Elayna Black talks WWE release, OnlyFans, Ectopic Pregnancy, more

[Chris]

Cora Jade (Elayna Black) On WWE Release, CM Punk, AEW, OnlyFans

Elayna Black (@ElaynaBlack) is a professional wrestler best known for her time in WWE as Cora Jade. She sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio…

podcast.chrisvanvliet.com

On being able to process everything that has happened:​

"I have. Because I feel like I've just sat in my apartment, me and my two little dogs, and I have all week now to just do whatever I want. As opposed to before, I was doing stuff Monday through Saturday, Sunday was my only day off, so it was constant, go, go, go, go, go. It's the first time I actually feel like in my life I've been forced, especially I was forced for 30 days, to just sit and do nothing except think and process and yeah, it was a time, but here we are."

On messaging Mandy Rose about the release:​

"I feel like everyone kind of has a sense. I feel like it just happens. The cuts happen all the time. You see them all the time. I feel like at any time, anyone who works there is going to have some thought in the back of their head that it could be over. So I feel like it could be a shock, and it was. But at the same time, I was always ready for it. I think it was like two weeks before I had texted Mandy, and I was like, ‘Hey, I think I'm getting fired. I need to have some advice.’ She was like, ‘Girl, whatever happens, you're gonna be fine.’ Immediately, she got all the research resources for me, all the advice. She's literally so helpful. She's been not only like a wrestling mother to me, but like a business and management type mother to me, just seeing what she's been able to do with her life and how much she's helped me, just in this short period of time of me, it's literally been the month since I was released. She's helped me so much, and I can't say enough good things about Mandy."

On how she feels now:​

"I feel good. I feel like the up and down has kind of passed now, where it would be like I was feeling okay some days, and then I would be really sad the next day. At this point, I feel good. I'm at a very emotionally calm state. I feel free. I feel like I have the world ahead of me. I feel like I have so many creative ideas that now no one is able to tell me no or not listen to the ideas. It's all in my hands now. And yeah, a little bit of that can be scary, that it's all in my hands now. But that's also the best feeling that it's all in my hands now, and any idea I want to do, any avenue I want to pursue, anything ever is mine, and that's all I ever wanted. So I feel really good."

On why she felt like the release was coming:​

"I don't know. I feel like people have asked me that a few times, and I don't know exactly what it is, nothing specific happened. I've just always kind of been like that. I feel like a handful of my friends that I had talked to. I specifically remember talking to Roxanne, she's my best friend, and I was like, I know I'm gonna be gone and [she said] you're crazy, no no. But I always know, in my intuition, when something is happening. I don't know what that is, I just had that feeling. And at the end of Vegas, we had that whole WrestleMania week. I remember on my flight back, I was just like, well, that's a wrap. That was it. I just knew. And then what was it? I got fired, May 2. It was two weeks later, after Mania, it was like, well, I already knew that was happening."

On whether she was surprised by the release:​

"I feel like, overall, yes. But if you had asked me, just because of my intuition, in those like few weeks leading up to it, I would have said no. I kind of felt that it was coming, again, not because something specific had happened. It was just that gut feeling. But I feel like, overall, I was a little bit surprised. Because two days prior to my release, I had went in and had a meeting with said person two days before and I had given so many ideas. I had set aside my personal feelings for this person, given so many ideas, was very professional, we had what I felt like was a great conversation. He’s pulling out his laptop, typing all these ideas, basically gaslighting me, and then two days later I get fired. So it was like, why even do that? Why have me give you all these ideas? You asked me to come in for this meeting. I had asked to have a meeting prior, but you asked me to come in on that day, at that time, typing in all these ideas. And then two days later, you can't even respond to a text."

On missed opportunities in WWE:​

"I feel like, obviously, there are things that I didn't get to do. But at the same time, like you said, that was my dream. I was eight years old, I watched wrestling and I immediately wanted to be a WWE superstar. Then I would look at all my little notebooks, I would have these bucket lists, little lists, and I would cross them off every time I would do something. It would say, get an action figure, have merchandise, wrestle this person, wrestle here, do all this stuff. And then I looked and I was crossing off so many of those things. Really, the only one I didn't cross off was wrestling at WrestleMania, or winning the NXT Championship, or obviously any other championship. But I had gotten to do so many things that my little eight-year-old self [could only dream of]. I would lay in my bed and dream of doing those things at night. So again, obviously there are things that were disappointing and stuff like that, but never will I sh*t on WWE or trash WWE. I loved my time there. Obviously, when you care about something and you're passionate about something, things are going to bother you. It's because I care, it's not because I'm like, oh f*ck this, whatever. I care about wrestling so much, and I love wrestling so much, and it is my dream and it is my passion. So yes, things did bother me, and things did upset me, because I'm only human, and I'm a human who cares about my passion, my job. So obviously, that's gonna come up, but at the same time, I can't say enough good things about the people I got to work with, the things I got to do, all the dreams I got to accomplish. I loved my time at WWE so much, and especially those last six months, I got to do it with Roxanne, with Bayley, with Giulia, Stephanie, all these girls I became so close with and I got to travel with them and do all these great matches and storylines with them. I loved my time at WWE so much. Were there things that upset me? Yes. Am I bitter or anything like that? Absolutely not. I'm only 24 years old. Who knows what the future holds? I'll never burn a bridge because I don't know what the future holds. I don't know if I'll be back there one day. I don't know where I'll end up, but all I know is that I loved WWE, and I loved my time there, and I have no bad things to say about them."

On dropping out of school at 15 to chase her dreams:​

"I don't know. I was always pretty good at school, just by nature, but it was never for me. I never participated in any sport in school, besides soccer when I was in middle school. But I never wanted to do any extra activities. School was just not my thing. I hated it. I just wanted to be home watching wrestling. I remember, I think I was like 15 years old, and I had found a wrestling school that was 45 minutes to an hour away, and they were training. Obviously, indie training is very different. It's kind of like do it yourself, create your own times, and whatever you want to do. It's not like a college sport where you train from 6 to 8 pm, it was kind of we just did whatever we wanted. So I had found this school, and they would train sometimes from 7 pm to like 1 am sometimes, just because we just did whatever we wanted. Everyone loved wrestling there, and it was like this little warehouse in Chicago with no heat or air no matter the time of the season. So we're just either freezing or sweating to death at all times. But that's what wrestling was, and that's what I loved about it. But I found that place, and they were training like that, and I couldn't drive. So my poor mom, she would drive me to training. It was like 45 minutes to an hour away, and then sometimes she would sit there till one in the morning and be freezing to death. She would have jackets and blankets. Or in the summertime, she'd be sweating to death because it was either so hot or so cold in there, and I couldn't drive, and she wasn't going to just pick me up because it was far away. So I remember I was just like, I can't do this while being in school and having to wake up at six in the morning. I think they agreed with me, especially because she was driving me and seeing the dedication it was taking and the hours it was taking, and the toll. It was kind of hard to go to school when they kind of knew I didn't really want to do anything with college. So I remember I asked them if I could, or I think I had found a place that you could get your high school diploma in a year online, or whatever. So I found that, and then I remember I either wrote them a really, really long note or made a PowerPoint. I don't remember what I did, because I also tried to do that when I wanted a hamster one time, I made them a PowerPoint. [Did you get the hamster?] Yeah, it's very convincing. So I was like, I've done it before. I could do it again."

On why she thought she could be a success at 15:​

"Honestly? I don't know. I feel like at first I didn't realize that it was something normal people could do. I remember just watching it and not really realizing, and then one day, my dad was like, you know that real people do that? You could be a wrestler. And I don't know why in my head, it didn't click. I just thought, I don't know, they were like superheroes, because that's what they look like. But for some reason after that, I was like, okay, maybe I can do this. And from that moment on, I just wanted to be a wrestler. I think before that, I wanted to be a dolphin trainer at the zoo. I don't know, but, like I said, it's so completely far opposite. But once I become obsessed with something, that's all I see."

On meeting CM Punk as a child:​

"It was a Christmas present from my family, because they used to do the holiday tour, and they would always do Chicago and then Madison Square Garden. I believe Chicago was always the day after Christmas. It was always December 26, so that was my Christmas present. They got me floor seats. Punk was my favorite, obviously. I remember he came out at the end, and he just went around and signed stuff for everybody, and I was like, now's my chance. I was so happy. I think I cried after, but that picture is just ridiculous. And then I think he quit WWE like, a month after that picture, and I took it so personally. I was the saddest person in the entire f*cking world. But, yeah, that's that picture. Then I after he quit WWE, then there's that video of me crying, meeting him again. I think it was the second time I met him, but it was after he had quit WWE. It was a year and a half later, and I was like, Oh my God. I thought I'd never see him again."

Did he remember you when you got hired by WWE?​

"Yeah, it was weird. My return. It was right after I had come back from getting my boobs done in December of 2023, it was for Deadline. He was coming to NXT, and that was the first time I had seen him since I was a fan. But he remembered me because anytime he would do anything in Chicago, because I lived in Chicago, and so did he, I would be the first in line for every single thing, borderline crazy, now that I'm thinking about it. [How many times?] Probably like 10 times I was there, every time it got to the point where he would remember me in the line, and he would laugh at me because I would be first in line every single time. We laugh about it. Now I'm like, Jesus Christ."

On the best advice she has received from CM Punk:​

"I feel like he's told me a lot of things, in very different situations, but I feel like the number one thing is to just drown out what everyone else is saying, because I feel like he knows it better than anybody. Everyone has an opinion on him, whether you absolutely love him, or you absolutely hate him. Everyone has an opinion on CM Punk, and I've always wondered, how does he just continue to be himself and not give a sh*t when there's a million different opinions from a million different places. But he's really, really always helped me just understand that it doesn't matter. People are always going to say something. They're going to love you or they're going to hate you, and either way, it doesn't matter, because you just have to be you and do what you feel is right and stay true to yourself and if people support you, great. That's great motivation. But if they don't, and they don't like you, and they don't want to watch what you do, or they want to watch what you do and criticize it, that's still your name in their mouth, and someone's talking about you and you're doing something right."

On dealing with criticism:​

"I feel like my work is one thing, because everyone's entitled to their own opinion. I grew up a wrestling fan. There were people I didn't like and I didn't know them as a person. I feel like you're entitled to your opinion about my work. If you don't like me as a wrestler, as a character, that's fine. When you come for me as a person and you start saying things that aren't true, like the injury prone thing when you had no idea that I literally almost died, that's where it's like f*ck you, because you want to say all these things and expect me to be quiet because you don't view me as a person. You view me as an object, online or on TV. But then when I snap back, it's like, whoa, relax. No! You just thought you can poke and poke and poke and poke, but I am a human being. Am I going to sit there and respond to every comment? No. But there comes a point where it's like, no, you need to understand that you're wrong. And I just don't think enough people do that."

On backlash for launching an OnlyFans:​

"I feel like I've gotten as much hate for it as I thought I was going to. I didn't think I was gonna do it, and people were gonna be like, Oh, f*ck yeah. I knew I was gonna get hate for it. But again, it's just, I don't care."

Why do people have a problem with it?​

"That's what I don't understand. I've said this before. I've never once in my life looked at someone else's life and what they're doing with their life. If it's not affecting me, my money, or who I love or anybody in my life, I don't care. I've never thought about that. So the fact that people are so concerned with what I'm doing with my body, my career and my life, and being that angry about it. Most of them are going to subscribe anyway, it's ridiculous."

On how the launch has been:​

"Probably the best career decision I've ever made. My grandkids will be rich."

On getting advice from Mandy Rose about the content:​

"She’s been so helpful. I knew I wanted to do OnlyFans after wrestling, whenever that was, but just seeing what Mandy's been able to do. Obviously she, I don't wanna say she came from nothing, because she did swimsuit modeling and stuff like that before WWE, and Tough Enough and stuff like that. But she was not nearly what she is right now. So being what she was doing WWE, and yes, she used the WWE platform to build her name and WWE gave her followers and stuff like that, but what she has taken from her time in WWE and what she is now. She's like one of the craziest businesswomen I've ever seen. She knows what she's doing, she knows how to handle her money, she knows how to make new money, she knows what opportunities to take. She's so smart, and I don't think people give her enough credit where credit's due. I guess you don't really realize that until this is all new to me. So having her help and her guidance, and I can call her and be like, hey, Mandy, I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Can you help me? And immediately, she has a list of ways to help me. She knows what she's doing. Same with her husband, Sabbi, they are such smart business people, and they know how to help and they know what to do with their money. So I'm so grateful for them, and just seeing what Mandy has become inspires me."

On who Elayna Black is:​

"I feel like Elayna Black originally, was a very timid, kind of still finding herself, kind of creepy little outcast. And then that kind of blossomed into mean girl Cora Jade. Cora Jade was many things. I feel like it got kind of surface level, though, where it was just like, Okay, I'm just this mean girl, and all the ideas I was giving really weren't being used. So it kind of just felt like I was the surface level, meh. There was so much more I feel like I wanted to be or could have been, but Cora Jade towards the end, I feel like kind of just felt like a very flat surface-level character."

On how close she came to signing with AEW:​

"I don't know. I wanted to be because I had seen a lot of my friends and people that I had worked with on the Indies all starting to do Dark, and then they were getting signed. So I did want to go to AEW because I just wanted to go anywhere. I wanted to be a wrestler signed to a company. But I did feel closer to signing to AEW than WWE, because I was doing Dark. I was friends with The Bucks. I had people there that I was close with, and I was having fun there. I loved AEW. I did think I was going to end up there, but WWE randomly, just same month. It was the same month. But the only reason I signed with WWE obviously, I love WWE as well, and wanted to be at WWE one day, but I thought I was going to end up at AEW, but WWE just ended up offering me a contract first."

On possibly signing with AEW:​

"I'm open to whatever. I'm not in any rush to sign anywhere right now. I'm not like sitting here waiting for that. Because I feel like for the first time in my life, I'm trying to be present and just enjoy life now and what's happening now. Because I feel like a lot of times I was always worried about what's next, and this business is so go, go, go, go, go. It's hard to sit and be present. So I feel like I'm trying to just enjoy where I'm at right now and not worry about that,. But if the call came, I would definitely be open to talking and whatever. I've watched all the AEW shows since 2020, I never stopped watching them. Just couldn't talk about it. I love AEW. I love wrestling. I want to continue to wrestle, wherever that is. If the call comes, hey, I'm here, but if it doesn't for a few months or never, I don't know, I'm not sitting here stressing about it, but I'm open to it."

On the WWE storyline that made her feel more at home:​

"I feel like once I wrestled Natalya, that was when I was still doing the babyface Cora Jade skater stuff. She really is the best. Not only is she just such a great wrestler, and she knows everything about the business, she's a genuine, great person, and she's another one of those people who are so giving and helpful, and doesn't necessarily have to be. She's been around forever, her family's great, she doesn't have to be as humble and nice as she is, but she is. I was a big fan of her, too. I have a picture of me and Natalya when I was a kid too. But after that match, I just remember, not only was she so helpful to me in the process of putting it together and even in the ring and stuff like that, but I just remember after that match, I felt like, Okay, if I can get through that, I can get through anything. Because it was a hard match to put together, at least more than what I had done before, more intricate. And just listening to Nattie and the way she puts matches together, and how she structures it, and everything like that was all very new for me and felt very overwhelming, but it was a challenge for me, and I felt like, once I overcame that challenge, I felt really, really good. So I feel like, in WWE, after that match, I felt okay, I kind of know my place. I kind of know what I'm doing, and I feel like after that, I felt more confident in myself."

On her ectopic pregnancy:​

"Not only was it an ectopic pregnancy, but it had ruptured. So I lost my entire left fallopian tube. So now I only have one left, which I'm still able to have children and stuff. But now it's like, I don't want to risk anything. If I get pregnant, I need to have a healthy pregnancy and make sure it goes through and everything like that. So I want to have kids, and I want to have a family one day. So I don't want to keep putting a lot of damage on my body. I'm 24, I don't know how long that is, but I guess it all just depends on where I end up and what I'm doing. But I would like to have a family and stuff like that. So I don't know how long."

On the surgery:​

"Again, just my intuition. It was nothing really crazy had happened yet. Having the IUD. I don't know if you're super familiar, anyone watching, many women won't get a period on it. You just don't have your menstrual cycle on it's just kind of what happens when you're on it for that long. So I had never really gotten that and then I remember my boyfriend, at the time, was sitting on the couch playing video games. I was sitting there, and I was like, something just doesn't feel right. I went to the restroom, I was bleeding, and I was like, this isn't right, and it wasn't crazy, but I was like, this is not okay. I have a bad feeling. So, long story short, ended up driving me to the hospital, and they had like five or six people ahead of me. So I remember, I got there at like 11 pm and I was already waiting an hour, two hours, and still no one was taking me in. I'm freaking out, I had went to the restroom, and I'm bleeding even more now. So I knew something really, really wasn't right. So I remember telling them I need to leave. They had already gotten my vitals and stuff, but I don't think they were taking it as serious as I knew that it was. I had told them you need to discharge me. I need to go to a different hospital, because this is not okay. And I think me saying that made them realize maybe okay, it was more serious than they had thought. I think they thought I was just being dramatic. And it was like, no offense, but the guy who was taking my blood was a male doctor, and I was like, I'm having an ectopic pregnancy, I think. And he's like, aren't you on birth control? I'm like, somebody help me, Jesus Christ! But then I think once I said that, they rushed me into an ultrasound, and I think they had told me it's still gonna be a two-hour wait before the doctor could see me, but they had given me the ultrasound."

"With an ectopic pregnancy, for anyone who doesn't know, the egg gets implanted in the fallopian tube. It's supposed to be in the uterus, but then, obviously, eventually, if it gets the baby grows too big, it ruptures the uterus, and that's when the internal bleeding happens, and that's when it's very, very dangerous, because you can die pretty quickly after that. Most people catch it before it ruptures. I guess I didn't. I just didn't know. And they're doing the ultrasound, and I knew something was off, because she starts taking a little bit longer than I think it was supposed to. Then they're wheeling me back, and then they're like, Okay, the doctor is waiting for you. I was like, the doctor is waiting for me? You told me it was gonna be a two-hour wait. What the hell is going on? Then they roll me in and they're like, Yeah, you're having an ectopic pregnancy. It ruptured, so your left fallopian tube has completely exploded, and you're internally bleeding pretty bad, so we need to rush you into emergency surgery. I was supposed to wrestle Lyra Valkyria the next day on NXT, and I remember thinking, thank God I didn't, but I remember thinking I'll go to the hospital after the match tomorrow, I just need to get through the match. Just need to get through the match. I would be dead. So thank God I listened to my intuition and I went, because they skipped everybody and rushed me into emergency surgery within an hour. I have like, three scars, one here, one in my belly button, and then one on the other side. But they had to remove my left fallopian tube, and now I only have the right one, which is fine. You can still have children and everything, but like I said, it's a little bit more risky now. So I don't know how long I want to keep putting all this damage and stuff on my body. I want to have kids."

How long were you out for?​

"I think it was like the end of January. I missed Stand and Deliver, but I remember I was cleared right before Stand and Deliver, and I was really upset that I was missing it, because I was like, I'm cleared. So I think it was only two months, but then just the postpartum depression after that, which I didn't even realize. I always knew it was a thing, but I guess I didn't realize how serious it was, or that it was so serious. Even in that case where I didn't even technically have the baby, but I was still, I didn't know what the hell was going on. I was borderline about to kill myself. It got really, really bad, so I just had to take time off. And that's when I went and I got my boobs done, which I had always wanted to get done, but I used it as an excuse to take time off because I needed it mentally. And then I was like okay, maybe I'll feel more confident, and I'll have taken this time off mentally and everything like that. So I went and I did that, and I did feel better mentally after I took that time to really get myself together, therapy and all that kind of stuff. Then when I came back, I felt really, really good. And then came back in December, tore my knee January 12, I think it was. Then I had just went through, like, a horrible breakup, too. Yeah, then I was living on like, the third floor of an apartment complex with no elevator, I had a dog, and I'm living newly by myself. Just tore my knee. My mom had to live with me for two months because I couldn't do anything. It was the worst time of my life."

On how she feels now:​

"I feel great. I feel like probably the best mentally I have in, I want to say years. Obviously, sh*t has happened and you get through it and stuff like that. But I feel very at peace. I feel okay financially, I feel great in my career now with the freedom that I have, I'm excited for the things I have coming up. I just feel like, I don't know what the term is, but the world's in the palm of my hands."

On a possible Mercedes Mone match:​

"That's my current dream match. I feel like her and Bayley were my favorites out of the four Horsewomen. I loved all of them, but I feel like I really, really looked up to them two specifically. I feel like I just felt the most connected to them two because Mercedes was always writing in her notebook too. And I feel like I look at her and see aspects of myself too. So to be able to wrestle her now, where we both have had our time in WWE and we're both doing our own thing now and doing whatever we want creatively, I feel like that is the ultimate dream match."

What is Cora Jade grateful for?​

"My dogs, the opportunity to continue what I love and friends and family."

 

[Kairi HoHo]

She's been really busy she also did one with Mandy for her Channel as well.