Zoey Stark’s WWE run didn’t just leave her questioning missed opportunities. It left her feeling like she’d lost herself.
Just weeks after returning to the ring following her WWE release, Stark opened up on the Game Day Grace Podcast about the mental toll her time in WWE took on her confidence. Looking back, she admitted she became so focused on what management and fans thought of her that she stopped trusting herself altogether.
While discussing why the Bible verse Joshua 1:9 has become so meaningful in her life, Stark explained that it’s helping her rediscover the confidence she feels she lost during her WWE run.
“Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous? Do not be scared or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. That one I’ve been holding on to a lot within the last four or five months because I feel like during my WWE run that I wasn’t strong or courageous. I feel like I lost myself along the way while I was there.”
Stark said she’s now trying to rebuild that confidence and stop worrying about everyone’s opinion except her own. She admitted that while she was in WWE, she became consumed with trying to impress the people around her instead of simply trusting her instincts.
“So now this is a time for me to find myself again and build off of that and to remind myself that I will always have God on my side and he will always protect me and to not worry about what other people think because I feel like I really fell into that in WWE. Oh man, what does Hunter think? What does our CEO think? What do the fans think? Or this didn’t happen. Why? You know, instead of just being like, it doesn’t matter really. If I can look myself in the mirror and be happy and God’s happy with me, that’s all that matters.”
To help keep herself grounded, Stark revealed she’s started writing “Joshua 1:9” on her wrist tape before every match as a reminder to wrestle freely instead of overthinking everything.
“So now I just started the last couple of matches on my wrist tape. I just put down Joshua 1:9 just to remind myself when I’m out there to just be free and go do what I need to go do and what feels right to me.”
Stark also talked about some of the biggest frustrations from her WWE run, including why storylines she expected never materialized after breaking away from Trish Stratus. She admitted she still catches herself wondering why certain opportunities never happened, but eventually realized there was no point searching for answers she’d probably never get.
“I ask myself that question almost every day. I don’t know what happened for sure. I had like imposter syndrome and I think a lot of us do. Like when you go to main roster and you’re thrown in with Trish Stratus and Becky Lynch just like that. It happens so fast that you almost don’t have time to digest what is happening because it’s just going and it’s a roller coaster.
I ask myself a lot as far as like, okay, when I did take out Trish Stratus at Payback, why didn’t this happen? Why didn’t I go into a story with Trish? Or why didn’t I go into a story with Becky?… But then I realize I’m just wasting my time asking these questions of why because I’ll never know. It wasn’t meant to happen, you know. Obviously. And there’s always something to learn from it.”
One moment that still sticks with fans is her widely criticized promo opposite Becky Lynch. Stark admitted she understands why people bring it up, but argued the criticism ignores just how difficult it is to suddenly perform live promos in front of millions of viewers with almost no experience.
“People love to bring up my one promo that I had with Becky Lynch where I like yell in the mic of like, ‘You don’t own a damn mirror,’ or something. But I can’t say that’s why things didn’t happen a certain way because I personally feel like when you don’t have practice on the mic in front of millions of people—and I mean literally millions, thousands in the arena and millions at home watching—the amount of pressure that comes onto you… It’s really hard.”
More importantly, Stark admitted she knew the promo didn’t sound like her. She simply wasn’t confident enough at the time to tell WWE’s writers that she wanted to deliver it differently.
“And I don’t feel like in that moment I was courageous enough to tell a writer of like, ‘Hey, I don’t think I should say it this way. I should say it this way,’ you know, and following my gut instincts. I was doing exactly what I was told instead of knowing what was right for me.”
Now back on the independent scene after her WWE release, Stark says she’s focused on wrestling with the confidence she feels she lost along the way. Instead of worrying about management, creative or fan expectations, she’s trying to trust herself again—and believes that’s the version of Zoey Stark people will see going forward.
Do you think Zoey Stark was given a fair opportunity in WWE, or do you believe she had much more to offer? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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