TNA star Elayna Black shares why she joined company, how she wanted to be in The Beautiful People

Elayna Black, formerly Cora Jade in WWE’s NXT brand, signed with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in January and has since established herself as a regular presence on the company’s Thursday night program, now airing on AMC. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Black explained that her decision to join TNA came after a deliberate period of reflection, independent bookings, and a mental-health hiatus – the first extended break she had taken in a decade of professional wrestling.

Black, 25, said she began wrestling training at 15 and dropped out of high school to pursue the career, meaning the only previous time off she had experienced was injury-enforced. After leaving WWE in 2025, she worked independent promotions including Black Label Pro and Game Changer Wrestling before stepping away entirely. She told Fox News Digital that her initial instinct was to avoid signing anywhere quickly, and that she was initially hesitant about TNA specifically because of its working partnership with WWE – a relationship she felt complicated her goal of establishing an identity separate from her former employer. She ultimately set that concern aside after concluding that TNA’s creative environment and its commitment to the Knockouts division made it the best fit.

Black said her connection to TNA predates her professional career. She described growing up watching the company’s programming, with The Beautiful People – the female faction featuring Angelina Love, Velvet Sky, and Madison Rayne – among her primary influences. She recalled setting their theme song as the ringtone on her first mobile phone and, at approximately 12 years old, emailing TNA to propose herself as the group’s youngest-ever member. She credited the Knockouts division with having placed women’s wrestling at the centre of its product earlier than many comparable promotions.

Black is currently positioned as a contender for the TNA Knockouts World Championship. With TNA’s television presence expanded through its AMC deal – a debut on the network she was part of – she enters a competitive women’s division at a moment of raised visibility for the promotion.