Lilian Garcia Says The Rock Helped Launch Her National Anthem Legacy In WWE

发布时间：2025-04-20 03:29:14 来源：best case to open in cs2 作者：case opening

Lilian Garcia Says The Rock Helped Launch Her National Anthem Legacy In WWE

Lilian Garcia recently appeared on the latest episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet, where she opened up about her return to WWE, her current role with the company, and much more. The full interview covered a wide range of topics, offering fans an in-depth look at the legendary ring announcer’s journey in and out of WWE.

The following interview highlights were shared with us:

On returning to WWE:

“I find out that Raw is going to be in Greenville, and that was in May, months before. I find out they’re going to be in Greenville so I’m like, oh that’s only an hour and a half [away]. I hadn’t seen them in forever. Let me go down there. Just let me go say hi to everybody. So I reach out to him [Triple H] and I’m like, ‘Hey, can I come by? I’m like an hour and a half away.’ He is like, ‘Of course, we haven’t seen you forever. Come on back.’ So I said hi to everybody, and then he was like, ‘Hey, do you want to be on the show tonight? I’d love for you to co-announce with Samantha.’ I’m like, Oh, that would be so much fun. Sam was so excited. She’s so excited. She was telling me she’d been watching me and I had inspired her because I sang, and so she felt like she wanted to sing on the show and all. So when we co-announce, when I stopped in the middle of the ring and started complimenting her, that wasn’t part of it. I just really felt like that came out of me, really complimenting her. It just became such a moment that it just went everywhere, viral, my gosh, it was like the passing of the torch and all that. It was just so exciting.

Then I’m in Atlanta, I’m now living there and Bad Blood is in Atlanta. I came back in October, so we didn’t know anything. I go to Bad Blood, I’m in the audience, I’m sitting next to Booker T. Then I get the call two weeks later, ‘Hey, can you come back?’ The thing is I knew when they offered it to me to come back, they did tell me, ‘Hey, this isn’t permanent announcing for Raw or SmackDown. We just really need you right now but this is a new era, we want to be completely upfront with you.’ Which I really appreciated. I said, Look, whatever you guys need. I never thought I was going to be back, and whatever you need. I love this business. I love the people I work with. I’m excited. So when they brought me back, I knew that Raw was going to be until the changeover in January 6 for Netflix, that I knew. And they were like, Okay, now we’re gonna put you on SmackDown but we don’t know how long. Every week that went by they were like, ‘I’m so sorry we need you another week, is that okay?’ And I’m like, ‘Of course it is. It’s fine. Do whatever you want. I am loving this, totally loving this.’ But what was so beautiful that has evolved from it is that even though I’m not gonna be the full-time SmackDown announcer anymore, they said, ‘You know what, we love having you part of this, we want to extend, we want you to do Saturday Night’s Main Event. We think you’re a perfect fit for that.’ I love it. I get to wear gowns for that.”

On the 3 Minute Warning attack:

“So okay, I get the job as the announcer, replacing the legend Howard Finkel. I don’t remember how long after that, but he kind of in the storyline had been wanting his job back and he screwed me in something. I remember popping up with Trish. I even had a match with him. So he’s in the ring and he’s insulting me with something, and then all of a sudden Three Minute Warning comes and then Jamal and Rosie are in the ring. They threw me into Jamal, which obviously we know later on was Umaga, but at the time he was Jamal, and they do the Samoan drop. He does the Samoan drop on me.

So we rehearsed in the afternoon and there was a mat. They brought this big mat and they’re like, Okay, what we need you to do is to be able to take this. We need you to wrap your arms here and wrap your arms there, they’re teaching me, and I’ve been athletic my whole life so I was like this is the best thing ever. This is so exciting. And they’re like, ‘Okay, but when he goes back with you, you make sure you release all the air out of your lungs so that you don’t lose your [breath].’ Well, I’m not a wrestler, so of course in the action of it all, I hit the mat. Now it’s way firmer than the practice mat. The practice mat is super thick. But when I hit the mat in the ring the fall is way worse, and I don’t let my air out because I don’t think about it. Sure enough, I knocked the wind out of my lungs and I could hardly breathe. But I knew I had to stay still because I knew that I was about to take the frog splash. I knew I had to stay still and they say that even looked worse but I didn’t even feel that one at all.

But I did feel when I was going to the back and they were rolling me out in the stretcher, Chris the trainer is checking on me and he’s like, ‘How are you doing?’ I’m like, ‘My head is throbbing, what’s going on?’ He’s like you should be alright. Next day, I felt like the truck had hit me and it was because I thought that there was foam in the ring to support. No, it’s boards. That’s why they sound like boom, boom. Well, imagine little old me coming and landing on a board all the way from up top. Sure enough, I’m gonna feel that, I’m not trained, and that’s why they don’t do things like that anymore. I’m actually glad and excited that I was in the era that I took that, it was a lot of fun. [He threw you up for that] Yeah, I have so much respect from that moment right then. I had already respected the wrestlers, but I had so much more respect because I’m like, the fact that you guys do this 300-plus dates a year to your bodies is incredible.”

On The Rock playing a part in Lilian singing the national anthem at WWE events:

“He’s the reason I got to sing the national anthem on the show. Because when we worked together so much backstage and doing all these segments, I remember they were setting up cameras or lighting. So we talk and he’s like so tell me a little bit about yourself, and he wanted to get to know me. He’s one of the first ones that friended me. So I told him a little bit about me and singing came up. He’s like, ‘Oh, you sing?’ I’m like, Yeah. It was later on, I was getting ready because Howard always did the live events on the weekend, but I was going to be subbing in for Howard. He said to me, ‘Hey, you know what? Every weekend we play the national anthem as an instrumental before we go out there. Why don’t you talk to the producers to see if you [can sing it]? Have you ever done the national anthem?’ I said, Yeah, I did on my graduation for high school or college. Can’t remember. So he’s like, ‘Why don’t you talk to them and see if you can do it?’ So I talked to the producers. They’re like, ‘Well come in that day in the afternoon, let’s rehearse it and see.’ So I did it, and they’re like, oh my gosh, we’d love for you to do it tonight. So I did it Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and then by Monday, all the producers told Vince McMahon, they’re like, ‘You got to see her do this. She knocked it out of the park. The crowd went crazy.’ We were in San Jose and he goes all right, I gotta see it tonight. So I did it that night, and then that was it. He’s like, I want you to do it at every event. I hold the record for the most times at WrestleMania, which is awesome.”

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