The WWE’s 37th annual Royal Rumble took place on Saturday (January 27) and there were plenty of body slams and dropkicks to excite any wrestling fan who tuned in for the event.
The show started with the women’s Royal Rumble, which ended with wrestler Bayley, who was born Pamela Rose Martinez, winning the match. Bayley, who is Mexican-American, broke the record for the longest time inside the ring during the women’s Royal Rumble.
Bayley had an amazingly successful night, but was her new record for the time she spent fighting in the ring the only record she broke? Some fans believe that Bayley’s victory in the women’s Royal Rumble was the first for a Latina wrestler.
So, is Bayley the first Latina to win the WWE’s women’s Royal Rumble? No, actually.
The women’s Royal Rumble has only been around since 2018, so there have been seven winners – Asuka, Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Bianca Belair, Ronda Rousey, Rhea Ripley, and Bayley.
Bayley is actually the second Latina to win the WWE’s women’s Royal Rumble. The first was Ronda Rousey in 2022. That’s right, Rousey’s roots are a mix of English, Trinidadian, Venezuelan, and Canadian ancestry. Rousey confirmed that she was Latina on social media back in 2012 when she said she was “half Venezuelan.”
Rousey’s mother, Annmaria Demars, who was a world judo champion, confirmed in a 2009 interview that her grandmother (Rousey’s great-grandmother), Emelia Maria Castille (Waddell), was born in Caracas, Venezuela.
In a 2022 interview with Fox News Latino, Rousey said, “I think it’s so cool that now people are starting to recognize that, yes, this is my heritage, this is where our family comes from. I’m glad to be getting a lot more acceptance as really being a Latina even though I don’t look like it.”
