Zelina Vega

Thea Megan Trinidad (December 27, 1990) is an American professional wrestler and zumba instructor of Puerto Rican descent. She is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Zelina Vega. She has worked in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) under the ring name Rosita, a name she also used in the Family Wrestling Entertainment (FWE) promotion. She has also worked for other independent promotions under the ring name Divina Fly. In TNA, she was a one-time Knockouts Tag Team Champion with Sarita.
==Early life==
Trinidad grew up watching professional wrestling with her father Michael Angel Trinidad and younger brother Timothy. She also practiced swimming and baseball. On September 11, 2001, when Trinidad was ten years old, her father was killed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, where he worked for the firm Cantor Fitzgerald as a Telecom Analyst. He was on the 103rd floor of the North Tower when it collapsed. Trinidad has said it was because of her father that made her enter the wrestling business. Trinidad was featured in an NBC special, titled Children of 9/11, on September 5, 2011.
Growing up, Trinidad also worked as a counselor on a camp for children that had lost parents on 9/11 and also participated in charitable causes such as Habitat for Humanity after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans with Tuesday's Children. At the age of seventeen, Trinidad began training professional wrestling under Javi-Air, Azrieal, and T.J. Perkins.
==Professional wrestling career==
===Women Superstars Uncensored (2010)===
On February 20, 2010, She made her debut for Women Superstars Uncensored (WSU), under the ring name Divina Fly in a losing effort against Britteny Savage. On June 6, 2010, Divina Fly and Niya, collectively known as The Fly Girls, competed for the WSU Tag Team Championships but lost to the reigning champions, Cindy Rogers and Jana.
===Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2011–2013, 2015)===
On January 11, 2011, Trinidad wrestled in a tryout dark match at Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's television tapings, losing to Angelina Love. On January 27 it was reported that Trinidad had signed a contract with the promotion. On the February 10 edition of Impact!, Trinidad, under the ring name Rosita debuted as the storyline cousin of Sarita in an eight knockout tag team match, where the two of them teamed with Madison Rayne and Tara and defeated Angelina Love, Mickie James, Velvet Sky and Winter, when Rosita pinned Sky. The following week Rosita and Sarita defeated Angelina Love and Velvet Sky in a tag team match to earn a shot at Love's and Winter's TNA Knockout Tag Team Championship. On March 13 at Victory Road, Rosita and Sarita defeated Love and Winter to win the TNA Knockout Tag Team Championship, with Sarita proclaiming that their victory would start a Latino takeover of Impact Wrestling. On the following edition of Impact!, the alliance of Rosita, Sarita and Hernandez was named Mexican America. The three of them were then defeated in a six-person street fight by Love, Winter and Matt Morgan. On March 24, the three were joined by Anarquia. In the following weeks Rosita and Sarita successfully defended the Knockouts Tag Team Championship first against The Beautiful People (Angelina Love and Velvet Sky) and then against Madison Rayne and Tara. They made their third successful defense on the June 16 edition of Impact Wrestling, defeating Velvet Sky and Ms. Tessmacher, following outside interference from ODB. Rosita and Sarita lost the Impact Wrestling's Knockouts Tag Team Championship to Ms. Tessmacher and Tara on July 12 at the tapings of the July 21 edition of Impact Wrestling. They received a rematch on August 7 at Hardcore Justice, but were defeated by Tessmacher and Tara. On the March 22, 2012, edition of Impact Wrestling, Rosita and Sarita again failed to recapture the Knockouts Tag Team Championship, when they were defeated by Eric Young and ODB.
On April 19 episode of Impact Wrestling, Rosita and Sarita teamed up with Madison Rayne and Gail Kim in a losing effort to Brooke Tessmacher, Tara, Velvet Sky and Mickie James. Rosita and Sarita were given another title opportunity on April 15 at Lockdown, but were once again defeated by Eric Young and ODB, this time in a steel cage match. Afterwards, both Rosita and Sarita went inactive from Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, while Anarquia left the promotion and Hernandez turned face, effectively ending Latin America. After months of inactivity, it was reported on January 9, 2013, that Trinidad's contract with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling had expired and she had parted ways with the promotion. On February 1, Trinidad confirmed that her contract had expired the previous day.
Trinidad, as Rosita, returned to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling for one night on February 14, 2015 at the tapings for Knockouts Knockdown III where she defeated Angelina Love.
===Other promotions (2011–2016)===
In late August 2011, Rosita traveled to Mexico to attend an event held by the Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) promotion, for which Sarita regularly works under the ring name Dark Angel. During Rosita's stay in Mexico, she was trained by CMLL trainers, Hijo del Gladiador and Tony Salazar, and was eventually offered a contract with the promotion, which she, however, could not sign due to TNA's working relationship with rival promotion Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA). Just days later, Rosita appeared on AAA's television program, Sin Límite, promoting a storyline, where wrestlers from Impact Wrestling were invading the promotion.
On May 14, 2011, Rosita made her in-ring debut for Family Wrestling Entertainment at the Meltdown pay-per-view, losing to fellow knockout Winter with Christy Hemme as the special guest referee. Rosita and Winter had three rematches, first on August 20 at Empire City Showdown, the second on November 15 at Fallout and the third on December 17 at Haastility; all were won by Winter. Rosita made her return to the promotion on March 24, 2012, at the Welcome to the Rumble pay-per-view, where she unsuccessfully challenged Maria Kanellis for FWE Women's Championship in a three-way match, after Winter pinned her to become the new champion.
=== Global Force Wrestling (2015) ===
On May 6, 2015, Global Force Wrestling (GFW) announced Trinidad as part of their roster.
=== World Wrestling Entertainment===
==== Early appearances (2013–2016) ====
On March 4, 2013, Trinidad took part in a tryout for WWE. She made several brief appearances in the promotion in 2014, including as one of Adam Rose's "rosebuds", and lost a match against NXT Women's Champion Asuka on the October 26, 2016 episode of NXT.
==== Managerial role (2017–2020) ====
By June 2017, Trinidad had signed a contract with WWE and began training at the WWE Performance Center. She started appearing on NXT with the June 9 episode, where she confronted Andrade "Cien" Almas about his behavior and slapped him. On the July 19 episode of NXT, she accompanied Almas as he attacked Cezar Bononi and retreated from No Way Jose. Under the name Zelina Vega, she was established as the heel manager of Almas, who defeated No Way Jose on August 9 episode of NXT. At NXT TakeOver: WarGames on November 18, Vega accompanied Almas to a match against Drew McIntyre for the NXT Championship, where she interfered by attempting to perform a hurricanrana on McIntyre, failing on the first attempt, but managed to perform a hurricanrana driver on him later in the match before Almas captured the title. On January 27, 2018, at NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia, during Almas' title defense against Johnny Gargano, Vega interfered and performed a diving hurricanrana on Gargano, resulting in her being attacked by Gargano's wife, Candice LeRae, while Almas eventually won the match. On January 28 at Royal Rumble, Vega made her first main roster appearance as she accompanied Almas in his entrance as number 7 during the Royal Rumble match. As part of the company, Vega made her in-ring debut for NXT during a live event on February 3, where she teamed with Almas to be defeated by Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae. On the April 18 episode of NXT, Vega was accompanied by Almas during her first televised match in which she was defeated by Candice LeRae and this turned out to be Vega's and Almas' last appearances in NXT.
On April 17 during the Superstar Shake-up, Vega and Almas were both drafted to the SmackDown brand. Vega made her debut for the brand on the May 15 episode, accompanying Almas in a match against a local wrestler in which he was victorious. On the July 31 episode of SmackDown, Vega had her first match on the brand, defeating Lana. She teamed with Almas and defeated Lana and Rusev at SummerSlam. At Evolution on October 28, Vega competed in a battle royal for a future women's championship match, but she was eliminated by the eventual winner Nia Jax. On January 15, 2019, Almas' ring name was shortened to Andrade. At WrestleMania 35, she participated in the Women's Battle Royal, but failed to win.
During the 2019 WWE Superstar Shake-up, both Zelina and Andrade were drafted to the Raw brand. On April 22 however, Zelina was moved back to the SmackDown brand. On the July 8 episode of Raw, Vega teamed up with Almas in a losing effort against Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch. As part of the 2019 Draft in October, Vega and Andrade were drafted to the Raw brand. Vega assisted Andrade most of the times and helped him retain the United States Championship on various occasions. Vega participated in the women's Royal Rumble match at the namesake pay-per-view and entered at #25 but was eliminated by Shayna Baszler.
==== Singles competition and departure (2020) ====
With Andrade and his new tag team partner Angel Garza arguing and fighting each other constantly, Vega appeared to end her association with her clients on the 14 September edition of Raw, interrupting and confronting Asuka after she just defeated Mickie James, initiating a feud. A week later on Raw, Vega defeated Mickie James for a title match against Asuka for the Raw Women's Championship at Clash of Champions, which she lost via submission.
As part of the 2020 Draft in October, Vega was drafted to the SmackDown brand. On November 13, 2020, WWE announced that they had released Vega from her contract. That same day, Vega tweeted her support for unionization.
==== Return (2021-present) ====
==Personal life==
On the tenth anniversary of 9/11, Trinidad spoke about her father in an out-of-character interview on TNA's No Surrender pay-per-view. She is the cousin of professional wrestler Amazing Red.
Trinidad once dated fellow professional wrestler Austin Aries.
==In wrestling==
*Finishing moves
**As Divina Fly
***Fly Cutter (Jumping cutter)
***Moonsault
**As Rosita
***Moonsault
**As Zelina Vega
***Code Red
*Signature moves
**Hurricanrana
**Multiple arm drags
**Somersault senton
*Wrestlers managed
**Hernandez
**Anarquia
**Sarita
**Andrade Almas
*Tag teams and stables
**Mexican America
**Latino World Order
*Entrance themes
**"5150" by F.I.L.T.H.E.E. / Brickman Raw (March 13, 2011 – March 17, 2011)
**"Stand Up" by F.I.L.T.H.E.E. / Brickman Raw (March 17, 2011 – July 21, 2012)
==Championships and accomplishments==
*Pro Wrestling Illustrated
**PWI ranked her #31 in the 2011 PWI Top 50 Females
**PWI ranked her #33 in the 2012 PWI Top 50 Females
**PWI ranked her #102 in the 2023 PWI Top 250 Females
**Inspirational Wrestler of the Year (2011)
*Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
**TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship (1 time) with Sarita
*World Wrestling Entertainment
**WWE Women's Tag Team Championship (1 time) with Carmella
**Queen's Crown (2021)
==External links==
* Profile
* Profile
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