Jacy Jayne On What She’s Learned From Working In TNA, When She Knew She Was On Top Of NXT

Jacy Jayne made several appearances in TNA as the Knockouts Champion, and the NXT star talked about what she learned from those experiences. Jayne held the TNA Knockouts Title from Slammiversary in July to NXT Heatwave in August. She has held the NXT Women’s Title during that time as well, a title she will defend against Tatum Paxley at NXT Halloween Havoc this weekend.

Jayne appeared on The Battleground Podcast and talked about her experiences in TNA and more. You can see highlights below:

On the Moment She Realized She Was the Face of the Division:

“I don’t know if there was ever like a specific time. I guess you could say when I won the title, but I’ve known for a long time that I was meant to be in this position. I just didn’t get the opportunity to show that yet. So yeah, it took me a while to become confident, but I always believed in myself. And I knew that one day I would be a main eventer. I just had to stay the course and work really hard to make sure that when that opportunity was presented to me, that I was ready so that nobody could say anything anymore.

“They can’t say, ‘She’s not ready,’ or ‘She can’t do it.’ Like I was not going to let that happen. And I feel like I proved that. Like, I had my match with Stephanie. I won the title and I have been main eventing and running this division ever since.”

On Being the First Person to Hold NXT and Knockouts Women’s Titles At Once:

“Yeah, I’m the first to ever hold both titles at the same time. I’m honored. I was very happy to be a part of Slammiversary and to work for TNA — represent them — and also work for NXT at the same time, representing both divisions. That’s huge. as two of the best women’s divisions in wrestling, period. And I was representing both, I was the champion of both. I’m extremely happy I can say that I did that.”

On Lainey Reid Being The First Person To Call Her ‘Most Beatable Champion’:

“I think she was new to TV. She’s been in NXT for a couple years, but she hasn’t really had any spotlight or opportunities yet. I think she was feeling herself. She was trying to prove herself to me. I think she got cocky way too fast. And then she learned really quickly like where you fall on the pedestal, and you’re not as high as you thought you were. I’m the top girl.

“So, I think that was a reality check for her. And then she kind of started buttering me up, and learning the correct way to go about things. She proved herself to me, and I brought her in the group and we’re doing pretty well.”

On What She’s Taken From Her Appearances in TNA:

“I mean, I’m from the indies originally. So I’ve experienced obviously wrestling for TV, not for TV, two completely different things. I feel like in NXT, everything is there’s a structure of how you do everything. And you have to hit specifics, and your times are very strict, everything is very strict and you have to play by the book.

“TNA, it’s a little more relaxed. You have kind of more freedom to try things, do things that you might not do on NXT TV. So I feel like I learned from that. Also, everything is put together more last minute. So I feel like your brain just has to be ‘Go, go.’ You don’t really have time to think about it. Whereas in NXT, I feel like I have more time to think about things.”

“So that’s challenging. But it was a great, experience and I feel like TNA helped put me on the map as a singles wrestler. I was always a tag wrestler in NXT. So when I jumped over to TNA, you know, I had a singles [match] with Masha and I feel like people were like, ‘Oh, wait. Jacy can wrestle as a singles. I’ve never really seen that side of her.’ So I feel like that just opened a lot of doors and it got people talking and it started giving me different types of opportunities.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Battleground Podcast with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.