Lola Vice was recently interviewed by Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald.

Highlights are below.

On her new moniker:

“Lola came out because when my sisters and I were little, we had a lady who liked to do our makeup, and that was always our alter ego name, Lola. When we were coming up with names, I was like, ‘Let me throw that in there’ because I liked it. Then, I always had a vision of Miami Vice because I am the first Cuban American woman and I was born and raised in Miami. I feel like that’s me and I need to represent, how can I do this, and incorporate it into my name. I thought about Miami Vice and said, ‘how about Lola Vice?’ Actually, I gave them ten first names, ten last names, and Shawn Michaels chose Lola Vice. It’s beautiful, it goes, and I feel like this is my new era.”

On the reason she chose the name:

“I always think very ahead. Another option I had was Estrella, which means star in Spanish. I liked that too, but something about Lola, I thought it was cute, a little latina and something easy for other people to announce. I had to get in the ring and say, ‘Can I be Lola for the rest of my career? Yes, I can.’ I’m glad they chose that for me and now we’re in the works to hopefully debut soon.”

On the reaction from WWE fans:

“Twitter messed this up for me. Since I’m verified on all my accounts as Valerie Loureda, they had to switch my handles. I woke up and it said Lola Vice WWE and I had tweeted and I didn’t know they had changed my name already. Then it came out and people started talking about it because I had given hints like dressing up as Lola Bunny for a rumble match we had. I put Lola with winky faces, obviously they knew I was dressing up as a character, but I had already known that was my name. Twitter ruined it for me and I was like, ‘I’m just going to release on my Instagram.’ The fans reactions, I was a little nervous because everyone was like, ‘you should keep your name.’ The way I think about it is, Valerie Loureda is the fighter who has been fighting since she was three-years-old and made this whole career very young and Lola Vice is the entertainer that Valerie always wanted to be. Having this new name gives me more of a character and allows me to really play this part of the Miami girl, the Cuban girl, the Latina in the WWE and it fits really well.”