Xelina Credits Rhodes And Cena For Longer Title Match

Xelina, formerly known as Zelina Vega in WWE, credited Cody Rhodes and John Cena for enabling her to have additional time in a Women's United States Championship match on the August 1, 2025 episode of WWE SmackDown. She described the bout against Giulia as one of her favorite matches of her career during an appearance on the Ring the Belle podcast.

The first 30 minutes of the show had been allocated for a segment featuring Rhodes and Cena, which turned out to be Cena's face turn heading into WWE SummerSlam. WWE officials initially informed Xelina and Giulia via text that their match would last around seven or eight minutes, including a commercial break.

Xelina expressed frustration, questioning the purpose of the match under those constraints, and was told it would depend on the length of the Rhodes and Cena segment. Xelina recalled asking Rhodes. He responded that they would probably stick to the scheduled time, which allowed her to mentally prepare for the shorter version of the match.

As Xelina and Giulia waited in gorilla position to enter the arena, Rhodes returned through the curtain and informed them that he and Cena had extended their segment to provide the women with an extra 10 minutes. Xelina noted that without Rhodes and Cena, they would not have received that additional time.

The news caused immediate panic for Xelina and Giulia, who had not rehearsed the longer version. Xelina reassured her opponent, who is one of her close friends, by saying they would adapt and perform the extended match, with her directing cues during the bout.