Taynara Conti On Wearing Her ‘Released’ Shirt at NXT Live Events, Not Telling Anyone Until the Last Minute, What It Was Intended to Mean

Speaking with Ring the Belle, Taynara Conti discussed when she made her return to NXT live shows after a couple of weeks off wearing a shirt that referenced reports she’d walked out of the company. Conti drew attention when, a week after reports surfaced stating that she’d walked out of NXT, she appeared at an NXT live event wearing a T-shirt that read “Released.”

@TaynaraContiWWE is back and wearing a shirt that says released 😂📸 #NXTFTPierce pic.twitter.com/y6lrxuTjqo

— . (@kimberlasskick) February 16, 2020

Conti talked about how that situation came about and he she hadn’t walked out, but taken a couple of weeks off after she had asked for her release and was denied. Conti said that there was a whole backstory she wrote around the “Released” shirt and how she didn’t tell anyone about it until just before she did her entrance for the match. You can check out highlights and the full interview video below:

On reports coming out that she asked for her release jsut as she was coming back: “After a couple of weeks that I had the conversations and I told them that I was not happy there anymore and everything, I got a couple of weeks away. And I came back and I had another conversation and we were okay. We’re like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna try one more time. Opportunity’s gonna come.’ And they told me, ‘Oh, we’re gonna be laughing about this situation in the future’ and blah blah blah. I’m like ‘Yeah,’ I was fully good. And the same day they started put everything on social media that I got released.”

On the ‘Released’ T-shirt: “And I was thinking ‘Well, if people were saying that, why not? You know, let’s try to use and make a storyline. I want to change, they keep saying no. And I said, ‘Not this time, I’m not going to ask.’ So I didn’t ask. I made my T-shirt, although I didn’t put that on TV, you know. I’m professional enough to know that I can’t do that kind of stuff on TV. But like live events, they’re made to try new stuff. New moves, new characters. So I didn’t ask. I just showed up with a T-shirt. Before I did my entrance, I told my producer ‘Hey, I’m using this T-shirt, is this a problem?’ I was ready to go, and said ‘Hey, is that a problem if I used this T-shirt? I had my own T-shirt in case they say no.’ But they were like ‘Uh, I don’t know.’ And I said ‘If someone gets mad, you can say that it was my choice. It’s just something that I want to try.’ And the producer said, ‘Okay, it’s on you.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, it is. On me.'”

On what it was supposed to signify: “So the idea for the ‘Released.’ It was not just to you know, try to piss people off or whatever. So I put everything on paper, and I showed them my idea. Of course at first it was like, ‘Oh my god, she’s coming with a T-Shirt saying ‘Released.’ But then I had a backstory. I was like, ‘Well, I’m trying to say that I’m released from who I was before. And then I will be able to show my new character.’ So if you watch the match, you can see I’m completely different in the ring when I use my T-Shirt. I was more serious and not making fun, and not being sexy. I was trying to do something else. It was not just to say ‘Ha, released!’ I had a backstory. I was planning, I was rewriting, putting everything on paper. I had everything planned, you know.”

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