Nia Jax Never Considered Going Somewhere Else After WWE Release, Contrasts First & Current Runs

Nia Jax says that she never considered wrestling elsewhere after she was released from WWE in 2021. The SmackDown star was among the wave of talent cuts in November 2021. While she was away from the company, she stayed out of the wrestling business and returned to WWE in the 2023 women’s Royal Rumble.

Jax confirmed during her appearance on Insight With Chris Van Vliet that she never considered going somewhere else. She said that she knew she still wanted to wrestle but didn’t want to do it outside of WWE. Jax’s run since she returned has been much better received by many fans than her first run, and she weighed in on the difference between the two as well. You can see the highlights below:

On If She Considered Going To Another Company After Her Release:

“Not really. I didn’t think that I wanted to wrestle anywhere else, but I did know that I wanted to still wrestle. I didn’t even know if I was gonna come back to the WWE, honestly. It was just kind of, like I said, it was my whole life at the time. So when I was released, it was kind of a shock. Or it was like, What is my life? It’s kind of like I had to reset. I’m like, What is my life right now? Because my whole life has been WWE, and I really didn’t think about an after, which, you know, a lot of wrestlers get caught up in that. Because it happens to be like that. When we’re on the road five days a week, you don’t really think about the after. So I didn’t think about wrestling anywhere else. I, you know, everybody kept saying, try here and go there.”

On Her Career Taking a New Direction When She Returned:

“Because I had that break. I feel like I changed in a better way. I got better, and I elevated my game a little bit more. Not that I didn’t think I had the opportunity in my first part, but I think because it was a different schedule, and I wasn’t really locked in as I could have been when I had the break, and I was able to see what I could improve on. I was able to change it coming back.”

On Contrasting Her First and Second WWE Runs:

“I feel as though before, I was taught a certain way, ‘You’re a certain size. You can’t do these things. Stay away from this. Don’t let them do this to you.’ So I was kind of like pigeon-holed into a little bit of a [situation where] I was afraid to get out of it, because the person telling me is somebody who runs the show, you work for an audience of one. So this time around, Hunter was more like, ‘Be you. You show them what you can do, because I know what you’re capable of.’ So I feel like the difference is just me kind of like being myself a little bit more. I’m more adding who I am into my character, instead of I gotta stay here and make sure that somebody’s happy.”