Chance gets candid about her break from WWE.
It has been six years since Katana Chance transitioned from American Ninja Warrior to being a member of the WWE talent roster. Thus far, she’s held the NXT Women’s Tag Team and WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles with her partner Kayden Carter.
In the summer of 2019, Chance took a break from wrestling. She left in July of that year and returned in January 2020. She addressed that period of her career while chatting with D.S. Shin of Ring The Belle.
She confirmed that a back injury put her on the shelf. She suffered the injury in the 2019 women’s Royal Rumble match. Chance added that in addition to the back issue, she needed a mental break considering that she did not have a background in wrestling and was still adjusting to the environment. She also addressed the speculation that she would not be returning to wrestling at all.
So, I was dealing with a back injury (in 2019). I remember it was actually right after the (Royal) Rumble so I had done the Rumble, for my very first time — super exciting — something from that match, I had had some sort of bursitis, something in my back. I don’t even remember the real name of it. It was just something dealing with a back issue and then also, I was about almost two years in at that point. It’s really, really tough mentally. Physically, mentally, for me not coming from wrestling, at that time. Right now at the Performance Center, there’s so many different backgrounds. They’re doing so many different things. Back when I started in NXT, it was very rare you didn’t come from wrestling. It was very rare and — oh no. I’m not gonna cry. It’s fine. It was very tough for me coming in, having not come from wrestling, having people, just every day, question why is she here? Why did she get to come here? Does she deserve to be here? Kind of dealing with that on the backend of also just trying to give 150 percent and prove that over and over again so I feel like for me, I feel like I was dealing with a more serious injury than I had had since being there. Mentally, the environment was really getting to me and while I was taking time off for the injury, I was thinking, man, can I do this forever? I hadn’t really broken out yet, I hadn’t really had those moments with the crowd and with wrestling where I really understood why people loved it and I was just kind of in the trenches. You know, at the Performance Center in the trenches and I was like, man, will I get there? Can I find this love for it? Am I gonna be good enough? Maybe I am too small. I’m dealing with these injuries. Am I too small? Am I not big enough? Can I keep up with these people? The doubt was kind of getting to me so I think that when I had that time away for this injury and I was thinking, like, okay, when I come back, do I think that I could do this forever? I think people kind of just ran with it, like, ‘Oh, she’s not coming back, she’s not coming back,’ you know? And it was just kind of like, I wasn’t ready to talk about it. I wasn’t ready to say, yes, I have this injury. I think I’ll be back in a few months. I’m not sure. I was kind of just taking my time to not let any of that get in my head and so, it was tough but, we made it back. So I’m glad.
Chance and Carter were in action on the 4/11 Friday Night SmackDown to determine who will challenge Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles at WrestleMania 41.
Emerging victorious from that bout were Bayley and Women’s Intercontinental Champion Lyra Valkyria. The Tag Title match is set for WrestleMania night two.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Ring The Belle with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
