McKenzie Mitchell on being released by WWE from her NXT deal, the possibility of returning, what’s next

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest McKenzie Mitchell
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com

On being released by WWE from her NXT contract: “I’m good. You know, I think once the dust has settled, it’s been really, it’s a blessing. I think that there are so many new beginnings, and I’m excited to see what’s to come in the future. The outreach and the support that I’ve gotten from friends, family, coworkers, colleagues, production, staff executives in WWE, the fans most importantly, it’s been insane. That’s what made me emotional when I got released was being able to hear from everyone how much I impacted their opinion when watching WWE and when watching NXT. That’s what made me emotional was hearing from all of the people their favorite moments in my career and the favorite interviews that I’ve done and the magic that was created on screen like that made it made such a big impact on me to see what I made on them.”

On goals that were never accomplished: “I really always wanted to have my WrestleMania moment, just as the Superstars do. They want to have their moment of having all their hard work that’s built up to this moment, to this match, to this exact, huge capstone experience. I didn’t get to have that WrestleMania interview or host a kick-off show. That was something I did for NXT. But I didn’t get to do that on a larger scale with the WWE main roster. So that’s something I’ve always really wanted to do, and to have the Royal Rumbles and go on the road and say, Hey, I made it to Raw to Smackdown so that was a bummer. That’s a bummer to say like, I wanted to do those things. And I wanted to do WrestleMania.”

On a possible return: “Never say never. I know that people say that and it kind of sounds cliche, but it’s true. I didn’t get to have my goodbye in WWE. I didn’t get to choose to leave. And that’s where I was saying I think some people need to take a break, I didn’t get that opportunity to say, I’m ready to take a break. I was ready to keep on going and go to WrestleMania and do the Royal Rumble and all of those things. So it was really awesome to hear Shawn [Michaels] say those things, never say never.”

On what’s next: “I don’t know. I think that’s okay sometimes to say, I don’t know. And I think sometimes it’s nice to take a break, stop and change direction and go, What is it that I really want to do? Do I want to continue in wrestling? Do I want to do something in entertainment and in music and in media? So there’s a lot of question marks. But also, I’m excited to see what’s next. Vic [Joesph] and I have talked about having a baby.”