TNA Wrestling star Elayna Black spoke with Soundsphere Magazine about various topics, including her history of mental health struggles.
Black said, “I’ve struggled with mental health as long as I can remember, as little of a kid. I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression and things like that. So, not only having that just as a person from a very young age, and then having to deal with that on top of being in the public eye and on top of everything that the pro wrestling business brings, it can be a lot.”
On taking a break from wrestling after her WWE exit:
“For the first time since I was 15 years old, I took myself out (of wrestling) on purpose. I was tunnel vision since I started watching wrestling when I was eight. I wanted to take a step back and realise who I was without wrestling — because I kind of feel like I had gotten lost in that identity for so long… You’re playing a character, but the lines get blurred sometimes between what’s real and what’s not.”
On how fans react to her online:
“Wrestling fans are some of the most passionate fans in the world, and that is the greatest thing in the world, and also the worst thing in the world at times… You can’t read the internet, and if you do, you have to take it with a grain of salt. Someone could say you’re the greatest thing in the world, and someone could say you’re the worst thing in the world, and neither are true.”
On fans not looking beyond the character:
“They don’t really see the person behind the character or social media presence per se. They kind of just type, type, type and say things. But we are real people and we do deal with things.”
On how the hiatus helped her:
“I knew if I didn’t miss it, that maybe it was time for me to move on. But the fact that I missed it two weeks after I made the post and decided to step back — I took more time than I even wanted to, just because I knew it would be best… [It] refined my love of wrestling.”
