Posted on 6/06/125 by Colin Vassallo
Former WWE Superstar Katana Chance sat down with Chris Van
Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Los Angeles to
discuss her WWE release and what’s next, her rise in
popularity after competing on American Ninja Warrior, having
her first WWE matches against Raquel Rodriguez and Rhea
Ripley, her viral Royal Rumble save, the back injury that
nearly brought her pro wrestling career to an end, getting
paired up with Kayden Carter, breaking her nose twice in the
ring and more!
On no longer being with WWE:
“I think at first I thought that I was in shock and not able
to process it, because I feel like when you work there,
there is a joke of you could literally be fired at any time.
We’re nervous about it often. Not like I’m sitting there
upset every day. But enough that someone will make a random
joke every now and then like ‘Oh, something happened. Well,
what if we get fired?’ It is in the back of your mind
because it does happen, and you know how the business works.
But I actually was very surprised. It wasn’t on my radar.
Then as I was telling the story of kind of how it led up to
it, at first I was like yeah, I really didn’t have any
notice. Then as I told the story, I was like wait, maybe I
could have taken some of those as signs that something could
have been coming. But also, things change so often. If every
time something got pushed, or every time we didn’t travel
and I went into a spiral thinking that we were gonna get
fired, I wouldn’t have enjoyed my time. So I feel like I was
surprised. It was a shock, but I had been there for so many
years that I think that’s normal. So now I’m just working on
really letting myself process it and kind of feel
everything, figure out how I feel. So I’m not really sure.
I’m bummed because I know that I have a lot more potential
that I could have shown that I didn’t get to. But if I think
about it, I could really say that about anything I’ve done.
There is no top, there’s always more you can do. So I think
I will come to terms with that. It’s just you kind of have
to grieve it, appreciate it, be grateful. Be okay that it’s
sad and then be kind of excited for whatever’s gonna come
next.”
On whether she still wants to wrestle:
“That’s a good question. I’m not sure. I’m gonna say I’m not
sure, because it could go either way. I feel like most
people, they know right away. The second it happens, they’re
like, Okay, I’m doing this. I think part of it is because I
didn’t wrestle beforehand. I never got those experiences
that people who did are like, Okay, I’m gonna go back to
that. I know that I wanna do that. For me, I feel like my
whole adult life I’ve always really gone right from one
challenge to the next. I did gymnastics for four years. I
had a scholarship. I couldn’t really do anything else. I was
really locked in. Right after I graduated, I went to
American Ninja Warrior for five years. I was in contracts
with them each season, which WWE took me right from there. I
didn’t have any in between. I had to choose to leave, to go
there. So eight years there, now I’m like, I really have
never not been in a contract and just thought what does Kacy
want to do? So I think that takes more than a week or two.
I’m hoping it’s not just me that can’t figure it out, but I
think it’s a really important question to ask myself and
figure out. I know the core of things that I’m passionate
about, but I think just what direction that’s gonna take me
is gonna maybe take a little time.”
On Royal Rumble 2019:
“That was really, really cool. I had only been at the
Performance Center for a year at that time, and there was
about five or six of us from NXT that got to go and do the
Royal Rumble. So that was my first really huge thing. I
really wasn’t even doing NXT TV at the time. Honestly, I
didn’t have much experience. So the Royal Rumble was, I
remember when my number got called and I walked out, I think
I actually did a full spin. When I walked out, I looked
around, and then I was like, Okay, you need to go. I almost
forgot where I was. I was in such awe of the arena and how
many people were there, and the excitement and the energy. I
was like, oh my God, this is what people feel like. This is
why people love this. I hadn’t had any really cool
experiences yet, I was just grinding at the PC. So I was
like, Oh my gosh, I get it, this is incredible, this
feeling. I get what this feeling is now. So I feel like that
was my first understanding of how huge it could be. It was
really fun to be in it, to be in there with all the women
and people I looked up to, legends and stuff like that.”
On her Royal Rumble save:
“I am so grateful for that moment. Because another thing
that people will bring up is that was literally seven years
ago, something like that. I don’t know if that’s a good or
bad thing that I haven’t done anything that cool since, or
was it just that cool, but people still will be like, Oh,
yeah, your Rumble save was so cool. So I’m really grateful
to at least have some really cool staple moments that people
can kind of remember.”
On walking on her hands:
“So right now, yes I can walk on my hands. But will it take
me one or two tries to get it perfect? Probably. I can do
it, but you never know if you are going to lean too much. So
I remember when it happened, I had to have a backup plan. If
this doesn’t go perfect, my feet can’t touch. So how do I
save this if that happens? So when I do it, I do a back roll
to get up to kick up into a handstand. I had always said,
okay, if I’m walking and I fall, I just have to fall into a
roll where I land on my back and my feet still don’t touch
so that I can shimmy around to something else and do it.
Because that’s the other thing too about being in front of a
big crowd. I could have done 1 million good handstands in my
whole life, and it does not make me not nervous to go out in
front of thousands and thousands of people and do a
handstand and not screw it up. It’s one of my favorite
moments.”