Former WWE ring announcer Lilian Garcia was the recent guest on the “Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast”, which you can listen to below or at this link. The following are some interview highlights:
On the Current Condition of Her Dad:
Well, you know, this is a man that is defying all odds. I have to say that he is definitely not the father I grew up with; strong military man, you know, the Colonel, but he’s a man that is fighting for his life everyday. He is still forcing himself to get up, to shave, to do things on his own as much as he can, and that’s just really awe inspiring for me. My sister and I both realize, we have all been praying; my mom has been praying, then we went..wait a minute. We are already in that miracle stage because we’ve been praying for a miracle and we’re already in that miracle stage because all doctors thought he would not be here by now, and the fact that he is, and the fact that he is coherent, that’s the biggest blessing to me. That we get to talk everyday, that he knows who I am, that he’s just, oh my gosh, is completely engulfed in politics and with everything that happened, so I’m very grateful for that everyday, where we go back and forth and have these amazing conversations about it, and so that was really big, so now we’re going to be decorating for Christmas and just doing things where we can keep him excited with what’s happening and what’s going on and so now we have to keep things positive and going. There’s been a lot of silver lining, and as hard as it was for WWE, it was 100% the right thing to do. I’ve been so, I’d say, blessed with the opportunity to take care of this man, and to be his Caretaker everyday, with my sister as well, having more time with her. He’s been living with my husband and I, both of my parents, for seven months, and yeah, as hard as it’s been at times, I mean, I haven’t lived with my parents since I was 18 years old, you know, and now they’re living with me, but there’s such a closeness, and there’s going to be…my husband and I talk about this, as much as there’s been an adaption process with living together, there’s also going to be an adaption process with what happens afterwards; you know, if he goes first, because you just never know.
On How She Got into Wrestling:
I even got into wrestling because of my dad. For some reason, I started watching it with my dad; my sister would go into the room and watch whatever show with my mom because they weren’t into wrestling, but my dad was into it, and I started watching it. I remember being a kid yelling at the TV because of what Ric Flair was saying, and how I couldn’t believe he was saying the things he was saying, you know, Mean Gene and his backstage interviews. I’ll never forget one day when Dad surprised me and said that we’re going somewhere, I said, we are? I then said okay, so we go to the Township Auditorium in Columbia, South Carolina. I already moved from Spain to South Carolina, and we go to the show and all of a sudden I am watching WWE; I’m watching Andre the Giant, and all these guys I was watching with him I was watching live at the arena, and if I remember the three guys that come to mind when I was a kid were Ric Flair, Andre the Giant, & Blackjack Mulligan. I don’t know why those three just hit me, and I shouldn’t be surprised, but they hit me. I’ll never forget when I started with WWE and Ric Flair was at WCW, so they hadn’t come over yet, and then all of a sudden they come over and I’m working for the company, and I find out that I’m ring announcing that night, and it happened to be somewhere where they were close by, I believe it was North Carolina or something. Anyway, they came to the show and I looked at Dad and said to Dad, Dad, I’m going to introduce you to somebody you took me to watch as a kid and you got me into wrestling, and you’re about to meet him, so that’s what happened; he got to meet Ric Flair. It’s insane how things line up in your life and how I was supposed to be in wrestling, and boy, what an amazing career I had there.
On How the Business Changed Throughout Her Years with the Company:
When you’re there, sometimes you don’t know. Sometimes when you’re in the bubble. When you see a child who is a cute three year old, and then you don’t see that child for, I don’t know, who or three more years, and all of a sudden you say, oh my gosh, that child has grown, and the parent doesn’t recognize it because they live it every single day, so they don’t see how that dramatic thing of seeing a child go from being little to growing up. With me, same thing happened, the changing with the wrestlers, changes were happening so I didn’t really get to feel that except for until I had these cheat sheet with the different wrestlers and their weights and the towns, so I would keep them all. So, I would make new ones and fix them, and update them with my little notebook that you always saw me at ringside. I started pulling out some of those old spreadsheets and I looked at it and thought to myself, oh my gosh, it’s all new people! That is when I can see the changing of the guard and how often the superstars started changing, and I couldn’t believe how I lived through the Attitude Era, the John Cena, and I forgot the name of it when Stephanie McMahon and Triple H started that whole era, they gave it a special name, but it escaped me, and of course NXT came around, and this is something that hit me too. When I came back after a 2 year layoff, I thought to myself, oh man, this sheet is going to be different too. It’s incredible how things kept evolving.
