Elayna Black, best known by her WWE ring name Cora Jade, was one of the latest casualties of WWE’s ongoing roster cuts.
An NXT prospect on the rise, the 24-year-old Black came as a surprise to see on the list of names receiving their walking papers from WWE in May. Having completed her 30-day non-compete clause, Black was able to speak on her experiences with the company for the first time on Monday.
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“In November, I kind of had a feeling that like I was going to be gone,” Black said of her release on Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “It’s always up and down. Maybe two weeks before the cuts, it was in Vegas, I was like, ‘I’m going to make it good because I’m not coming back here.’ I just had that gut feeling. Obviously, you don’t want that to be right, so don’t manifest it.
“That day, I was going to hang out with Bea Priestly (formerly Blair Davenport), and she called me and said, ‘Josh [Terry, aka WWE’s Riley Osborne] just got fired.’ Her husband. So I was like, ‘OK, I’ll keep my ringer on.’ And sure as hell, two minutes later I got the call.”
Black’s WWE run began in 2021 and saw her immediately align with Gigi Dolin, who was also let go from the company in May’s same batch of releases. Unfortunately for Black, the latter years of her time in WWE were marred by injury after she tore several ligaments in her knee, resulting in a significant amount of time lost to recovery in 2024.
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There were some things Black wishes would’ve played out differently, but ultimately her regrets are minimal.
“I had a conversation with somebody who I won’t name, but someone I feel I would have had a better experience there if it wasn’t for [them] — and not Shawn [Michaels] or Hunter (Paul Levesque) or anybody,” Black said. “I can’t praise them enough, and my time there, and everything like that, but there was a conversation with somebody where I was kind of like, ‘OK, this is probably going to be weird in a few months.’ And it was.
“At times [it was unsettling]. I could look at it and think about things I could have changed or what I could have done different, then I guess when you think about it there really is nothing, because I feel like — I was there every day. I was cleaning up the locker rooms with Roxanne [Perez] after the shows because we’re from indie wrestling, that’s what you do. Until the day I was gone, that’s just what you do.
“You can always look at it and think what could have been different, but at the end of the day, I feel comfortable in the fact that I got to do so much stuff,” Black continued. “I got to meet my best friend, so many of my best friends, and I feel confident that I stood on my morals. Things that I spoke up about that maybe other people wouldn’t have.”
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Regarding some of the more problematic experiences Black had, one in particular was frustrating enough that she took to social media within the past month, teasing smoke to a fire. She opened up more on the matter on Monday, indicating that she had been body-shamed into improving her physical appearance.
“I don’t want this to be ‘bash WWE’ because it was my dream,” Black said. “It still is my dream. I have no doubt maybe one day in the near future I’ll be there again. But it just is what it is.
Cora Jade makes her entrance during NXT TV at the WWE Performance Center on March 4, 2025 in Orlando, Florida. (Eric Johnson/WWE via Getty Images)
(WWE via Getty Images)
“I definitely think things could’ve went differently if it weren’t for certain things like the body-shaming thing. I came in at 19 years old, I was like 110 pounds, I was so small. It was just constant comments, whether it was from guys who think they’re being funny, or, I’m not going to name names again, but I remember specifically being told that I wasn’t and wouldn’t be champion in that company because I looked like I couldn’t crack an egg. Multiple conversations about my body, which I don’t think anyone, especially another man, should be saying that to a female. I was so young and it created a lot of issues for me body-wise. But, obviously, I gained so much muscle after that. I worked my ass off.”
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Although the knee injury was one of Black’s most notable setbacks in recent years, it wasn’t her only health scare. The Chicagoan recalled being scheduled to wrestle Lyra Valkyria at the end of January 2023 — until things unexpectedly took a turn for the worse.
“I ended up in emergency surgery in the hospital the night before,” Black reflected. “Literally almost dying and bleeding out because I had an ectopic pregnancy that had failed, and it exploded and made me internally bleed. I was rushed into emergency surgery because I was this close to bleeding out. Thank God I went, because I was literally thinking, ‘I just have to get through the match tomorrow.’ I knew something wasn’t right, but I just thought I had to get through the match, but I’m bleeding.
“What happened was, I had an IUD birth control. It’s inserted into you. It’s a 99.9% success rate, it’s a five-year thing, you protect your eggs for five years. They warn you of ectopic pregnancy beforehand. It’s where the egg is implanted outside of the uterus in the fallopian tube, and that causes the fallopian tube to explode, you internally bleed, and it’s extremely life-threatening to the baby and woman. I was always scared of that in general, because I have health anxiety anyway, so I was always worried about that.”
Black knew something was off as soon as she started feeling discomfort ahead of her match. Thankfully, the emergency surgery was successful, but it cost her her left fallopian tube, which was removed.
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Despite the horrific process, Black was still upset that she didn’t get to perform at NXT: Stand & Deliver 2023 as planned. The toll of everything left the wrestler in a dark place for the ensuing several months.
“Nothing has ever happened to me like that before. I never realized the effects of it,” Black said. “After I came back those few months, I was the most mentally depressed I have ever been in my entire life.
“I remember calling one of the WWE doctors and being like, ‘I need to go somewhere. I’m not OK. This is not OK.’ I don’t know what it was because nothing was really wrong, but I learned later — you deal with postpartum depression, and it’s so intense. I was 23 years old, and [it was] the craziest thing I had ever experienced. I went back to work and I was not there mentally. Nothing to do with work. I literally didn’t realize the toll that takes on you as a person.
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“I needed to go away and take time off or I don’t know what was going to happen to me. Mentally, I needed to take that time off. … I took that time to get myself mentally right, I felt good, I was ready to go, I was so excited. I felt good mentally, physically and emotionally. It was probably the best I ever felt. Then I came back, I had just went through a really bad breakup, it was my birthday — and I tore my knee. It was back-to-back-to-back. I was so excited and — boom, boom, boom.”
Black is already gearing up to stay as busy as possible in her post-WWE life. She has several indie bookings lined up, starting with a match against Rachel Armstrong at a Black Label Pro show on June 14.
Considering her age, there are still plenty of possibilities left for the one-time NXT Tag Team Champion in the wrestling world. Because of how recently her non-compete clause has ended, she hasn’t had any discussions with a major promotion like AEW or TNA, but she’s certainly open to returns in either.
“I would definitely be open to going to AEW. I loved my time there. I have a lot of friends there. I watch all the shows,” she said. “I love the fact that they have as much creative freedom as they do. I’m so much for storylines and character, so I feel like they are very creatively free in that way. So it’s definitely something I’d be open to.
“I’m not closed off to [TNA] by any means. I just feel that my only hang-up is I feel like I was just there. Now they’re kind of doing WWE and TNA, so it almost feels like I need to step away from that world for a second. I love TNA, I would definitely work there again in the future. Just right now, in my time, I feel they’re too close-knit together. It’ll be better for me to branch off and just kind of figure it out.”