Katana Chance was ‘very surprised’ by WWE release

Because she had been with the company for so long and survived other roster cuts, Kacy Catanzaro (the former Katana Chance) was surprised by her WWE release.

Catanzaro and her tag team partner Kayden Carter were both released from their WWE contracts in a round of cuts that took place on May 2. The release put an end to Catanzaro’s eight-year run with WWE, which began in 2017 when she transitioned to pro wrestling after an accomplished career competing in American Ninja Warrior.

While appearing on a new episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Catanzaro admitted that — while she realizes in retrospect that there were signs her release was coming — she was shocked when she got the call that she was being let go.

“At first I thought that I was in shock and not able to process it, because I feel like when you work there, there is a joke of, like, you could literally be fired at any time. We’re nervous about it often. Not like, oh, I’m sitting there upset every day. But enough that someone will make a random joke every now and then, like, oh, something happened, ‘Well, what if we get fired?’ It is in the back of your mind because it does happen, and you know how the business works,” the 35-year-old Catanzaro said.

“But I actually was very surprised. It just wasn’t on my radar. Then as I was telling the story of kind of how it led up to it, at first I was like, ‘Yeah, I really didn’t have any notice.’ Then as I told the story, I was like, ‘Wait, maybe I could have taken some of those as signs that something could have been coming.’ But also things change so often. If every time something got pushed, or every time we didn’t travel I went into a spiral thinking that we were going to get fired, I wouldn’t have enjoyed my time. So I feel like I was surprised. It was a shock, but I had been there for so many years that I think that that’s normal.”

Getting moved from Raw to SmackDown and then having creative plans pushed back is one of the signs that Catanzaro was at risk of being let go by WWE. A six-woman tag match with Catanzaro, Carter & Zelina Vega facing Chelsea Green, Piper Niven & Alba Fyre was supposed to happen but never did.

“So we got moved from Raw to SmackDown. Originally, you’re like, ‘Oh man, Raw just got moved to Netflix. That’s really big and now they’re taking us off of it. Is that bad?’ But then people are like, ‘Well, there’s more time on SmackDown, we want more storylines for you guys.’ Cool, that’s believable. I love that. So we get to SmackDown, there’s a big pay-per-view coming up, so the stories are all kind of already happening for the pay-per-view for the next two weeks,” Catanzaro said.

“So we’re like, ‘Okay, we’re not doing anything yet. Again, makes sense. That’s how things happen. That totally makes sense.’ So then the pay-per-view passes. Now it’s another month or so, we’re pitching stuff. We’re pitching all the angles, sending storylines in, trying to get in. We’re trying to fit into what’s already happening, trying to pitch off-the-wall stuff that could be cool and different, whatever. So as it gets closer, now we’re getting to Mania season. So now it’s like a month before WrestleMania. So we’re like, okay, I know that if something that we’re doing isn’t in WrestleMania, anything can happen, because everything has to lead up to that.”

Catanzaro reiterated that she isn’t sure if she is going to continue wrestling or not. She has a couple of months before her non-compete clause expires to decide which path she is going to take in life.

Van Vliet’s full interview with Catanzaro can be watched below: