Zelina Vega
Thea Megan Trinidad Büdgen[5] (born December 27, 1990) is an American professional wrestler. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Zelina Vega. She is also known for her time in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) as Rosita, where she was a one-time Knockouts Tag Team Champion with Sarita and for various independent promotions under her real name. Trinidad portrayed fellow professional wrestler AJ Lee in the 2019 biographical film Fighting with My Family.
Thea Megan Trinidad was born in the Queens borough of New York City on December 27, 1990 and is of Puerto Rican descent.[6] She grew up watching professional wrestling with her father Michael and younger brother Timothy,[6] and was inspired by Rey Mysterio.[7] Her parents divorced when she and her brother were still young, though they remained friends. She practiced swimming and baseball at school.[6] When she was 10 years old, her father was killed in the September 11 attacks; he had worked as a telecom analyst for Cantor Fitzgerald at the World Trade Center,[6] and was on the 103rd floor of the North Tower when it collapsed.
Her mother, Monique Ferrer, approached StoryCorps with the story of how she and her husband had met and what she experienced on the day of the attacks with his death, which StoryCorps used to create a short cartoon titled Always a Family as a way of honoring his memory.[8] She has said it was because of her father that made her enter the wrestling business. She was featured in an NBC special, titled Children of 9/11, on September 5, 2011.[6][9] Growing up, she 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 with Tuesday’s Children after Hurricane Katrina.[6]
After being discovered by Tommy Dreamer,[6] Trinidad wrestled in a tryout dark match at Total Nonstop Action Wrestling’s (TNA) Impact! television tapings on January 11, 2011, losing to Angelina Love.[11] On January 27 it was reported that Trinidad had signed a contract with the promotion.[12] On the February 10 episode 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.[13]
In February 2011, 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 Knockouts Tag Team Championship.[14] On March 13 at Victory Road, Rosita and Sarita defeated Love and Winter to win the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship, with Sarita proclaiming that their victory would start a Mexican takeover of TNA.[15] On the following episode 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.[16] On March 24, the three were joined by Anarquia.[17] 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.[18][19] They made their third successful defense on the June 16 episode of Impact Wrestling, defeating Velvet Sky and Ms. Tessmacher, following outside interference from ODB.[20] Rosita and Sarita lost the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championship to Ms. Tessmacher and Tara on July 12 at the tapings of the July 21 episode of Impact Wrestling.[21][22] They received a rematch on August 7 at Hardcore Justice, but were defeated by Tessmacher and Tara.[23] On the March 22, 2012, episode of Impact Wrestling, Rosita and Sarita again failed to recapture the Knockouts Tag Team Championship, when they were defeated by Eric Young and ODB.[24]
On April 19 episode of TNA Impact, Rosita and Sarita teamed up with Madison Rayne and Gail Kim in a losing effort to Brooke Tessmacher, Tara, Velvet Sky and Mickie James.[25] 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.[26] Afterwards, both Rosita and Sarita went inactive from TNA, while Anarquia left the promotion and Hernandez turned face, effectively ending Mexican America.[27][28] After months of inactivity, it was reported on January 9, 2013, that Trinidad’s contract with TNA had expired and she had parted ways with the promotion.[29]
