Lacey Evans was among those recently released by WWE, news which didn't really shock fans. Since being called up to the main roster with her Southern Belle gimmick, nothing really worked for the former WWE Superstar, including a bizarre run as a heel war veteran.
Largely used in squash matches during her final months in the company, Evans' divisive social media posts about depression and autism are also believed to have factored into why she wasn't pushed. Now, in an interview with fellow fired former WWE stars Mandy Rose and Tino Sabbatelli, she gave her side of the story.
"I asked, you know, for my release," Evans claims. "I asked if I could like verbatim, 'Can I slip out the side door?' Where I come from and what I've been through and what I've had to do, nobody's gonna talk to me any certain way, I'm not going to sit my a** in catering eating steak anymore."
"Success to me - and I'm gonna p*ss a lot of people off, I don't give a sh*t. You can't cancel me at this point. Not that I gave a s*** to begin with. Back then, how I lasted seven years in WWE, I have no idea. My mouth was the same one backstage. I can't tell you how many damn fights I almost got into."
"I’ve got to be making moves," she continued. "If you don’t see me as the top guy, and you have the ability to make that choice, let me go because I know where I’m a top guy. I know where I thrive the most. I’m a thriver. I have to go."
Adding that WWE has been "great" to her in terms of what she was able to do with the money she made, Evans would go on to say, "I took a pay cut to even be in WWE, which is wild. I’m thinking I could use my platform, that hustler mentality, I want to help people. So much so that, that was my main goal in WWE. I’m an alpha and I want to be able to tell my story, use my story, and help people."
"Before I even joined WWE, I had multiple properties, 18 acres, my family is set up, I have a military career. I run a construction company, but I don’t have the platform that I could help human beings in a sh*t-ass situation. That was my main goal. I didn’t see myself holding a title up because that doesn’t make me feel accomplished."
In other words, she doesn't need WWE, and it appears Evans was never in it for the love of pro wrestling. Moving forward, it sounds like she intends to be an influencer; this typically happens when WWE hires women from outside that pro wrestling bubble, though there have been quite a few exceptions to the rule.
Either way, we see more of her personality in this interview than what we got during pretty much the entirety of her WWE run and...she's quite a character! It's hard to say how much truth there is to her nearly getting into fights backstage and the fact she requested her release (we'd heard she was fired) but the former WWE Superstar certainly isn't lacking confidence in her abilities...