Indi Hartwell Reveals WWE Release Call Came While She Was Still Booked for SmackDown

Indi Hartwell didn’t see her WWE release coming, and the timing of it still stings. The former NXT Women’s Champion was let go in November 2024, and she recently shared the shocking details during an interview with Chris Van Vliet.

Hartwell revealed she actually missed the initial call from WWE regarding her release and had to call them back to get the news. “Fun fact, I missed the call when they called me to release me, so I made the call to get fired,” Hartwell said. “They’re like, ‘Oh, we’re calling with some unfortunate news.’ And I was so confused, because I wanted to say, ‘What do you mean? Like, I’m on the show tonight, like my match was taped last week, like I’m on the show tonight.’”

Hartwell’s match was taped for SmackDown the week before her release, but many fans assumed she had to wrestle the same night she was fired. “Some people didn’t know that that Smackdown was taped the week before, so they thought that I got released and then had to, like, go out that night and wrestle. Could you imagine?”

Despite the shocking timing, Hartwell admitted she always feared being let go by WWE, especially given her international status. “I didn’t honestly feel like it was coming, especially when it happened. My whole time at WWE, I was always scared of getting released. And add another factor to it is that I’m an international, so people don’t really understand, like, visas, green cards… that was something that was like always in the back of my mind, like being scared of being fired,” she explained.

Indi Hartwell has since landed on her feet in TNA, where she’s determined to make her mark. Whether or not she finds her way back to WWE remains to be seen, but the door isn’t closed just yet.