Carmella Returning To WWE?, What’s Up With Elayna Black (Cora Jade) These Days?, Natalya’s WWE Future
Former WWE star Elayna Black (formerly known as Cora Jade) is currently on hiatus from wrestling, explaining that CM Punk played a big role in helping her make the decision for her own well-being.
Black announced in July that she would be stepping away to focus on her mental health. In a recent appearance on TMZ Sports’ “Inside the Ring” podcast, she opened up about the choice and revealed how Punk gave her the perspective she needed to overcome fears of disappointing others.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On her relationship with CM Punk: “He’s another person I go to for anything. He’s one of the people that, honestly, because I told you I was going back and forth for a few weeks — I was just scared. I knew I needed to take a break. I was just scared to do it because I didn’t want to let anybody down. I was scared of the backlash. I was scared of [letting down] promoters who had already booked the show. I just didn’t want to let anybody down, and I was putting everybody else before me. That just tends to be how I am, like I put other people’s feelings ahead of mine. For once, I just had to kind of realize I needed to put my feelings first. But it was so hard. It didn’t matter how many people said that to me and, like, agreed with me and were telling me that, like, all these things, but I, like, broke down one day and we had a conversation, me and him on the phone, because I was like, he ‘Hey, I need your advice,’ because he’s been through it all. He left WWE for 10 years, hated WWE, said crazy things, and nobody ever thought he was coming back.
“Look at him now. He’s found his love for wrestling again. He’s helped me with everything, so I always know that I can go to him. But specifically this thing, I was like, ‘I know he’s going to have good insight for me and give me a good outlook on it,’ and he did. He sat there and listened to me. He’ll always listen to me, which I am very grateful for, because I’m someone who, sometimes, I get very passionate, so sometimes I want to act on emotion. He’s very good at helping me see things from a different side without the emotional aspect of it.”
On CM Punk helping her realize she needs to prioritize herself: “So many things that he said to me in that conversation really helped me. He told me, like, I don’t owe anybody anything, and I don’t have to stick in something that’s no longer serving me, and that really stuck with me. It’s weird now because we’re friends and, like, we’ll go out to eat and, like, hang out and in groups and talk, and it feels normal now, but then I think I’m like, I was literally standing in line waiting for him for hours when I was 12 years old. It’s really cool to have this person as a friend who I can, laugh and joke with, but also realize that I looked up to this person for so long, for so many reasons, and now I get to ask this person for advice, for the reasons I looked up to them, and they’re giving me advice that really did help me. I don’t want to say, like, ‘having his approval,’ made me finally do it, but just hearing someone who means that much to me, and I respect so much and look up to so much, say, ‘Hey, if it’s not serving you anymore. You don’t owe anybody anything. You are allowed to take care of yourself.’ Hearing that from him, really, was kind of one of the things that made me be like, ‘Okay, you’re right. I’m gonna do it. If you’re saying that to me, if you’re not gonna be mad at me, I’m out.’”
On The Undertaker’s comments regarding wrestlers filming TikTok’s backstage: “I remember when I came into [NXT] black and gold, I had locker room leaders like Raquel Rodriguez, Dakota Kai, Ember Moon, like these girls that I looked up to who cared about wrestling so much, and they were leaders, and they made sure that the unspoken rules the respect of wrestling, and you know, the things that you do in the locker room, behind the scenes and stuff like that, they all made sure that that was done. Then, when they went up, no one else was really left. Me, Lash Legend, Indi Hartwell, Jacy Jayne, and Roxanne Perez, were kind of like the girls who had been wrestling the longest, and I might be missing a few others, but like, we’re kind of like the ones that were, and I remember like me, Jacy, Roxy and Indi, we were all so close that we would we all came. We kind of had the same story. We were just indie fans who came into wrestling because we were fans of WWE, and we kind of had the same story. So we all just bonded, and we all kind of had the same story. We would say, like, we don’t want this place to fall apart, like we want to continue the respect and the wrestling etiquette and the wrestling love and respect, all that type of stuff that the people before us did.
“It just felt like that was slowly getting lost, and it broke my heart, honestly. All of us would talk about it all the time, and it was never from a place of like, ‘Ah, you’re doing things wrong.’ It was like, we just wanted to keep the love of wrestling,” she continued. “I saw something of The Undertaker the other day, which is someone I’ve been a fan of forever, and have so much respect and admiration for, and have been around him. I saw him say something, don’t quote me. I don’t want to butcher exactly what he said, but something along the lines of, he goes backstage at NXT, and everyone is sitting around making TikToks and doing stuff on their phone instead of watching and learning from the matches, and I’m like, This is what I’ve been saying for three years. I’m like, it’s only after he says it that people like, yeah, ‘He’s right,’ and I’m like, yeah, because it’s The Undertaker. Of course, he’s right. But I also think that.
“When I saw him say that, I just felt so validated. I was like, thank you. Somebody else sees what my friends and I and everyone were seeing. It broke our hearts because we were all wrestling fans. It got to the point where it’s not my health to die anymore. It’s not my thing to care about anymore.”
On a recent episode of the “Busted Open Radio” podcast, Bully Ray discussed Natalya’s extensive tenure in WWE, suggesting that her long run and reputation as a “reliable hand” could actually work against her in the company. He also drew a comparison between Natalya and former WWE Superstar Nic Nemeth (Dolph Ziggler).
Additionally, the WWE Hall of Famer touched on the ongoing speculation regarding Chris Jericho’s future in wrestling.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Natalya and Dolph Ziggler: “How do you not do anything with Dolph Ziggler? How? You know why? Because he’s been around forever, and when you’re around forever, sometimes that’s the kiss of death. When you’re around forever, that’s as much of the kiss of death as being considered a good hand. Just when you’re a good hand, they don’t push you to the moon and when you’re around forever, they don’t push you to the moon anymore. Those are my concerns, and those have nothing to do with Natalya, Nattie, the actual talent, and the possibilities of the future. My biggest concern is yes, we’re going to let you go be Nattie and then if it doesn’t work in a month in our eyes, you’re going to go back to being Natalya again.”
On Chris Jericho’s potential WWE return: “How about these three names for Chris Jericho? LA Knight, Logan Paul, Dominik Mysterio? I’d bring him back as a babyface…and it’s also a big ‘F You’ to the AEW fanbase, like ‘Hey, you hated me so much…look how much these people love me,’ ala Cody, ala CM Punk.”
Leah Van Dale, a former SmackDown Women’s Champion, spent years in WWE but currently has no plans to return to the ring.
In a recent interview with Search Bar, the former Carmella addressed some of the internet’s most searched questions, including whether she would wrestle again. She explained,
“I don’t have any plans [to return to WWE]. I’m so in my mom era, and I love it. Never in a million years did I think I would enjoy being at home and being a mom more than working and hustling, but I feel like I did that for so long. The grind in WWE is so hard; it’s like we don’t have an off-season. You’re on the road 52 weeks a year, and for the first time in my life, I’m enjoying just a slower pace of life. I think eventually I would love to go back at some point. So, never say never.”
Van Dale’s last match took place in March 2023, where she was on the losing side of a ten-woman tag-team bout at a WWE live event in Madison Square Garden.
She later revealed that she was pregnant, and after nearly two years away from the company, her WWE contract expired in February 2025. Following her pregnancy, Van Dale also shared that she had been dealing with drop foot, a post-pregnancy condition that causes muscle weakness.
