The former ‘Katrina Cortez’ looks back at her time with WWE.
Last November, there were a total of 26 wrestlers released from WWE. Catalina García, formerly known as ‘Katrina Cortez’ was a part of the releases that month. The 22-year-old García had her first match for WWE in 2019. She wrestled on NXT TV four times during her run with the latest taking place on the 9/14 NXT 2.0.
‘Pousta Sports’ has an interview on their site with Catalina and she reflected on her journey in WWE. She told the publication that things became tasking for her when she realized all the sacrifices that had to be made such as the constant travel and being away from her family in Chile.
At first it was cool because it was the dream I had planned in my head, to train every day and all day in the gym. I was happy until I saw all the sacrifice I had to make: Traveling, getting up early, working from Sunday to Sunday. Because I had no days off and when I had vacations, I used them to come to see my family in Chile.
It was training in the morning and traveling in the afternoon, because we had to drive to the different places where we fought. And after we fought, we had to dismantle the ring, tidy everything up. Even if you’re a superstar, you have to do that. Helping to take out the lights, the speakers and put everything away in the truck, just like in Chile.
When she was let go from the company, she said she was fine with it because at the time, a lot of talents were being let go and assumed that it could happen to her as well. She stated that the worst to come out of it was her father came to visit her and the day she was released, he was on a flight back to Chile.
When I was fired, they just called me and said, ‘You’re fired’. I was fine with that, because at one point they started to fire a lot of wrestlers and almost every Thursday there were layoffs. I had already assumed that it could happen. Everyone thinks it hurt me, but it wasn’t like that. The bad thing is that my dad had come to see me and that same day, he had taken the plane back to Chile.
Catalina opened up about the negativity she dealt with on social media. She ate 500 calories a day to lose weight and made herself sick. The comments she received online made her feel worse and she added that it hurt more that majority of the comments came from fellow Chileans.
To lose weight, I ate 500 calories a day. Lettuce with chicken all day and that’s how I maintained myself, I made my body sh*t, it was disgusting. I made myself sick, but I felt worse because of the comments I read and what hurt me the most was that they were messages from Chileans. They were not people from Mexico, they were not people from Peru, they were not from Argentina, they were very supportive. But the Chileans threw a lot of sh*t at me because of my weight, I felt horrible.
There I felt the weight of being the first Chilean and I felt that I was doing it wrong, but now I see it and I know it was not like that. I got there and they gave me a lot of chances because I was doing well. But the comments did make me feel bad. I felt the weight of wanting to do it and not being able to do it.
While she was a part of the company, she often trained with Drew Gulak and credited him for teaching her a lot and being a friend.
García also spoke highly of Santos Escobar, who she said became like a wrestling dad to her and he passed on knowledge from his years in the business onto her.
At the WWE Performance Center, I trained with Drew Gulak. We formed a good friendship and he taught me a lot. He helped me with promos, English and everything he could. He was a great partner. I’m also very grateful to Santos Escobar, who told me his stories from Mexico. There was so much trust that I got to know his piece full of championships from Mexico, AAA, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and other companies. He opened up a lot and became almost like a dad in the wrestling world and was always looking out for me.
As far as what’s next for Catalina, she wants to continue wrestling abroad, but has set her sights on getting her Kinesiology degree as a backup plan in case wrestling does not pan out.
I think I already fulfilled my dream, which was to be in WWE, and I still haven’t found the next one. But I would like to go back to wrestle abroad. I think it would be great and I would learn a lot.
But I would also like to finish my studies and get my degree. I want to get my Kinesiology degree now, before I continue fighting because, if something happens in the future, like an injury or whatever, I want to be prepared. In the meantime, I’m enjoying time with my family. It makes me very happy to have them all well and to see my teammates as well.
This past March, Catalina wrestled for CZW against Trish Adora and competed for the CCW promotion that airs on Title Match Network.
