Katana Chance speaks about her early physical and mental challenges when first starting in WWE and the rumors from 2019 that she was going to be leaving wrestling.
Katana Chance (Kacy Catanzaro from American Ninja Warrior) made a great first impression when she appeared in the 2019 WWE Royal Rumble. However, shortly after that, she suffered a back injury, and rumors began circulating that she might leave wrestling altogether.
In a new interview with DS of Ring the Belle, Chance spoke about her injury and the mental health struggles she faced when she first started.
"I don't think anybody has ever asked me about this. So, I was dealing with a back injury. I remember it was actually right after the Rumble. So, I had done the rumble for my very first time. 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 the back issue," she said. "Also, I was about almost two years in at that point, and it was just, 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 that you didn't come from wrestling. Like, it was very rare.
"It was very tough for me coming in, having not come from wrestling, having people just every day question like, 'Why is she here? Why did she get to come here? Does she deserve to be here?' Kind of dealing with that on the back end of also just trying to give 150% and prove that, over and over again," she explained. "So I feel like, for me, I was dealing with a more serious injury than I had since being there. Mentally, the environment was really getting to me. While I was taking time off for the injury, I was thinking, like, '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, right? I was 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 going to 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."
The doubt continued to bother her, but ultimately, she came back and found her love for the industry.
"So I think that when I had that time away for this injury, and I was thinking, '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.' 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 just taking my time to not let any of that get in my head. So, it was tough, but we made it back," she said.
Katana Chance and Kayden Carter successfully reached the top of the WWE women's tag team division, capturing the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship for a brief run.
Fans can check out the full interview with Katana Chance embedded above.
