel it and i instantly just started crying and they're like why are you crying i was like i could feel it and i was so just started crying and i was like disappointed. And it wasn't tears of sadness. It was out of anger and frustration because I felt like I never got to show what it was that I could do in the ring. And I'll never forget that day at three, like it was about two and a half, two and a half, two and three quarters years ago. And I was like they literally brought me to like the center ring for anyone that's been at

the performance center. The female ring was like next to the cages. And then there's like the elite ring, which is like Terry Taylor's class was at the time in the center. ring and they brought me over and they were talking to me and I was like yeah so it was tough I was like and then I remember one time we had like a announced host announcer bumping seminar and they purposely didn't tell me about it because they already knew I could bump I was like come on y'all like I would love to and I showed up anyhow yeah it was awesome it was great though we already know you can do this I'm like then let me do it so was it at this point that they gave you the name Dasha Fuentes because I have a friend who was there and they basically gave him a list and said here are approved

Yeah, I came up. They actually told me, they told me come up with, I had already been tinkering with names when I was wrestling and stuff like that. And I came up with a list of, I think about 10 names, and Josh Fuentes was on the top because, I mean, my maiden last name was Gonzalez, and then my married last name is correct. And it's funny because I have a Russian first name.

And then my maiden last name obviously screams Puerto Rican. And then my married last name is Arabic. So I wanted a Spanish last name that could be easily pronounced in English or in Spanish, so nobody would butcher it. And all the cool ones like Lillian Garcia, Garcia was taken, Mendes, Rosa, that one was taken. Mysterio was taken. That's not Mysterio. That's Mysterio. Sorry.

Have you ever heard his music goes, rei misterio? It doesn't say Ray Mysterio. Well, sorry, I'm from Canada. I know you're from Canada. That's why you're so nice. Oh, thank you. You're very kind too. Thanks.

You're very nice American. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. My mom would roast my buns if I wasn't. So did you get it? Did you send your list to them? Yeah, sorry. Sign up.

Yeah. So Josh Fuentes was on the top of the list. And they sent it back and they're like, we like the first one. It's good to go because I was like, Dasha Fuentes or Fuentes. And Daisy Fuentes, the, you know, MTV Vijay. You're back in the day. I don't know if y'all are old enough for that. Sure. I was like, I like her. I think she's Cuban descent. But same thing. We're all family. We're Latinos.

And that's where Fuentes came from. Well, good, because a lot of the backstage interviews have the first name last name. Yeah. I know that Vince is a big fan of that. But luckily, my real name is Dasha. So that's the nice part. Even though I was like, oh, everyone knows Dasha. And it's so different. What were the other names on this list? Give us a couple.

I think I had like, I feel like it was 200 years ago. I'm willing to say... It was two and three quarter years ago, actually. And 25 hours and 57 minutes. I'm willing to say it was... I think like Sophia was on. Dasha Sophia? Oh, Sophia would be your first thing.

Sophia something. I know Valentina was on there. I wanted like really unique, cool names. I think like Asia was on there. So I don't remember, but I like Dasha. I'm weird. It's a weird name. There's a chance they could look at your list and go,

No. No. Sorry. But it was funny because I was talking to Lana and obviously she had to put Russian name. She's like, Dasha was actually on my list when she was submitting names and stuff like that. Yeah. I was like, well, I'm glad you didn't get it. Well, you mentioned earlier how AEW is wrestling. What are your thoughts on AEW or a week away from Dibb? I'm actually really excited. And the cool part is like I got to work with a lot of the individuals that, um,

are no longer with WWE. So it's like I'm like that big sister, not big sister, little sister. Sister, sister. Just sister. Sister, we're all brothers. We're all brothers. We're all brothers. We're all brothers.

We're all brothers. And so I'm very excited to see what they do. Having worked for WWB for such a long time, you get used to the certain formula and the way things are ran and done. So it's kind of the unknown. I don't know what to expect. And a lot of the talent that I may not be aware of because I was in that WWB, for five years. I'm really excited to see the Young Bucks and see Neville's real name, what there,

his new name, Pock. Yeah. Oh my gosh, I used to love interviewing him. It would be a splash fest. It's a good thing that he had great oral hygiene because I literally would get spit in my eyeballs all the time and I'd be like, Ben, come on, man. He's like, sorry, sorry. And I'm very excited to see his new persona because I've watched all the promos and things like that. And I'm like, wow, I dig it, man. It looks like the wrestlers are going to have some control here of their characters. Dr. Baker, super excited to see her, which I was pre-dental.

That's why I did the M&M. And I was going to be a dentist. I did a summer of learning at UF College of Dentistry. And that summer I realized I love my teeth and not everyone else is. You have very nice teeth. Thank you. It was my first call. What?

It's my first car. So my mom, she saved up, I think, like $2,500. Oh, I see. She gave me the choice. She was like, you can either get a car or you can get the braces you always wanted your whole life. So my senior year, I was Brace Face up. And my senior pictures have braces in them, but I got the clear ones. But I got them late too.

Like I got braces from 16 to 18. And my mom's like, you're going to need them. I'm like, I don't want braces. But now look at us. Look at these. But if I didn't have braces. braces, I probably wouldn't have the career that I have now. Not that my teeth, I didn't have summer teeth or anything. You know what summer teeth are? No. Some, summer here, some are there.

I didn't have summer teeth. It's a knee slumber. You know, but if I didn't have the braces, I definitely wouldn't be on TV now. I had kind of, like, my sister and brother used to tell me that was Bugs Bunny because, like, my incisors, and, like, they would kind of stuck out a little bit, had a little bit of an overbite, and I had, like, one tooth that was out of place. So I only had for a year and a half, so it wasn't too bad. Oh, yeah. But they're like, you're like, you're box, boy.

I'm like, look at me now, guys. They used to tell me, I was the Lilchero, I was a milkman's kid, and I was a middle kid. I said, why do you think I wanted to go into entertainment? I got middle kid syndrome over here. Yeah. You know, I got it all. I'm a lefty, creative.

Yeah. I think right. Why can't you show off this personality on TV? I don't know. I was being constrained. I was, oh, I dropped my microphone. It's okay, it's fine. I was in trains. But like, how come someone like a Renee is able to show personality?

Because they trust her. It's all built on trust. And it's difficult for them to trust somebody that they don't know what they can do. Like I was saying, I didn't come from entertainment. So I knew Renee in Toronto. She was hosting a TV show and interviewing musicians at the time. Then she went on to, you know, do a thing where she was interviewing wrestlers on her own show. So maybe they were just familiar with her.

Yes. And she had that, I guess you. could say that real, that documented body of work, I didn't have any of that stuff. So I took no offense to it, you know, no offense from it whatsoever. But like I was telling you a little bit earlier, the first live TV shot I've ever done was the one that I unfortunately butchered and said, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome my guess James Ellis. And said at Ellsworth. I was so nervous. I was like shaking. Like you could see like the microphones like this. I was so nervous. And the most nerve-wracking part about television is the waiting. So you've got your earpiece in and they're telling you

five minutes out, two minutes out, one minute out, and you're just like, it's about to be real. Yeah, and then it's like right before they're like, and go. And you're like, oh, is that supposed to say? Yeah. Oh my gosh. It's so nerve-wracking. And it was just like sometimes I would get into my head too much. And for some reason, that earpiece, I wish I could just rip it out sometimes because sometimes the comms would be off and you could hear the chatter that's going on. You're like, okay, well, I'm trying to like remember these lines I'm supposed to say and do this and that and have this expression and not hold the mic like in their face or like down here or wherever it was. And I think people think that you're just going in with an idea of what you're going to ask them. You've got an actual script.

No, and you have to like until they, until they can trust you, you better go by what's on that script. It's written. It's been cleared. you better not go off path, you better not say one word comma punctuation incorrectly. And that was terrifying for me, unfortunately. And I started getting a little bit more comfortable, but it was, I was kind of in that balance of like, okay, well, sometimes we can't trust her. It's inconsistent, this and that.

But it's like, in order to get better at it is doing it, being thrown to the wolves. Maybe we could tailor the words a little bit differently or something like that. And my husband would joke around with me. He's like, your level of vocabulary is completely different from what is being written for you. So when you're trying to remember, and I understand like, I'm playing this character, I have to do this, but I was playing the part of a journalist and I needed to work on my own. Does every interview have to start with ladies and gentlemen, my guests at this time? That was one of the cool things that I can tell you that they were trying to change. They were trying to transition from no more ladies and gentlemen, please welcome my guest.

guest, we were trying to do more ambush, kind of different placements. And one of the coolest things is if you have the chance to watch NXT, the interview style is completely different. Joe Bell Castro and the writers that are at NXT, they have truly tried to change that to not make it as formal and this and that more conversational. And you could see that that was starting to change on Ron SmackDown. And that was making life a lot easier. But my favorite part was when I'd be in the mail locker room trying to interview somebody. You're like, should you really be in here, lady?

Creeper. Speaking of creepers, with your large Instagram following, how often are the creepers sliding in your DMs? Oh, they like to lurk. They like to lurk. They're not just lurking. I see you. I see you.

I see you trying to slide in there. It ain't happening. When you get the inappropriate comments on your photos, Oh, I show them. I show them to Gabe to my husband. Didn't you delete them? Because some people go way over the edge. Luckily, thank goodness. I'd get, you know, the occasional inappropriate pick, and I'd just show them, he's like, that's a stock photo. That's not real. And I just laugh. It's funny because I love science and I view the body of science, so it doesn't faze me. It sounds really weird, but I'm like a clinician, like very clinical. Like, nothing bothers. me like I'm that weird that's like yeah what do you what how are you feeling this month oh I'm shedding

my uterine lining you know like as gross as that's sad but it's true I'm the truth I'm very scientific when it comes to that stuff it doesn't faze me and so I just show him we joke about it we went together since we're in high school so grew up together half of our lives together so it's pretty funny so in your goodbye video that you posted on Instagram you said that we can now follow your journey well where's your journey taking it's taking me in many different directions And that's one of the cool part is when I was working with WWE, you were kind of constrained to your creativity. I'm a very creative individual. I love, I fell in love with hosting, announcing, entertaining, all that stuff.

But a lot of people don't know I grew up around racing. And I love crafting. Like, I was the girl backstage that people would be like, hey, I got this shirt. Will you cut it up and make it look cool? I'm like, give me the scissors. And then I would do stuff. Like Bailey's shirts at the beginning, like I would cut the fringes and make them very macho man, the sleeves and stuff like that. Like, yeah.

Oh, yeah. I totally made that stuff happen. Like, I think Dauph had like a cut up shirt for like something I did, weaving stuff. Becky Lynch, the man would always, she had the like cool shirts that she'd be like, hey, I have the shirt's a little too big. Can you make it up? And I'm like, yeah, sure. And I just, that's what I love doing. So I still love wrestling.

It's not like I'm going to go away from it. but I'd like to kind of start a YouTube channel or maybe go in the news or something and have like a crafting show, something with cars. I'm really big into health and fitness and I used to have my own personal training company prior to working with WBE. So people ask me all the time,

as a gymnast, we want to learn how you do your cool handstands that you've done all over the world. So I'd like to kind of maybe bring that all together of having the opportunity to wrestle. I would love to do that. Having the opportunity to do TV or movies and things like that. Now I have the availability to do that stuff.

But I'm... The world's your oyster. It is. It is my oyster, but I don't like oysters. I don't either. Sorry, everyone that likes oysters. Sorry, not sorry. So, you know, if we sit down in my house again in a year, where do you think you'll be?

I'd love to be, like, possibly, like, doing stuff like on a larger network scale, reaching a greater audience, traveling, being able to host shows all over the world. but at my schedule, kind of, you know? The fact that you're bilingual, bilingual, I can't even, look, I'm not even monolingual. That's okay. It's very helpful, obviously, in Florida. Of course.

Especially here in South Florida. And that was one of the cool things with, I always try, I feel like out of bringing it back to respect, anytime we'd go to a different country, try to learn the vernacular for that country or learn how to say hello, goodbye, thank you, things like that. So, like when we, I. I remember I'd bug Shinske, like, Shinske, hey, Shinske, how do you say this?

And so he taught me, like, when we went to Japan, like, Konichua, whatashi Wanda Ma'uadasha. And, like, I learned like, Harjeta, one cosita, like, kawai, which is cute, and, like, just learn words here and there. So I always tried to, when I was the host, because there would always be two of us. When I was with SmackDown, it would be Greg Hamilton and I. Greg would do the primarily the ring announcing, but we'd flip-plot back and forth sometimes, but I'd always host and come out.

So I always like to say like, you know, hello, good evening, welcome to WWE Life in their native tongue. So whether it was Italian, French, I'm a bit de Francé. Ah, yeah, way. In high school, I decided I love to learn a little bit of French since I already know Spanish and English. And I just try to immerse myself in different cultures. And yeah, that's pretty much it. Just out of respect for that country. Yeah.

Well, this has been a lot of fun. Yeah, thank you. And it's great to see that you're not a robot. I am not. You are not the Dachabat. Nope. Since you're not Dasha Fuentes anymore, where can people find you? Ah, you guys can find me on Instagram with the handle Dasha Corrette.

Same thing on Twitter or my YouTube channel. Has it started? It's going to happen. Well, because I'm going to post this soon, and then we can tell people to subscribe. You can subscribe, but there's nothing yet because I've got some good content coming for you guys. It's going to be Mas Lasha, because whenever we were in South America, they'd always be like, We're going to Mazasha, which is we want more Dasha. Oh, okay.

Oh, my Sasha. All right, we'll put the link below. You'll get some subscribers. And thank you. Thank you. Hug it out. Thank you. Oh, my day.

So fun, right? Thanks to Dasha for that chat. Thanks to you for listening. If you like this, it would mean a lot to me. If you left a review and let people know about the Chris Van Vlead show, please share it with everybody. After listening to that whole conversation, it kind of feels like a crime that Dasha Flentes wasn't allowed to show off her personality.

on TV because she has so much of it. I wish her all the best in whatever it is that she moves on to now in her career. Big thanks to Greenroads for sponsoring the CVV show. Use the code Chris 15 to say 15% at Greenroadsworld.com. Also thanks to Samson Technologies for the gear that we are podcasting on. Podcasting's been fun. Like, we should have done this a while ago. I love it. So thanks for being with us on this and we will see you on the next one. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes.

So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast.

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