Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
Earlier today, PWInsiderElite.com sat down with TNA's Elayna Black for an interview about her career, TNA Lockdown and more.
During the conversation, we discussed Black emotionally rebooting herself after her WWE NXT release:
Mike Johnson: Not to bring up a bad moment, but looking at the WWE NXT departure, is it hard to reboot yourself emotionally and spiritually for pro wrestling, given how much you have to give of yourself to be in the wrestling industry, when that chapter ends and you're trying to figure out what the new chapter is? There's a time period where you work some indies, including GCW, before you come to TNA full-time. What is that like just as a, not even as a wrestler, but as a person where one expected dream ends and you have to reboot and move forward? How hard is that to wrap your brain around?
Elayna Black: Yeah, I mean, obviously, it sucked. You know, I I started watching wrestling when I was eight years old. I dropped out of high school at 15 to become a wrestler, so it's the only thing I had ever wanted. I only ever wanted to make it to WWE and become a, you know, WWE champion. And, you know, it was always my goal for that. So, obviously, having that ripped away from me is, was very hard. But, I'm the type of person who, I never like to stop and just sit in my sadness or in my problems, you know? I wanted to just keep going and going and going. So, I think right away, maybe I didn't process it immediately. I think at first, I was like, "Yep, that sucks." You know, I cried, but I think I I immediately, like that night, I I was like, "Moving on." I was trying to put myself in the mindset of, "You know, I'm going to go prove myself, I'm going to go, you know, it's fine, it is what it is, you know? It..." Obviously, I was angry, I was upset, I was all these different emotions, but overall, I was just ready to go be like, "Fuck this, I'm going to go prove myself."
I think that's what I tried to do, but just being 100% completely honest with, with you, with the fans, with everybody, and with myself, I needed that time to process, and I didn't give myself that. And I think impulsively, I just wanted to go, go, go, go, go. And then all the emotions kind of started to come and creep up on me and realize that not only did I lose my dream job that I worked for essentially since I was eight years old, but I had just lost so much in the past year and a half in my life, personally and professionally, whatever the case may be. So, it kind of just felt like the last, final blow to me, and it was kind of like I, at that point, I had completely lost everything. You know, things in my personal life and my professional life, in in every aspect of my life, it was like I lost everything, and there legitimately was nowhere to go but up.
So, I think I needed to take that break, which is, was very hard because, you know, there's so many different opinions in wrestling, you know, friends, coworkers, people you don't even know, dirt sheets, whatever the case may be. There's so many different opinions, and I think I've done a good job of just being in this industry for so long from from such a young age. I mean, you know, I've been doing this 10 years, obviously there's people that have been in it way longer, but I just mean like, I kind of have conditioned myself to not really care what people think. But, it did get to a point where it was just too much. So, I kind of told myself, I need to say, "F what everyone thinks, F everyone's opinion." I kind of can't care about any of that right now, I need to put myself and my mental health first because I fell out of love with wrestling completely.
There were so many aspects that just ruined my love of wrestling, and it felt like I was just completely at rock bottom, and I think I knew that I, if I didn't take that break, that I wasn't going to continue to have a career in wrestling. So, regardless of the negative opinions that I did get and, you know, all the the crap that people did talk, I think it was the best thing I could have done, and I don't think I would be in TNA today if I didn't take that break, because it really truly helped my mental health. You know, I got to process the emotions that I should have processed immediately, I got to spend time with family and friends and, you know, do things that I haven't done in the last 10 years, and kind of just remember who I am as a person and not just a wrestler. And my goal was to miss wrestling, and I knew that if I missed wrestling, that I knew that it was still meant for me, and I missed it immediately. I missed it like a three weeks in, but I knew that I needed to take a little bit more time, which is what I did, and I'm so glad that I did because here we are, I'm feeling better than ever, I'm feeling motivated, I feel like I'm putting on great performances, and yeah, I'm ready, I'm ready to take that TNA Knockouts Championship, and I think it's my time.
PWInsiderElite.com subscribers are listening to the entire conversation as part of Elite's ad-free experience.
TNA Lockdown heads to Chicago, Black's hometown on 8/23. Tickets are on sale now.
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Bang On Casino
