Former WWE Superstar Indi Hartwell, now signed with TNA Wrestling, recently opened up in a candid interview with Chris Van Vliet about the emotional aftermath of her WWE release in November, calling it a “roller coaster” experience filled with unexpected highs, lows, and even a surprising twist on the day she was let go.
“It’s been like up and down, like a roller coaster,” Hartwell admitted. Reflecting on the immediate aftermath, she said, “First week, I was just super grateful for what I had. You know, I’m kind of like you. I like to saturate my mind with gratitude, and that helps me, like, keep perspective.”
However, that initial gratitude didn’t last long.
“Second week, I kind of got like, frustrated and mad. Third week, I kind of got sad. And then after that, like, I felt, I felt fine. And now it’s been like five months, I think six months almost. And, yeah, I’ve been feeling really good, excited, because, like, there’s just so much to do.”
One of the most difficult parts of her release was the feeling of powerlessness.
“It feels like the hardest thing about it would be the fact that you have no control, right? Like it’s just taken away from you. Yeah, no, saying it, yeah.”
Hartwell also revealed that she didn’t see the release coming, especially considering how comfortable she had finally started to feel within the company.
“I didn’t honestly feel like it was coming, especially when it happened.”
She elaborated on her long-standing concerns due to her international status:
“My whole time at WWE, I was always scared of getting released. And add another factor to is that I’m an international so people don’t really understand, like, visas, green cards… that was something that was like always in the back of my mind, like being scared of being fired.”
Ironically, just before her release, that fear had finally started to fade.
“But it wasn’t till my last two weeks at WWE, I finally felt like comfortable… I did the Netflix shoot and then, and then I got released.”
Fortunately, her immigration status had already been secured.
“Shout out to WWE, because they did it for me and they paid for it. This was a few years ago.”
Hartwell also shared the unusual way she learned about her release: she missed the call from Talent Relations and ended up returning it herself.
“Fun fact, I missed the call when they called me to release me, so I made the call to get fired,” she revealed. “They’re like, ‘Oh, we’re calling with some unfortunate news.’ And I was so confused, because I wanted to say, but like, ‘What do you mean? Like, I’m on the show tonight, like my match was taped last week, like I’m on the show tonight.’ But yeah, it was, it was weird.”
In a bizarre twist, Hartwell’s final WWE match—a tag bout with Candice LeRae against Bayley and Naomi—aired on SmackDown the very day she was released.
“Some people didn’t know that that SmackDown was taped the week before, so they thought that I got released and then had to, like, go out that night and wrestle. Could you imagine?”
Now part of the TNA roster, Hartwell appears to be in a much better headspace, excited about the road ahead. Her story highlights the emotional toll of professional wrestling’s unpredictable business side—and the resilience required to rise above it.
Stay tuned to PWMania.com for more exclusive stories and updates from around the wrestling world.
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
