Ex-WWE Star Says Company Didn’t Believe In Them
Former WWE star Dana Brooke is now going by a different name but she has taken time to reflect on what went wrong with her career in the company.
Brooke was part of a spate of releases made by WWE in September 2023 with the likes of Dolph Ziggler, Mustafa Ali, and Matt Riddle also being let go.
Dana Brooke recently made her debut for TNA at Hard To Kill under her new name of Ash By Elegance. Her timing couldn’t be better for that role with one top TNA star seemingly heading back to WWE shortly.
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Brooke discussed why she felt her time came to an end in WWE and ultimately says she thinks the company never had faith in her to succeed:
I honestly think they didn’t believe in me. You know, producers, T.J. [Wilson] was a very big advocate for me and he would always be like, ‘Dana can do it, Dana can do it, Dana can do it’ and it just — it wasn’t happening and I wasn’t that girl.
I wasn’t the girl that they were trying to push to that next level. [I] was the one that I was always given to take the pinfall and I was okay with it, thinking in my mind, there’s gonna be a shot. There’s gonna be that next time and there just never was that next time.
WWE Turned Down Dana Brooke’s Pitch For Money In The Bank
Brooke revealed she had pitched a unique spot when she competed in Money In The Bank but WWE nixed her idea for that as well:
It was 2018 or 19 in the Money in the Bank match where I wanted to hang from the briefcase and swing from it and fall and a pile of girls catch me and they’re like, ‘No, no, no. That’s a little too dangerous.’
I’m like, ‘Do you not know I was in gymnastics for 18 years?… Just let me do it’ and it would be a wow factor and I just don’t think that they had the confidence in me.
Former WWE star Dolph Ziggler also made his TNA debut at Hard To Kill under the name Nic Nemeth. Nemeth attacked the new TNA World Champion Moose before celebrating with the crowd.