Zoey Serrano thought she had survived the worst of it. After spending months fighting her way back from a devastating knee injury, the former Zoey Stark had finally been cleared and was thinking about getting back in the ring — then WWE called and pulled the rug out from under her.
Serrano was released by WWE on April 24, 2026 while she was still coming back from the injury, ending a five-year run with the company. That exit came after she suffered a torn ACL, MCL and meniscus during the May 19, 2025 episode of RAW, forcing her into surgery and a brutal rehabilitation process that had already put her career on ice for months.
During her latest Q&A video, Serrano was asked what went through her mind when WWE finally made that call. She admitted the memory still hits hard enough that simply talking about it nearly brought the emotions right back.
“Um, so when I got released from WWE, uh, it hit like a ton of bricks. Kind of makes me want to cry now. Mainly because I wasn’t expecting it.”
Serrano wasn’t sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring either. She was at EOS Fitness while chatter about WWE cuts was spreading, and she was already messaging Chelsea Green and Mia about what was happening. There was apparently a little voice in the back of her head telling her something might be wrong, but Serrano had one major reason to believe she was safe: she had just been cleared following her knee injury.
“I was actually at the gym at uh, EOS and all day long you’re hearing about releases are happening today. I’m messaging Chelsea Green and I’m messaging Mia. And for whatever reason, I just had this this strange feeling, but I was kind of just putting it to the side because I just got cleared from my knee injury, right? So, I wasn’t really expecting it.”
That detail makes the timing especially brutal. Serrano had spent months documenting her rehab after the knee injury, including a major recovery milestone where she finally reached 91 degrees of knee flexion after struggling to regain mobility. Her recovery eventually progressed to the point where she was running, jumping and regaining her full range of motion, with Serrano openly talking about getting back in a WWE ring.
Instead, the phone rang. Serrano said the first thing that hit her was heartbreak, but the reaction didn’t stay emotional for long. Her body started physically reacting to the news as the reality of losing her WWE job sank in.
“So, when I got the phone call, there were multiple things running through my mind. My first thought was obviously this really sucks. I am heartbroken. My body started to shake. Um, obviously I started crying.”
Serrano immediately got out of the gym and went to her car. That’s where things became even more frightening, because she said she genuinely believed she was having a panic attack as every possible worst-case scenario started racing through her mind.
“Um, I went to the car immediately and I I like I truly truly thought I was having a panic attack because like I couldn’t breathe, you know, like every worst case scenario was going through my head and I was having a really hard time.”
Even in the middle of that meltdown, Serrano somehow found herself thinking about the WWE employee on the other end of the phone. She could hear in his voice that delivering release notices wasn’t exactly an easy day at work either.
“And then secondly, I felt really bad for the gentleman who had to call me. That’s not an easy day at the office for him. I could hear it in his voice. Um, but it hurt. It It really hurt.”
That wasn’t where Serrano’s answer ended. Looking back months later, she said the pain of that phone call eventually gave way to something else — an opportunity to figure out who she was again after feeling like she lost part of herself during her WWE career.
“It’s one of those things now where as much as it hurt at that point where I am at today, I get the opportunity of finding myself again.”
Serrano then dropped an even more revealing admission about what those years in WWE had done to her personally.
“And like I just said from the last question, I get to have fun. I I lost who I was along my WWE career and now I get to find that again. And I feel like I am definitely finding it and I’m finding my confidence.”
Instead of looking at the release strictly as WWE slamming a door in her face, Serrano now views the entire mess as something that pushed her into a different chapter.
“So things happen for a reason. I truly do believe that. And this is a blessing in disguise. I know that there’s always a lesson to be learned out of everything. Just got to find the silver lining.”
Serrano didn’t sit around after WWE cut her either. She ditched the Zoey Stark name and unveiled “The Purist” Zoey Serrano while training for life after WWE, and she later admitted there was even a point where she considered walking away from wrestling altogether. She ultimately kept going, and by August she showed up in TNA and attacked Indi Hartwell, officially putting the WWE chapter behind her and starting over on her own terms.
For Serrano, that WWE phone call clearly wasn’t just another roster cut. She went from finally believing the nightmare of her knee injury was ending to shaking and struggling to breathe in her car, but months later she’s back in the ring with a new name, a new company and a completely different perspective on the day that crushed her.
What do you make of Zoey Serrano revealing just how badly her WWE release hit her, especially after she had just fought her way back from that knee injury? Let us know your thoughts and feedback 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.
