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Elayna Black was one of the hottest free agents on the pro wrestling market when she departed WWE in 2025.
Formerly known as Cora Jade in NXT, Black hit the independent circuit performing in places like Atomic Legacy Wrestling, Black Label Pro and Game Changer Wrestling before taking time off. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) was an option for Black and she was very familiar with the company’s programming.
She told Fox News Digital she grew up watching TNA and became a fan of Jeff Hardy and the female faction known as The Beautiful People.
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“At the time I started watching TNA, Jeff Hardy was in the company,” Black said. “So, I was a huge Jeff Hardy fan … I started watching WWE first. At first that was the only wrestling company I knew. When you’re a kid, you don’t really know anything else. And then slowly I discovered TNA and you discover, oh, Jeff Hardy was in WWE and I was young, so I didn’t know. So, just discovering Jeff Hardy was crazy because I was like, I love wearing black nail polish and like I was getting into my little emo phase at the time. So, I loved Jeff Hardy.
“But my all-time favorites were The Beautiful People, specifically when it was the three of them at the time. It was Angelina Love, Velvet Sky, and Madison Rayne. They were like my gods. You could not tell me anything. I was going to be The Beautiful People. I was going to be in The Beautiful People. I remember my first ever phone, like flip phone, this little pink phone when I was in like fifth grade that my parents got me, The Beautiful People’s theme song was my first ever ringtone. I emailed TNA when I was like 12 years old trying to convince them to let me be the first ever youngest member of the Beautiful People. Obviously, they never responded, but here I am now. And maybe one day they can walk me to the ring or something. We’ll see. But The Beautiful People, those are my girls.”
Black finally became a main roster talent for TNA in January.
She told Fox News Digital she didn’t necessarily want to sign anywhere and was trying to do what was best for her.
“I think for a while I didn’t really want to sign anywhere,” she said. “Obviously, I knew eventually I wanted to be somewhere just because that’s what I love to do,” she said. “But I think for a while, my mindset was just wanting to prove myself otherwise. And I was having fun on the indies for a little bit, but life happens, some personal things came up and I felt like I really needed to take a break just for my mental health. I started wrestling training when I was 15. I dropped out of high school to do it.
“The only time I ever had time off was with an injury. So, it’s been my life forever. And growing up in wrestling is also kind of difficult. So just taking the time for the first time really and I’m 25 now, so 10 years, to just kind of sit back and reflect after losing everything that I had just worked for was probably the best thing I could have done. And taking that time, I was just kind of thinking where would be best for me.”
Black said she was initially hesitant to sign with TNA because of its partnership with WWE. She was just coming off a WWE run and at first thought she wanted to be able to do something on her own without WWE.
But after recalibrating, she said she believed TNA had the best environment for her and provided an opportunity for her to thrive.
“At first, I was a bit hesitant with TNA just because of the WWE partnership. And that’s nothing against WWE at all. I loved my time there, but that that goes back to me saying I wanted to prove myself somewhere else and I kind of wanted to be as far away from WWE as possible at the time just to prove who I was without them because I was there for so many years or a few years before that,” Black said. “At the end of the day, it seemed like TNA had the best environment. I wanted to help bring TNA to the forefront and help TNA grow.
“They got this AMC deal and I was lucky enough to be a part of the AMC debut, which was great. But I’m not the one who built that. You know, I showed up on the debut. There were so many years of hard work put into getting TNA to the AMC debut and everyone there is a hard worker and everyone there loves wrestling and it’s very creatively free, which is something I think I wanted and needed to do to be able to challenge myself. Being in WWE for a long time they kind of have what they want and you obviously have input as well but TNA is very, very open to ideas and everything like that. So, when I kind of thought about all that I was like TNA is probably the place for me, which is great. I love TNA.”
Black credited TNA with putting women’s wrestling at the forefront. Gone were the days of bra and panties matches or other risqué types of angles. TNA grew its Knockouts Division and helped make women’s wrestling more than just filler matches.
“I love the locker room. I think TNA has a great locker room environment in the in the women’s division. Not only that, but the women put on one hell of a performance every single time,” she told Fox News Digital. “I think a lot of the times TNA maybe doesn’t get the credit that it should for kind of being ahead of the times with the women, at least in my opinion. I think TNA was doing stuff that other companies weren’t doing with women for a long time in the beginning. I remember watching TNA as a kid and even noticing that I was like, I want to do what the Knockouts are doing. They get to do way cooler stuff and everything like that.
“So, I think a lot of times maybe TNA doesn’t get the credit for kind of putting the Knockouts on the forefront very early on and trying to show what they can do. So, that’s something I’ve always wanted to be a part of. It’s something I always noticed just even as a kid that TNA puts a lot of trust and faith in the women, which is very great and something you don’t always see. I think TNA is a great place and some place every women’s wrestler should want to be because they truly believe in the women and I think the women are incredible and we’re all pushing each other to be better.”
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Black is now a contender for the TNA Knockouts World Championship. She’s one of the mainstays on “Impact” every Thursday night on AMC.
