A former WWE star gave major props to Cody Rhodes and John Cena for allowing her to get some extra time in a WWE championship match that she called one of her favorite bouts of her career. Xelina, the former Zelina Vega in WWE, told the "Ring the Belle" podcast that her August 1, 2025 "WWE SmackDown" match against Giulia for the Women's United States Championship only got the time it received thanks to the stars.

She explained the first 30 minutes of the show were meant for Rhodes and Cena, which ended up being Cena's face turn ahead of WWE SummerSlam. Xelina said that when WWE officials texted her about the match beforehand, the women were only going to have around seven or eight minutes total, around a commercial break.

"Then when we got there, they were like, 'Yeah, it might be 30 seconds, actually. Then the break, and then three minutes,'" Xelina said. "I was like, 'Okay, so, why are we even doing this? Like, what's the point of this?' They were like, 'Well it really depends on how long Cody and John are going to go.' I was like, 'Okay...' I asked Cody, I'm like, 'Hey, so how long do you think you and John are going to go? Do you think you're going to go a little bit longer?' ...He's like, 'Uh, why? Do you guys have to base it on us?' I'm like, 'Basically. I'm just trying to ease Giulia's mind as far as how much we actually might have.' He's like, 'Oh, I think either we'll probably go right on time.'"

Xelina said that she planned for the shorter time in her head after speaking to Rhodes and was ready to go. Things changed when they were standing in gorilla, however.

Xelina said that as she and Giulia were waiting to go out for their match, Rhodes came back through the curtain and said he and Cena saved them an extra 10 minutes. She said that she and the "Beautiful Madness" immediately panicked.

"First of all, amazing for him to do that," Xelina said. "We wouldn't have had that time if it wasn't for Cody and John. He's thinking we're going to be excited and I'm like, 'No, bro... We didn't really plan it that way.' And he's like, 'Oh. Sorry...' Giulia's like panicking, I'm like, 'Look at me. Look at me. It's going to be fine. We'll just do the longer version.' We kind of talked about it. I'm like, 'I'll talk to you out there, just listen to me and we'll do it.'"

The former WWE star explained that Giulia is one of her close friends, and the pair worked together in Xelina's ring at her home to figure out the match before the episode of "SmackDown." She said that they planned out some things that they could possibly do, and they ended up calling those spots in the match. Xelina said that outside of her match at Backlash 2023 in Puerto Rico, her Women's US title bout against Giulia is her favorite match of her career.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Ring the Belle" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.