Tay Conti discusses her WWE release, where she wants to wrestle next & more [Exclusive]
"Free agent" is a term that can be applied to many wrestlers right now following WWE's staff reductions last month, but only one person right now can claim to be the Hottest Free agent - and that's Tay Conti!
Conti, formerly known as Taynara, was quietly released by the company, but the talented Brazilian's departure made waves all across the wrestling world.
I had the pleasure of catching up with the former NXT Superstar and judo specialist recently, to chat all about her release, THAT t-shirt, which WWE Superstars Tay will keep in contact with, and aspirations of wrestling in Japan!
Sportskeeda meets Tay Conti
You can watch the full interview in its entirety below, or keep reading for more!
So, the one place we need to start off is your recent release from WWE. Funnily enough, there had been rumors of your release before the mass exodus, which resulted in a certain t-shirt... We'll get on to that soon. What I want to ask is, did your release come as a shock to you and how did you find out you were being released?
Well, yes, it was a shock for me because I asked for my release, like, a couple of months before. I wasn't happy there and we were trying to figure out something, right? And then I was not able to get my release, so we were okay after then, I gave myself one more chance to try because I had no option, right? Because I had a contract - but, yes, everything was good. I was having matches and everything was fine so, yeah, I didn't expect to be released. They called me and they were like, "Yeah, you're released". So I was upset, of course, at first. I had to give myself, like, a couple of days to understand and to put everything in the right place but, yeah, that was sad, to be honest.
For me, I thought you were one of the most exciting prospects in NXT, and unlike anyone we've ever seen before! You obviously have a great look, an amazing background in judo and the fans were behind you, which is proven by your 100,000 Twitter followers.
Why do you think it didn't work out?
For me, it worked out. I didn't have much chances to show you guys all I can do, so the minimum chance I had, I was doing everything that I was able to do there because all I had pretty much was, like, a four-minute match, three-minute match to put somebody else over, so my job was to make people look good. And I need to do my job. I'm professional. If they say, "You need to make her look good," I need to do it, but then I think, in a couple of moments, I was able to find pieces in the match, moments that I was able to show a little bit of what I can do, who I am and my personality, my abilities. Not so much because, of course, that was not the time for me to do it.
Next: Tay Conti discusses THAT t-shirt