Elayna Black is stepping away from the wrestling business.
On Monday, the former NXT star posted on social media that she needed to step away from professional wrestling for the foreseeable future because she’s not in a good mental space.
It’s a shame that Black has to step away as her future really seemed bright earlier this year when NXT was giving her a mini-push. However, health is very important so it’s definitely best that she takes some time to heal first. This actually comes out of left field as Black has been doing interviews left and right since her shocking WWE release.
Black had been in the WWE for four years. Going under the name, Cora Jade, she originally came in with a skateboarding gimmick until she turned on tag team partner, Roxanne Perez. Black was forced to sit on the sidelines in 2024 for a while due to an ACL injury. She came back in October, but suffered another injury the following month.
It didn’t take long for Jade to return and she was consistently improving every time she stepped into the ring. There seemed to be a point where Jade was being put into the position to be the next NXT Women’s Champion when she was added to the triple threat match with Giulia, Bayley, and Roxanne Perez.
Jade got to wrestle Masha Slamovich in TNA for the Knockouts Championship at their Sacrifice pay-per-view. Her final WWE/NXT match was at Stand and Deliver where she re-teamed with Roxanne Perez for a four-way elimination tag team match to determine the next challengers for the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles.
Since her release in May, Black returned to the independent scene and talked about her WWE experience and release with various reporters including Ariel Helwani. Black described her reaction to being fired on the notable interviewer's ESPN show.
"In November, I kind of had a feeling that, like, I was going to be gone," Black said of her release on Uncrowned's "The Ariel Helwani Show." "It's always up and down. Maybe two weeks before the cuts, it was in Vegas, I was like, 'I'm going to make it good because I'm not coming back here.' I just had that gut feeling. Obviously, you don't want that to be right, so don't manifest it.
"That day, I was going to hang out with Bea Priestly (formerly Blair Davenport), and she called me and said, 'Josh [Terry, aka WWE's Riley Osborne] just got fired.' Her husband. So I was like, 'OK, I'll keep my ringer on.' And sure as hell, two minutes later I got the call."
As previously stated, hopefully Black is able to get better and come back to the squared circle. She’s still pretty young, so it isn’t impossible for her to go back to the WWE someday if the former NXT star really impresses on the indie scene.