Lilian Garcia On Why The Club Had Stopped Hanging Out With AJ Styles, WWE Talent On Her Podcast
After being a trendsetter in terms of being a female wrestling announcer, Lilian Garcia is also breaking new ground as one of the first women to have a wrestling podcast. Through Chasing Glory, Garcia has interviewed hundreds of wrestlers including a recent one with The OC.
Garcia talked about being able to interview talent that she's known for years when she spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.
"I knew I wanted to do stories of these Superstars I worked with all of these years, but I didn't know how amazing it was gonna turn into and how much I would learn about my co-workers. Bringing that to the masses has been so much fun," said Garcia.
"This interview [The OC] in particular was so great because you get to see The OC as bad asses in the ring and heels, but you don't know much about them. So for them to let loose and hear their life stories and also the camaraderie of the three of them, you can really feel how much of a brotherhood the three of them have."
Garcia called this one of her favorite interviews and that she felt more connected afterwards.
The podcast isn't affiliated with WWE despite Garcia having numerous current Superstars on it. She was asked if there are any barriers she has regarding WWE talent.
"No. I've been lucky enough where [WWE] has trusted me with the talent to be able to run these interviews. I don't have anybody there from the staff overseeing and nothing is edited, so it's been great. I'm very respectful and I'm not into bashing anyone," stated Garcia.
She then revealed that sometimes negative things do come up. An example of that is from The OC interview which discussed AJ succeeding while The Club was not getting pushed. That led to The Club not really associating or hanging out with AJ because they didn't want to bring him down.
"Then AJ, because he brought these guys in and feels like the big brother, he's feeling bittersweet because he's still feeling for them," said Garcia. "Again, it's listening to the struggle that people think that AJ is on Cloud Nine but not understanding that he's feeling responsible for Luke and Karl. But now being able to talk about it is a beautiful thing."
Chasing Glory really delves into each wrestler that is a guest and sometimes uncomfortable topics are brought up. Garcia talked about how she deals with heavy subjects when they come up with her guests.
"The one thing Chasing Glory has become synonymously known for is being able to talk about the hard issues that happened to the Superstars themselves or someone close to them," said Garcia. "That's the beauty of the show because life is hard and tough things are gonna happen to you or someone close to you. It's only when society is able to talk about anything and everything that we can feel less alone and feel like there is a solution."
Garcia then talked about how she wanted to make the show about spotlighting all kinds of people who have platforms and want to tell their story of how they got there.
"I applaud and thank my guests all the time for allowing me to dive in and talk to them about these serious issues that happened in their lives as it's been able to help so many people who say, 'This show has saved my life,' because now they don't feel as alone as before," stated Garcia.
Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia can be subscribed to on all major podcast platforms. New episodes drop every Monday morning.
Lilian's full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of Tuesday's episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. In it Lilian discusses her favorite Steve Austin memories, her recent interview with The OC, AJ Styles and The Club discussing previous WWE frustrations, the launch of WWE's new podcast network, her failed WWE commentary audition, WWE's Women's R-Evolution and more.
You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.