Ex-WWE Star Was Shocked By Timing Of Release
A former NXT wrestler thought that a WWE main roster run was coming, but instead, she was released by the company.
Gigi Dolin was signed by WWE in 2021 as an experienced wrestler. Many people who start on the NXT brand don’t come from a wrestling background and are learning on the job, but in Dolin’s case, she had a lot of success as an indie wrestler known as Priscilla Kelly.
After four years in NXT, which included two NXT Women’s Tag Team Titles with Jacy Jayne, Dolin was released by WWE in May 2025.
At the time of her release, Dolin was part of a trio group with Shotzi and Tatum Paxley. One day after Dolin’s release, Shotzi was gone from WWE, too. Paxley remains with the company as part of the NXT group known as The Culling.
During an interview with Scott’s Scoop, Priscilla Kelly (fka Gigi Dolin in WWE) spoke about how the team with Shotzi and Paxley came together.
“So, I wanted to work with Shotzi (Blackheart) before I got injured, and she got injured at the same time. So for whatever reason, the universe did not want it happening right then. But we wanted to work together before both of us were injured the year prior, and when we both got cleared, we were like, ‘Hey, we really wanna work together. We have ideas,’ and then, they ended up putting Tatum (Paxley) with us and it just worked and I will say that the stuff that I did with Shotzi and Tatum was the happiest I ever was in NXT.
It was the most excited, happy, the most myself that I was in my entire time working for WWE. Shotzi’s like my best friend, and Tatum quickly became a very good friend of mine and we all just had great chemistry together, we had a great look. I felt like we were something so unique, and not just unique, we were so genuine about who we were.
We weren’t playing a role of a character or a look or an aesthetic. We were what we portrayed, and I don’t know what happened to be honest. We started hot and we were having high-tier matches and… I really just don’t know. It’s just sometimes, it’s one of those things where, first of all, it’s always out of our hands as wrestlers.
Unless you’re somebody that’s very, very high up on the totem pole, it’s always out of our hands creatively, and at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how good a thing you have going or how bad of a thing you got going, it’s all depending on how you’re booked.
Because you could be absolutely horrible, but if you’re booked like a star, people are gonna believe you’re a star and you could be the best thing in the world, but if you’re booked like s**t, then people are just gonna believe that you’re sh*t. It’s all perception, and we tried to just kind of make the most of whatever we were given.”
Gigi Dolin Thought She Was Headed For WWE Main Roster
After spending four long years in NXT, which is longer than a lot of people spend on the brand, the former Dolin thought that the momentum that she had with Shotzi and Paxley would lead to a WWE main roster run. Shotzi had been on the main roster before, while Dolin and Paxley only had a few matches on it.
“We were on a very high note, right at the end. Me and Tatum — Shotzi came ringside with us — we were at Stand & Deliver, we won our Stand & Deliver match, we got a title match with Liv (Morgan) and Raquel (Rodriguez) for the following Tuesday. We were doing stuff at TNA. We were crushing it, and I was like, ‘This is it. We’re going to the main roster.’ There’s no way. We’re so undeniable as a group.
I don’t know how anybody could see this and not think that it could be huge, and then I went from that high of Stand & Deliver, title match with Liv and Raquel, title match at TNA to, ‘Hey, WWE is terminating your contract.’ It’s very confusing.
As us wrestlers, a lot of people think we have control over stuff. A lot of people think that we screwed up backstage. A lot of people have so much to say but the truth is, like, sometimes, it just is what it is. Sometimes it just happens, there’s nothing we can do about it but pick ourselves up and move on.”
According to Kelly, they had been told that a WWE main roster run could happen for the group.
“We were projected and we were being told that we were potentially going to the main roster after ‘Mania. We were told that. So, to get released was a complete shock.”