Elayna Black was one of the hottest free agents on the pro wrestling market when she departed 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 companys 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.
“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 didnt 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 th
