Elayna Black Credits CM Punk With Helping Her In Decision To Take Wrestling Break

Elayna Black is currently on a hiatus from wrestling, and she says CM Punk helped her to be able to make the decision for her own wellbeing. Black, the former Cora Jade, announced in July that she was taking a break to prioritize her mental health and in a new interview with TMZ Sports’ Inside the Ring, she spoke about the decision and how Punk helped her get past her worries of letting people down. You can see some highlights below, per Fightful:

On her relationship with Punk: “He’s another person I go to for anything. He’s one of the people that, honestly, because I told you I was going back and forth for a few weeks — I was just scared. I knew I needed to take a break. I was just scared to do it because I didn’t want to let anybody down. I was scared of the backlash. I was scared of [letting down] promoters who had already booked the show. I just didn’t want to let anybody down, and I was putting everybody else before me. That just tends to be how I am, like I put other people’s feelings ahead of mine. For once, I just had to kind of realize I needed to put my feelings first. But it was so hard. It didn’t matter how many people said that to me and, like, agreed with me and were telling me that, like, all these things, but I, like, broke down one day and we had a conversation, me and him on the phone, because I was like, he ‘Hey, I need your advice,’ because he’s been through it all. He left WWE for 10 years, hated WWE, said crazy things, and nobody ever thought he was coming back.

“Look at him now. He’s found his love for wrestling again. He’s helped me with everything, so I always know that I can go to him. But specifically this thing, I was like, ‘I know he’s going to have good insight for me and give me a good outlook on it,’ and he did. He sat there and listened to me. He’ll always listen to me, which I am very grateful for, because I’m someone who, sometimes, I get very passionate, so sometimes I want to act on emotion. He’s very good at helping me see things from a different side without the emotional aspect of it.”

On Punk helping her realize she needs to prioritize herself: “So many things that he said to me in that conversation really helped me. He told me, like, I don’t owe anybody anything, and I don’t have to stick in something that’s no longer serving me, and that really stuck with me. It’s weird now because we’re friends and, like, we’ll go out to eat and, like, hang out and in groups and talk, and it feels normal now, but then I think I’m like, I was literally standing in line waiting for him for hours when I was 12 years old. It’s really cool to have this person as a friend who I can, laugh and joke with, but also realize that I looked up to this person for so long, for so many reasons, and now I get to ask this person for advice, for the reasons I looked up to them, and they’re giving me advice that really did help me. I don’t want to say, like, ‘having his approval,’ made me finally do it, but just hearing someone who means that much to me, and I respect so much and look up to so much, say, ‘Hey, if it’s not serving you anymore. You don’t owe anybody anything. You are allowed to take care of yourself.’ Hearing that from him, really, was kind of one of the things that made me be like, ‘Okay, you’re right. I’m gonna do it. If you’re saying that to me, if you’re not gonna be mad at me, I’m out.’”