Kelani Jordan thought bringing the TNA Knockouts Championship to WWE NXT would be something worth celebrating, but she claims the reaction backstage was anything but welcoming. According to Jordan, some women in the NXT locker room actually tried kicking her out despite not accomplishing nearly as much as she had.
During an October 28, 2026 interview with The Wrestling Classic, Jordan opened up about her experience winning the TNA Knockouts Championship and returning to NXT with the title. The interviewer asked whether that experience helped her realize how difficult things could get in the locker room, especially when she wasn’t receiving the respect she believed she deserved.
Jordan explained that she expected other wrestlers to come after her championship. What she didn’t expect was the reaction she received after bringing the title back to WWE.
“Yes, because so I went into hostile territory, brought the title back to, you know, home turf and people turned on me. Not only the girls in the locker room, which is, you know, to be expected whenever you’re holding a title. Whenever you’re holding a title, there’s a target on your back, no matter what title it is.”
The situation wasn’t limited to the locker room, either. Jordan said fans also turned against her, which left her confused because she believed other wrestlers had been praised for similar accomplishments.
She pointed to another wrestler winning a championship outside WWE and receiving a much more positive response.
“But the fans also turned on me. I’m like, ‘Hold on. Trish went and got the title and you guys were like, Yeah! I went and you guys called me a traitor.’ I’m like, ‘Wow.’ So, that was a big like turning point. But like I said, with the girls in the locker room, of course they’re going to want what I have.”
Jordan acknowledged that championship success naturally creates jealousy and competition. She figured other women would approach NXT management looking for opportunities to challenge her, which she considered a normal part of being champion.
“So, they’re probably like, ‘All right, let me go to Mr. Stone or if it was Ava at the time to get a match against Kelani.'”
However, things apparently went beyond wrestlers simply wanting a shot at her title. When the interviewer brought up how some women seemed to resent her success, Jordan claimed that certain members of the locker room were actually trying to remove her from it.
“People were kicking me out the locker room that hadn’t even done anything yet. I’m like, ‘Oh, hell no.'”
Jordan didn’t identify which wrestlers she was referring to, but she made it clear that she wasn’t happy about being treated that way after everything she had accomplished.
The experience also helps explain why Jordan has moved away from her previous cheerful personality in NXT. Between winning championships, dealing with backlash from fans, and feeling disrespected by fellow wrestlers, she’s reached a point where being nice isn’t her priority anymore.
Jordan went to TNA, won its Knockouts Championship, and returned to WWE expecting her accomplishments to speak for themselves. Instead, she says she found herself dealing with resentment from the very locker room she was representing. Now that she’s the NXT Women’s Champion, she has even more reason to stand her ground.
What do you think about Kelani Jordan claiming certain WWE NXT wrestlers tried kicking her out of the locker room after her TNA title victory? Was this just competition betw
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