Roxanne Perez hasn't even been a member of the WWE Universe for one year, and she's already one of the hottest performers in the promotion, with big-time wins in the NXT Women's Breakout Tournament, the NXT Women's #1 Contendership Fatal Four Way, and the NXT Iron Survivor Challange, a short-but-sweet run with the NXT Women's Tag Team Titles that sparked a potentially career-spanning feud with Cora Jade, and, on the fallout-edition of NXT, a win over Mandy Rose to become the 15th-ever NXT Women's Champion after a 413-day reign.

No, to call Perez's 2022 anything less than enchanted would be disingenuous, as the now-21-year-old has accomplished more in wrestling than most performers have over their entire careers, but do you recall how her year began? I'll give you a hint, she was holding a very different title belt at the time.

That's right, before she was “Roxanne Perez,” the performer born Carla Gonzalez was going by the name Rok-C and became internationally known for running the table in a pre-Tony Khan Ring of Honor's inaugural tournament to decide on the first-ever ROH Women's World Championship, with a win over Miranda Alize ceiling the deal for the then-19-year-old champion. Though Rok's run was shortlived, as Ring of Honor closed up shop on December 11th after Final Battle 2021, she still racked up nine successful defenses in ROH, Warrior, New Texas Pro and ROW, Booker T's promotion, before dropping the strap on January 9th in Impact Wrestling as part of a title vs. title match with Deonna Purrazzo for the AAA Reina de Reinas Championship.

Had Perez opted to stick it out on the indies, she might still have the ROH strap today and may even be a fixture of AEW television thanks to Tony Khan's ownership of both brands, but that wasn't the route “The Prodigy” wanted to take her professional wrestling career. No, as she detailed in her post-NXT interview with Kelly Kincaid, Perez's goal was always to end up in WWE, and winning the belt off of Rose – who has since been released but wasn't at the time – was nothing short of a dream come true.

“About 2016 – I have it right here on my wrist – is the year I started wrestling,” Perez said. “I was 14 years old, and that was the day I just said ‘I’m going to do everything I can to get to the WWE. No matter what it takes, I’m going to get there.' And my whole life revolved around wrestling up until now. Everything I did, literally every single thing I did, was to be here and was for this championship. And I’m sure you saw I broke down into tears out there, but everything was worth it. All the trials, tribulations, the ups, and downs, everything, every single thing, was so worth it. And this is proof to every single little girl out there that no matter what you tell yourself, no matter what doubts there are in your mind, it can happen. You can become the NXT Women’s Champion.”

Needless to say, Perez is on a roll and has already carved out one heck of a resume for a performer who has only been allowed to drink alcohol for about a month. And the best part? Now that she's the champ, the future is only going to get brighter for the sixth-year pro, as she'll be a fixture of NXT's televised output… at least until Triple H calls her up to the main roster.

Booker T couldn't be prouder of his student-turned-NXT Champion.

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Though Booker T has yet to officially comment on Perez's championship victory, besides celebrating her win on NXT and a tweet with a picture of the duo simply captioned “Happy,” he did have quite a bit to say on her win at NXT Deadl1ne on his Hall of Fame podcast, as transcribed by Fightful.

“I feel like it is because I'm myself, I'm able to go out and be me for the first time on commentary. It feels good,” said Booker. “As far as Roxanne goes, she's like my daughter. She was about as big as my daughter when she first joined the school. To see her grow into what she has become, in such meteoric fashion, it's been awesome. To see her go out there and win that match, which carved her a little piece of history, that's awesome. Now, set up to take on Mandy Rose, I couldn't ask for more. I'm really proud of her. I'm overjoyed at her accomplishments and success at such a young age, as well as, having her head on her shoulders at the same time and understanding that this is a once in a lifetime dream come true. Gotta love it.”

Asked why he broke out the tissues for Perez's big moment – which was just about the sweetest organic moment you will see on NXT – Booker kept being his authentic self.

“You just can't hold something back like that,” Booker said. “I tried to hold it back, and I could feel a little mist in the air. When you're emotionally attached or connected, the tears come out automatically. I was really proud to see her pull it off. I didn't know she was going to win. I did not know she was going to win. I got a chance to talk to her before the match and I said, ‘How do you feel?' She said, ‘Nervous, butterflies are going crazy.' ‘That's good. Go out here and make history tonight.' I'll be damned if she didn't go out there and pull it off. I'm so proud of Roxanne. There is so much more Roxanne Perez for you guys. The future is bright.”

Did Booker know on Saturday that Perez was going to win the Iron Survivor Challenge at NXT Deadl1ne, yet alone beat Rose for the NXT Women's Championship a few days later? It's impossible to know but based on his organic interaction, it's clear he was over the moon excited to see his former pupil become a champion either way.