Lilian Garcia On Her WWE Return, Smackdown, Viral Moments With The Rock & Triple H

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Lilian Garcia (@LilianGarcia) is a WWE ring announcer and singer. She sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood, CA to discuss being back in WWE and how her moment with Samantha Irvin on Raw led to her return to announcing, her 2016 departure and what led her back to wrestling, how the current era compares to The Attitude Era, her previous podcast "Chasing Glory" possibly making a comeback, memorable interview segments with The Rock, her storylines with Viscera, 3 Minute Warning and Howard Finkel, taking a Samoan drop from Jamal (Umaga), announcing Triple H as a former World Champion and the viral reaction, singing the national anthem at WWE events and more!

Quote I'm thinking about: “Sometimes when things are falling apart, they may actually be falling into place.” – Unknown

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On if Lilian thought a WWE return would be possible:

"You know, you should never say never, because I really thought that was it. I thought that that chapter was closed, especially when I walked away. I didn't have to walk away in 2016 but I chose to walk away when my dad got sick, he was given two weeks to three months to live. He had bladder cancer and it had spread, and at that time he was living with me and mom had come to live with me. They were getting treated at City of Hope here in LA, and the treatments just didn't work anymore. When I got that news, I remember calling the company and being like, I just can't get on another plane. It was just devastating. My dad was so upset that I had left the company because he really felt responsible, but I kept going every day no, this is where I needed to be. This is where I want to be. Now he didn't know he was dying. He had told us a long time before that don't ever tell me if I'm dying. I think it was the Lieutenant Colonel inside of him, where I think it would just been devastating had he felt like I don't have any more control. Because as an army person, whatever, you just feel like you need to have control. So it was kind of one of those things where it's like no, I'm gonna step away just so I can spend some time with you and get you back to health."

On not regretting the decision to step away from WWE:

"I will never regret that decision. He passed on Christmas Day of 2016 and I just remember he had said goodbye to us on the 20th, that was when he lost the ability to speak anymore. I just remember that by the 25th I looked at the cross that I had put, because he was a man of faith, and I put a cross above his bed, this was like at 12:30 that afternoon. I said to God, 'If you want to give me a gift take him, because this is not my dad anymore.' It's the hardest thing to say, but I'm looking at this man, he was just trying to stay alive for us but he just wasn't there. I always wondered why Christmas Day and he held on to that day though, because he knew how much we loved it. But I do remember this from the hospice people that were there, great piece of advice, and he said, 'Don't tell your dad to let go. As a Lieutenant Colonel, he's the one that gave the orders, so just tell him it's okay to let go if he's ready.' And that's what I did. I whispered in his ear, and I said look, it's okay to let go. You've really prepped me for life, your lessons. I don't want to get teary-eyed here, but it was about an hour later he let go."

On missing WWE when she left:

"Yes, I couldn't even watch the product for a really long time, it was just too sad, too hard for me to watch, too many memories. I loved it so much. Like I said, from a little girl to all of a sudden, here I am and working with The Rock, Stone Cold, Triple H. The Attitude Era. I mean, it's like D-Von and I look back, I remember him coming to me, we were talking backstage. He goes, Man, we just had no clue the era that we were in when we were in it, we just didn’t. I heard Triple H kind of say this the other day after Elimination Chamber and the press conference. He said, we didn't really know that there was something so special about the Attitude Era. But now we look back and we go, that was a really special time, but now we can feel there's something very special now, and I agree. It's like now some of us that were there in the Attitude Era could really look at this moment and go, Okay, there's a feeling that we're familiar with. And this is really special."

On coming back to WWE full-time:

"Crazy. I feel like this is a God thing. So when I left in 2016, took care of my dad, then my mom stayed living with me and then she eventually got cancer as well. In 2019 I went to PFL, the Professional Fighters League in MMA. So I started announcing for them. I announced for four years with them, but mom had gotten sick during that time, and so did the same thing for her, took care of her. My sister came. My sister did this as well with my dad. She basically lived with me so we could take care of both of them, and she passed in 2021. Then by the end of 2021, my marriage just dissolved. I had to make a really hard decision. It's wild that I went to Spain, where I grew up, I went there to kind of tap into my younger self and to separate myself in the situation to kind of see things clearly. For three weeks I sat there and I wrote everything out, and then I came back and I made the decision, but I was devastated because I didn't see it coming. I didn't want this. But you get to a point where if you're not living in a very healthy way, you got to make a decision.

So I needed to make that decision. I dissolved that, I kept PFL, I did the 2022 season, and then the 2023 season came and all of a sudden I lost my voice and I couldn't figure out why. I went through four months trying to figure out what was wrong with my voice. I couldn't announce. I could speak but I could barely sing, just anytime I went to do something forceful, boisterous, it was just like it would swell up and disappear. My vocal coach was telling me, because I was like, okay, maybe I should just be on vocal rest. He's like, no, no, we can't do that, because then you'll atrophy, we got to work this out. But come to find out when I tried to do the championship for the 2023 season, I just couldn't. It was at Madison Square Garden and that very next week, my boss called me. He's like, we're not gonna be able to sign you for 2024, we don't even know what's wrong with you. I was like, I don't blame you. I'm like an announcer without a voice. But the very next week my voice cleared up and I'm like, what is happening here?

Sure enough, I had the house I was living in Laguna Beach, and I had it checked out. I thought it was mold, because I encountered mold in houses before, but it wasn't. It was a gas leak, huge gas leak that I had had there for four months in, just inhaling all these fumes, and they're like, Thank goodness you don't smoke or you don't light candles. That's why I was so irritated. I had to go through hyperbaric chambers and detox and all, but by then I'd lost that. So then I ended up deciding by the end of 2023 to move to my parents' house in South Carolina. So I left California. The house had been sitting there since my dad, they moved in 2016 so I went and wow, what a chapter. For eight months, sat there and went through all my childhood memories, because that's the house that I grew up in from when I moved from Spain when I was eight years old. So going through all this stuff, my dad, my parents had added to the house, and by then it was almost 4,000 square feet, a lot of hoarding. It's like that generation just wanted to keep everything. So I went through a lot. My sister would come back and forth from Nashville, but sitting with those memories in the house, wow, that was tough, and I dealt with that for eight months, and then that led me to Atlanta. I get to Atlanta, and I somebody suggested, oh by the way, at the end of 21, I am going to get to your question, but I think this is all important to lead to that."

"By the end of 2021 when I'd made the decision, December 1 is when I finally told him, my friend extended her hand the second week of December. She's like, 'Do you want to go to Mariners with me?' I was like, what is that? She's like, my church. I was like, Well, I'm Catholic. She goes, Well, this is non-denominational. It's like, okay, I've never been to non-denominational, it's fine. I walk in and the band starts playing, and they're playing for 20 minutes, and they're playing rock music, and there's lights and I'm like, wait, we're not even in a church. It's like in an arena. Am I at church or a rock concert? What is this? I was just so moved by it and the message and everything that I had to come back next week. By the second week I was like, I had to see if they need a singer. It's like, I just got everything in me. I don't know whether God, whatever, but everything in me is like go find out. Sure enough, they did a really quick audition. I heard that usually it takes six months, and I was in there in like two weeks. So I was meant to be. So I started becoming a worship leader and really that brought me back. I got into a church program that really helped me deal with my divorce and helped me deal with a lot of trauma that I'd been through in my life, and from that I ended up getting re-baptized.

When I say re-baptized, I was baptized as a baby, but I made the choice as an adult and it was on Easter Day, which was fascinating. Was amazing that it was that day because it also happened to be my grandmother's birthday. My grandmother was the first 14 years of my life. She lived with us, and she's the one that really just poured so much love. I know love because of my grandmother, so the fact that it was her birthday as well. So then when I moved to Atlanta I watched the movie The War Room, which is amazing. I created this prayer closet because it talks about it in The War Room, and is where I meditate and all. I'm sitting there and I'm like, All right God, I've done everything that I feel like you want me to do. I've stepped away from this, stepped away from that, lost my voice. I've found out what it was. But at the same time, I lost my job at PFL, didn't get re-signed, and no income coming in. I've gone to this house for eight months and emptied it, still waiting for it to sell. I'm like, I literally have one more month left of income. You say you do not abandon, I feel like I've done everything you want me to do. I will trust but I am scared. And two weeks later, I get the call from Triple H to come back."

On returning to WWE full-time:

"So here's the setup too. Because I went to the house in South Carolina, then 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 and I'm like, 'Hey, can I come by? I'm like an hour and a half away.' He [Triple H] 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 being back in WWE:

"Amazing, the fans have been incredible, just the love from that to the people I'm working with, to the new talent that's there, the girls in the locker room, absolutely incredible. And they all reached out to me, or they're like we're gonna miss you on a weekly basis. They know I'm not gone-gone, but they're like we're gonna miss you on a weekly basis. Working back with Triple H and seeing all of these people that I worked with for so many years, all the agents now that are the producers that are there. It's my family. I don't have my parents anymore, I didn't have kids, and I'm not in a relationship, I'm in Atlanta by myself. So it is my family, and that's what's so beautiful, and the fact that they said, Look, we really want to work this out to keep you in some capacity here. Man, that's music to my ears and just to my heart."

On the Viscera storyline:

"You know, that was never supposed to be a storyline. Never. So they asked, 'Okay, can he just serenade you? We want to turn him into Big Daddy V where he starts going around to all these women and he gets all these women kind of thing. He goes, so we have an idea. We want him to serenade you.' I'm like, yeah, that'd be fun. Well, it was like the most watched segment in weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks, or the year, or something like that. So it was like wait a minute, we have something here. So that's when they kept writing something for us and it just kept evolving and evolving. Next thing you know, I'm proposing to him at the pay-per-view at Vengeance. Oh my gosh, it was so fun. He was so incredible to work with and they wanted to do this like, you know, Beauty and the Beast. He was a beautiful man. Like, seriously just a really big teddy bear. He showed up and he was like, 'Oh, guess what we're doing tonight.' What? What are we doing? Things you didn’t expect."

On the 3 Minute Warning Angle:

"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. 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 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? My head is throbbing like, 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 and 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."

What is Lilian Garcia grateful for?

"The people that are in my life, the opportunities that I have and the fan base that is still with me."