Ava has already said leaving WWE wasn’t about one bad day or one backstage incident. She has now revealed the biggest reason she ultimately decided it was time to walk away.
While speaking with Cody Rhodes on What Do You Wanna Talk About?, the former NXT General Manager explained that her departure had been building for much longer than fans realized. Rather than making a sudden decision when her contract expired, Ava said she had been thinking about leaving for around a year.
“It was something that I had been thinking about for, I think, about a year prior. And I knew that my contract was up in February, and a couple things had been happening. There’s a lot of different reasons why I chose to leave, and it was incredibly hard. But I felt like it was time.”
Ava didn’t point to one disagreement or one moment that pushed her out the door. Instead, she said she reached a point where she no longer felt WWE was the right place for the next stage of her career. That led to what was probably the biggest takeaway from the conversation.
“I really, really wanted to grow, and I didn’t feel like I was in a position at WWE to where I could grow. And I’m incredibly grateful for my time there. I would not change it for the world. But I think I just knew, I was like, okay, I need to do something else. I need to learn and grow and see what’s on the other side.”
Those comments add much more context to what Ava said after leaving WWE earlier this year. During her appearance on The Downside with Gianmarco Soresi, Ava dismissed the idea that there was one dramatic story behind her exit. She explained that the decision had been on her mind for a while and wasn’t caused by one meeting, one argument or one backstage incident.
“There wasn’t one particular thing unfortunately. It was like a lot of things and had been something that was on my mind for a while.”
At the time, Ava simply said she was ready for a new chapter. Her conversation with Cody Rhodes explains why. It wasn’t that she had stopped appreciating WWE—she just reached the point where she no longer believed she could continue growing there and decided it was time to find out what came next.
What do you make of Ava saying she left WWE because she didn’t feel she could continue growing there? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
