Kaitlyn Reflects on Her WWE Release in 2014, How She Handled It

Former WWE Superstar and Divas Champion Kaitlyn (aka Celeste Bonin) joined Insight With Chris Van Vliet for a new interview to discuss her career, getting released by WWE and how she handled it, and more. Below are some highlights from Insight:

On How She Will Always Be Associated With Wrestling

“I think I always will [be associated]. My time in WWE, first of all, it took me more than a decade to wrap my mind around what that experience really was for me, and I think I’ll continue to have deeper understanding throughout my entire life. But it was this very massive initiation into tapping into my potential, just not even as a wrestler, but as a human being. It was such a huge blessing, and just this incredible thing that came into my life. I got a developmental contract at 23, zero experience.”

Kaitlyn on How She Felt After Her WWE Release

“Later, but initially, I was so glad. I was so relieved. It’s kind of like that valve release that I was talking about after that first time I was on television. I just felt like I could breathe for the first time in so long, and I didn’t know what I was going to do. I knew I wanted to start a business and build this new identity and do something different, especially after this belief that I had in myself after what I had just done in my WWE career after having zero experience in the way that I started. So I felt confident in my ability to recreate myself, but I didn’t have any regret in leaving until later, when I started to feel more stable, and I started to kind of feel more emotionally regulated.

“Looking back, if I had known how to talk about what I was going through and if I had someone I felt like I could talk to about it, maybe it could have been different. But I didn’t know. I struggled a lot with being able to actually articulate what I was experiencing, because I didn’t think a lot of people would understand outside of the industry that I was in. I didn’t feel like I had anybody that I could talk to within the structure of the people that I was working with talent. I didn’t know what to do. So I would say I started to say, maybe that wasn’t the best decision six months later, but I had already started a business six months later. I wish I had handled it differently.

“Those were the thoughts that I was having. But the biggest thing that I struggled with for so long, and this was like a decade of I just wish that I had done something more with the time that I was there. Because again, it was all so fast, and there were just these intense highs and lows, and I didn’t have a lot of confidence in myself as a wrestler in the ring. I didn’t really even know who my character was. It was always just me, but a little bit tougher. Kaitlyn, who is she? But I didn’t really have a message. I wasn’t like, ‘This is what I stand for. This is what I believe in, and this is what I want people to understand about themselves when they see me and experience me, whether it’s on television or it’s in a signing or something like that.’ But I don’t think anybody knows that when they’re 23, 24, 25. I think it was partially an age thing, but it was just I didn’t know how to hold the magnitude of what I was experiencing.”

Whether She Thought This Version of Herself Would Ever Wrestle Again

“I hope no one hates me for this, but I don’t really want to get back in the ring. I respect wrestling a lot, and I find it very entertaining. I love the artistry of it. I don’t think I could ever have the appreciation that I have now if I had never been a professional wrestler. Because there are so many aspects to the performance. There’s so many things to think about. The psychology of the match, connecting with people, telling a story with your face and your body, protecting your face and your body, protecting the person that you’re in the ring with, helping them perform to their best.

“Knowing where the cameras are, knowing how much time you have, being able to change it up if the people in the audience aren’t buying it, if they don’t care about it, so there’s so much to it. It’s such a beautiful art form, so I will always love it and deeply respect it. I don’t really watch it, but occasionally I will if there’s someone that I’m still friends with or that I love. Occasionally I’ll watch a match, but I don’t know. I don’t think I am gonna get back in the ring because I don’t have this burning desire to do that.”

Kaitlyn parted ways with WWE in 2014. She now competes in bodybuilding an does coaching work.