Sol Ruca said she had doubts about whether she could build a career in WWE, largely because she didn’t grow up watching pro wrestling.
But reaching the main roster helped change how she views her own work.
In an interview with the Fresno Bee, Ruca said her call-up to Raw in April gave her the confidence she lacked. She also said imposter syndrome is common among athletes who start to question whether they really belong where they are.
“It was kind of like, ‘Wow, I do know what I’m doing. This is where I should be,’” Ruca said. “Especially as an athlete, I feel like a lot of us have a bit of imposter syndrome, thinking, ‘I don’t know if this is right for me. This isn’t something I was passionate about when I was a little kid.’ But now I’m passionate about it, and that was definitely a bit of reassurance that this is where I’m supposed to be, I’m in the right place, and this is something I want to continue doing.”
Before joining WWE, Ruca competed in acrobatics and tumbling at the University of Oregon. After graduating, she worked as a personal trainer in Hawaii, where she posted videos of her work on social media. Those videos led to an invitation to a tryout at the WWE Performance Center.
In the interview, Ruca also said wrestling gave her the team atmosphere she had missed since her college career ended. She signed with the company in March 2022.
Self-doubt is not a new topic in Ruca’s interviews. In March, she had already discussed imposter syndrome on Stephanie McMahon’s What’s Your Story? podcast.
On the podcast, she said many of her peers had dreamed of working in wrestling since childhood, while she had never considered it.