Earlier this month, we learned that NXT backstage interviewer McKenzie Mitchell had been released by WWE. The expectation had been that she was being groomed for a spot on the main roster, meaning fans were shocked when the news of her departure broke.
Talking to Chris Van Vliet, Mitchell - who is married to married to NXT commentator Vic Joseph - talked more about her exit from the company and made it clear there are no hard feelings.
"I think that there are so many new beginnings, and I'm excited to see what's to come in the future," she said. "The outreach, and the support that I've gotten from friends, family, coworkers, colleagues, production, staff executives in WWE, the fans most importantly, it's been insane. That's what made me emotional when I got released was being able to hear from everyone how much I impacted their opinion when watching WWE and when watching 'NXT.'"
"That's what made me emotional was hearing from all of the people their favorite moments in my career and the favorite interviews that I've done and the magic that was created on screen. That made it such a big impact on me to see what I made on them."
Mitchell has her own jewellery business, "Headline by MM," and now appears to be focusing on that. She also confirmed that she and Joseph have discussed the possibility of having a baby.
Earlier this month, NXT boss Shawn Michaels admitted that he was just as shocked as anyone by Mitchell's release. "It was something that obviously took me by surprise as well," he explained. "My understanding is there's just some areas where we have overlapping jobs, and there were going to be changes. There are a lot of things that go on within this company that are way above me."
"The door is always open here in the WWE," Michaels added. "It doesn't mean that we can't revisit that relationship somewhere down the road, good lord willing. Obviously, it's a loss to us in 'NXT,' but the machine, as always, has to continue to roll on, and we will obviously do that. And obviously, we will miss her greatly, because everybody absolutely loves and adores McKenzie."
With WWE now owned by UFC owner Endeavor, there have been some budget cuts and this may have simply boiled down to bad luck for Mitchell. This wouldn't be the first time a backstage interviewer has been fired and later brought back into the fold, though, so we'll see what happens.