‘It Was Devastating, I Was So Upset’ – Former WWE Star Recalls Being Released By The Company

WWE

A former WWE star says being released two years ago was “devastating” but she has no regrets about her time in the company.

In May 2024, Emma Diaz was confirmed to have been released by WWE, less than one year after she made her in-ring debut in October of the preceding year and a month after she featured as a cast member in ‘WWE Next Gen’ – a Roku reality series that aired for a single season that April.

In the years since her release, Diaz has rebranded herself as Carolina Cruz and continued wrestling on the independent scene, as well as making appearances for notable promotions AEW, MLW and, most predominantly this year, WOW (Women Of Wrestling).

In a new interview with The Fan’s View, Cruz discussed her move to WWE, recalling how she learned as much as she could about this history of the business immediately after she signed her deal, naming the effort she put in to engross herself in wrestling and her character as something she has no regrets over:

“I definitely always respected everything from day one. As soon as I got that contract essentially, not the tryout, but as soon as I got the contract, I quickly learned all the history, about all the amazing legends that there is and still are. I pretty much learned all the ins and outs of the respect in the business because there’s a lot that goes into it.

“I gave myself 110% while I was there, so that’s the one regret I don’t have is when I got released, I knew that I did everything that I possibly could.

“I came up with who is Emma Diaz? You know what I mean? What does she do? What does she stand for? Who is going to be Emma Diaz when she goes out in the crowd? Does she look performance ready? All those things, I worked on everything.

“So I had no regrets when I got released. It was super hurtful, but it was good to know that I had no regrets. Everything I didn’t think I was ready for, I fixed.”

Further addressing her departure from the company, Cruz said it was “devastating” to receive the call abut her release, but she also did have a sense that it was coming.

“I kind of expected it. Not expected it, but I did have an intuition. I’m also the type of person that prepares for the worst, so I don’t know if I was always preparing for the worst and then it finally happened. Or, if I just felt that it was gonna happen, I don’t know.

“But it was devastating, I was so upset. But I was super hungry to go back out there and earn my spot and earn my stripes. I was like well, I haven’t earned my place anywhere actually so why don’t we start by doing that?”

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