Since 2012, WWE has had one of the best female wrestlers in the world under their employ, yet she’s never wrestled a match for the company. Instead, Sara Del Rey, a veteran of Shimmer, ROH, Chikara and various Japanese promotions has been training the next generation of WWE women for the past three years.
Sadly, there’s a good chance Sara Del Rey will never be an on-screen WWE character, but the company has been putting more of a spotlight on her work in developmental. She’s been highlighted on WWE.com and was the focus of a recent Vice article. Even though some of us hardcore fans may prefer to see the Death Ray on our television screens, Sara says training is where her true passion lies, which is good news is that Sara because Triple H is very happy with her “special” knack for it.
“You can have all the knowledge in the world, but it’s useless if you can’t explain it. That’s what makes Sara special: She can feel it, but she’s also able to articulate that feeling.
Whenever people say ‘Oh, it’s so great you brought in a woman to train the women,’ I say ‘I didn’t hire a woman to train women, I hired a woman to train’. She’s great with the women, she can relate to the women wonderfully, but she’s more than that. It’s the same when I bring her up to the main roster. I’m not doing that so she can just work with the women, I’m doing that so she can be a road agent. It’s irrelevant to me that’s she’s a woman. What matters is that she can do her job extremely well.”
Well, it’s easy enough for ol’ Trips to say Sara being a woman isn’t important, but it seems as though she and her students don’t think it’s nearly as irrelevant. Del Rey talked about the importance of having a female trainer around to show up-and-coming ladies the ropes, and act as an advocate…
“I trained with guys’ guys for years, but it was when I went to Japan and worked with a group of all females that my technique was really fine-tuned. There wasn’t a safety net. I don’t think having a female trainer is a necessity, but it’s helpful. It’s not that the divas never had an advocate, but it’s something I gravitate toward as a fan. It’s easy for me to speak up for them, because that’s what I’m interested in.”
Unfortunately, that advocacy hasn’t made it to the main roster, where talented prospects like Emma and Paige have been thrown into the quicksand with the Camerons and Rosa Mendes of the world and expected to sink or swim. That said, it sounds like Del Rey may be planning to crack some main roster skulls in the future, as well. When asked if she thinks women will be main-eventing Raw in the next few years, Del Rey didn’t mince words…
“100 percent. There’s no limit to what this generation of girls can do.”
Especially when they have a tag team partner like Sara Del Rey kicking those doors down alongside them. Make sure to hit the rest of the Vice article, since there’s more interesting stuff to be found within, including some quotes from Del Rey’s star students, Sasha Banks and Charlotte.
via Vice
