Jacy Jayne’s rise to WWE’s main roster almost never happened. The former NXT Women’s Champion has revealed that, before her championship run completely changed her career, she genuinely believed she was about to be released.
While speaking with Denise Salcedo, Jacy Jayne admitted she struggled after Toxic Attraction split, feeling she was ready for a bigger opportunity when WWE didn’t see things the same way.
“I feel like once Toxic Attraction split, I don’t want to say I lost myself, but I definitely wasn’t in, like, the best headspace wrestling-wise. I feel like I was in over my head. Like, I felt like I was ready for the next step when, in reality, I really wasn’t.”
Jayne said she repeatedly pushed for a singles opportunity, but WWE officials told her she still needed to improve in several areas before they were ready to move forward with her.
“And I was kind of pushing backstage, like, ‘Give me the opportunity. Give me the opportunity.’ And they were like, ‘No, like, you got to work on stuff, you know? You got to get better in the ring. You got to get more comfortable on the mic. Like, there’s little things that you’re just not getting yet.’”
Frustrated with waiting, Jayne eventually went straight to Shawn Michaels’ office and asked him what she needed to do. Rather than asking to become champion, she simply wanted one singles match to prove herself.
“I went into Shawn Michaels’ office one day and I was like, ‘You don’t need to make me the champion. You don’t need to do anything like that. I just want one singles match to show you that I could be a singles wrestler.’ Like, what do you need from me? ‘Cause clearly I’m not doing what you need. So what do you need from me?’ And he told me, ‘Just stay consistent.’”
Jayne eventually got that opportunity against Stephanie Vaquer, and she believes that match completely changed how WWE viewed her. She said the momentum continued when she began working TNA dates, giving her more chances to establish herself as a singles performer.
“I finally got a match with Stephanie Vaquer… they were super happy with it. And I think the ball honestly started rolling from there. And then when I went to TNA… I think that’s where the ball really started to roll. And then, yeah, they started to believe in me more and more.”
Jayne also revealed she doesn’t believe WWE originally planned on giving her a lengthy NXT Women’s Championship reign. In fact, she thinks the rumors about her being a transitional champion were rooted in reality.
“I don’t even think I was supposed to hold that title very long. Like, the transitional champion thing… that came from somewhere. But I just kept having good matches and helping people get over and telling the stories that they wanted… and it turned into like a 300-day combined reign.”
Behind the scenes, Jayne said she was doing everything possible to improve. After spending her days training at the WWE Performance Center, she attended another wrestling school in Orlando several nights each week to prepare herself for another opportunity.
“I was working my Performance Center schedule in the day… and at night I would go to night classes at another school in Orlando… I really was working double duty.”
Perhaps the biggest story came when Jayne admitted she thought her WWE career was about to end just two weeks before winning the NXT Women’s Championship.
“Before I won the title, I actually thought I was getting released. Like, two weeks before I won the title, I was having panic attacks thinking, like, ‘It’s over for me.’”
Winning the title immediately changed her mentality, and she treated every television appearance as though her career depended on it.
“Then I won the title… it was just like, at that point, it was do or die. Every single time I’m on television, I have to be 100%. I have to be on my game. I can’t have any slip-ups.”
Jayne believes that consistency ultimately earned the trust of WWE management and led directly to her SmackDown call-up. She even admitted that without that title reign, she’s not sure she’d still be with the company.
“If I didn’t have that title reign or all those opportunities, I don’t think I’d be on main roster. I’d either still be in NXT or, you know, not here at all.”
Looking back, Jayne said spending nearly four years in NXT after the breakup of Toxic Attraction made her feel like her career had stalled. She enjoyed working with Chase U, but knew she wanted more than a supporting role, and that fear of standing still is what pushed her to keep fighting for another chance.
What do you think of Jacy Jayne’s journey from fearing a WWE release to earning a spot on the main roster? Let us know in the comments below.
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.
