Elayna Black Says She Was Surprised by WWE Release After Being Heavily Featured

Elayna Black isn’t sugarcoating anything when it comes to her WWE departure — and she isn’t pretending it didn’t sting either. The former Cora Jade sat down with Dave LaGreca and Tommy Dreamer on Busted Open Radio and finally laid out the emotional reality behind her NXT release, the months that followed, and why she now feels grounded again in TNA.

When LaGreca brought up how heavily featured she was on NXT television before her exit, Black admitted the release didn’t exactly make sense to her at the time.

“Definitely surprised a little bit. Just because I had been so heavily featured in all the, like, program leading up to it.”

She explained that in the immediate aftermath, it was easy to spiral into second-guessing and imagining alternate outcomes.

“I left there in May. So it’s been coming up on almost a year now that I’ve been gone. I think before it was easy to wonder, like, wonder why, wonder what could have happened if I stayed, all this types of stuff.”

But with time away, her mindset shifted completely. Instead of dwelling on what she lost, she started looking at where she actually was in life.

“But I think now I’m just in a very good position in my life and in my mindset where I’m like, ‘Hey, everything happens for a reason.’ Clearly I did… they didn’t like — which is fine. I’m twenty-five years old.”

Black pointed to real-world examples of wrestlers who were told “no” before reinventing themselves and thriving.

“I look at people like Chelsea Green and Matt Cardona, who, they got fired, they didn’t think they were, you know, worth keeping around at the time, and they went and did their own thing, became way bigger stars. And look at them now.”

She made it clear she’s not living in a WWE revenge fantasy either. Right now, her focus is simple: be happy, grow, and build something meaningful where she is.

“I just know right now I’m having a very, very fun time in TNA. I’m happy to be in TNA. And I’m here for the long run, you know. I don’t plan on going there any anytime soon. I want to keep progressing my career in TNA and see what happens from here.”

The most raw part of the conversation came when Black explained just how deeply wrestling had consumed her entire identity from childhood. She revealed she started watching at eight years old, dropped out of traditional school at fifteen to chase training, and never built a life outside of the business.

“Since I was eight years old, I just have been so hyper focused on making it to WWE… I dropped out of school when I was fifteen and got, like, an online degree so I could start wrestling training… so I haven’t really had life without wrestling since I was a child. It’s been all I’ve ever focused on and all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

So when WWE ended, it wasn’t just a job loss — it was an identity crisis.

“Once you finally make it there… I made it to WWE. I did everything that I had dreamed of since I was eight. Once I finally got there — and then it was taken away from me — it was like, okay, like, I don’t know what life is without wrestling.”

That’s where the time away became essential instead of damaging. She used the break to breathe, to live, and to rebuild herself outside the ring.

“I got a house. I got to spend time with my dogs. I got to do things that I just hadn’t gotten to do and just was able to breathe. And I think I really, really needed that.”

She didn’t dodge the criticism either. Fans speculated that she quit, that she was done, that she walked away. Her response was calm and brutally honest.

“People can have their opinions or whether they told me I retired, told me I quit, whatever it was. I’m so glad I did that. Because I don’t think I would still be wrestling if I didn’t take that break.”

And she closed that thought with the line that really sums up her entire journey over the last year.

“It made me just be able to reset and just mentally reset and get myself together and realize: I do miss this. I know what I want to do. And I know where I want to go. So I’m very glad I did take that time.”

Instead of collapsing after WWE, Elayna Black sounds like someone who finally understands herself, her career, and her priorities — and that might make her more dangerous in the ring now than she’s ever been.

What do you think — did stepping away from wrestling save Elayna Black’s career in the long run, or should she have stayed active the entire time? Drop your thoughts in the comments and join the conversation.

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