The 23-year-old Dani Luna reflects on her time in WWE.
Back in January 2020, Dani Luna was signed to WWE and assigned to the NXT UK brand. Present day, the NXT UK brand is no more as the company is preparing to launch ‘NXT Europe’ in 2023. The likes of Tyler Bate, Meiko Satomura and Gallus (Joe Coffey, Mark Coffey & Wolfgang) were brought over to NXT 2.0 for the build to Worlds Collide.
There were a multitude of NXT UK wrestlers who finished up with WWE and one of those talents is Dani Luna. She was interviewed by Steve Fall for NBC Sports’ ‘Ten Count’ podcast and shared that she was not asked to relocate to the USA. Dani feels she was released under “nice terms”.
No, I was released [Luna responded when asked if she was asked to relocate to the U.S. for NXT]… I was released under very nice terms. I wasn’t ‘fired’. It was just a case of what they’re doing at the moment doesn’t fit what I’m doing at the moment kind of thing and obviously, I was in good company so, I can’t be too upset, you know? I still have all my friends.
She went on to state that it was a quick turnaround in terms of NXT UK no longer being a brand in WWE. She added that talents were understandably upset, but understood the business side of the decision.
It was [a] pretty quick turnaround to be honest but, the same you hear all these rumors, we hear ‘em all too and it’s even more unsettling when you work there, you know? [Luna said about NXT UK shutting down] So it was just a case of it happened and we were all understandably upset but, like you said, it didn’t necessarily have the biggest viewership in the world so from a business perspective, you can’t really be like, well that’s unfair. If it’s not making the money, I can’t be like, you have to keep me because I wanna work in WWE. It’s not up to me. It’s a lot bigger than just us lot.
In late 2021, Luna underwent successful ACL surgery. She has not wrestled since last October. She provided an update on her recovery and said she has “a few months left”. Luna’s first step is to get cleared and then wrestle anywhere that will have her.
Well, I’m currently still injured so I’ve got a few months left. I tore my ACL about a year ago. So, step one is getting cleared and step two is wrestling absolutely everywhere that will have me. Between COVID happening and then getting hurt, I think I wrestled about eight matches in two years and like, my creative cup is overflowing. I need somewhere to put all that energy. So yeah, anywhere that will have me.
Luna was part of the ‘Subculture’ group in NXT UK alongside Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster. Both talents are gone from WWE as well.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit NBC Sports’ ‘Ten Count’ podcast with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
