In an episode of the “What’s Your Story” podcast with Stephanie McMahon, WWE Women's World Champion Naomi talked about various topics, including her reasons for walking out of the company in May 2022.
This is what Naomi said, “I think when the walkout and all of that happened, I think that was the first time, honestly, in my adult life where I had the chance to stop, rethink, redefined, and figure out what I really wanted next. How I wanted, you know, my life to move forward from this. And I really, like in the beginning, struggled trying to process that. I thought I didn’t want to wrestle anymore. I thought I was done. He [Jimmy Uso] was also in a different point in his career.”
On how it was a crazy time for her:
“Such a crazy time, and he wasn’t, he did such a great job. But also, I had to go through a lot emotionally and mentally on my own because he had his own stuff going on. And that was the first time where I just had to do the work on myself. And I think it was great. It made me stronger, it relit a fire in me. I became a lot more confident in myself because I didn’t have him to reassure me on things about work. And I just thought I grew so much through that and through that time period when I was gone. So when I came back, I was ready. I was refreshed, and I was intentional on what I wanted this time to be like. And I just. I focused, I locked in, and I worked hard on it, and it paid off.”
On getting to that place and having a great support system:
“I think having such a great support from my family, from my husband, but also just the connections and the relationships that happened outside of WWE, and for a long time. It’s just a lot of it is my own thinking because we are. And just kind of getting, stepping out of my own fears and taking risks and taking chances and realizing that. All right, I feel like I’m at the lowest of the low, you know, so it can’t get no worse than this. You know what I mean? I lost my job. I’m no longer with my family. I feel like my camaraderie, the sisterhood, I felt like I lost that, which wasn’t true, which is what you felt like. It’s just all these emotions that you feel, and then just not sure. Just the strain that it puts on so many other things. But you just gotta work through it. You can’t. I gave myself some time to kind of be down about it, but I had to pick myself up and keep moving forward and keep moving. And it got to the point, like, okay, this is the last day I’m gonna sit and waddle about this. And then I’m gonna get up and get this train back going. Because I realized when everything stopped for me, everything kept going for everyone else.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
