AEW coach/producer Sarah Stock recently appeared as a guest on the AEW Unrestricted program for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling. During the discussion, Stock commented on her time in TNA with Zelina Vega:
“The moment we met, we clicked. It was an automatic chemistry, an automatic friendship between us. I remember the first thing she said to me was, ‘Oh, cool gear.’ You know, I always put a lot of thought and effort into having tons of new gear, getting it made cheap in Mexico too so I’d always have different gear. From that moment, we were just best buddies. On the show, we were cousins and to this day, we call each other ‘cuz’. It was great. I think she was maybe 19 at the time, so in some ways it was like a big sister, little sister type of relationship. We really helped each other to navigate a lot of things at that time. She’s just a wonderful person. We had a ton of laughs together and, you know, just had our inside jokes and ways to relax each other before we go out to wrestle. So yeah, that was a really important part of my time in TNA was developing that friendship with her.”
On how the conversation started for her to go to AEW:
“I was in Mexico at the time. I had been out of the ring for seven years. I hadn’t wrestled and I kind of made the decision to get back into the ring for three matches in Mexico. That was it. I just have this little comeback, but it wasn’t planned to be a full time return or anything. Just kind of motivation to get me back in the ring, and, you know, I’m not sure what sparked the interest but it was shortly after I made that decision and went back to Mexico to prepare for those matches that AEW got in touch with me. It all moved very quickly and then very slowly. It moved quickly in terms of I really wanted to work for the company. We came to an agreement on things. The unfortunate part is that being a Canadian citizen, things aren’t as easy as just starting to work. So for all the red tape and getting the visas and all that kind of stuff, it was about a year later, a year after that conversation that I actually stepped foot into the doors in Winnipeg.”
“Obstacles kept coming up in that process. Thankfully, the, you know, the AEW legal team and the law firm they work with to get these visas were, you know, excellent in staying positive and keeping me positive because at that point, I kind of, I stopped my whole life. I’m like, I’m done in the ring then. I did these little matches in Mexico. Now I’m gonna get ready to go to work at AEW and I thought in a couple months I would be there ready to go and everything stopped. So it was a time of limbo and frustration because I didn’t know if this visa would even ever come through. So when it finally did, it was the biggest relief. I’m so glad that it all worked out.”
On working at the WWE Performance Center:
“That was such an incredible experience. The Performance Center is a mind-blowing place. You know, there’s seven rings at the time, a whole promo room, and all the resources in the world, so it was eye opening in the sense of, this is what professional means. After years in Mexico, it was just a very different almost level of professionalism that I was introduced to and try to carry out going forward. I think that was the big impact that it had on me. I worked for one year at the Performance Center before I went on to be on the road with RAW and SmackDown and produce up there. So it was two totally different worlds even there. Honestly, the people that I shared, well, you know, a locker room with I guess you can say, our producers room and the people in the production meetings had a massive impact on me just to be surrounded by that amount of knowledge and this intelligence. It was huge for me.”
