Jordynne Grace: ‘Every sacrifice I’ve made’ has led to WWE

Jordynne Grace says the last 15 years of her career have all led to her living out a dream in WWE.

Grace started her career wrestling on Texas-based independents as a teenager in late 2012. She was introduced to the wider wrestling world at 2018’s All In event, where she took part in the Over the Budget Battle Royal. She signed with TNA, then known as Impact Wrestling, shortly after.

During an interview with Yahoo Sports, Grace said everything she’s done in her career has brought her to this point.

“It’s what I’ve been working toward, I feel like, the past 15 years. Every sacrifice I’ve made, every win, every loss, every title I won at TNA has come down to finally being able to live [my] dream as a WWE champion,” Grace said.

She added that her current goal is to give each of her opponents the best match of their career.

“I want to be the one to give whoever comes in front of me their best match, no matter what. … I always ask the person I’m wrestling with, ‘What was your favorite match?’ They would tell me, I’d be like, ‘We’re going to have a better match than that. We’re going to say it right now and we’re going to speak it into existence.’ That’s what I always want to be for that person.”

Earlier in the interview, Grace discussed her departure from TNA Wrestling and conversations she had with company management about who would take over as the face of the Knockouts division.

“I remember having the conversation about who I thought would be next,” Grace said. “Honestly, they didn’t have Masha’s name in their head at all, which surprised me, but I really [feel] that Masha was the one. … I don’t know any of the people that are really in charge, I don’t have a relationship with them. But at the time, I don’t think that her independent work and GCW work was translating over to TNA in the Knockouts Division. They didn’t get it. It didn’t click for them.”

“But I knew how good she was, and I knew how important it was for her to be the one to be the next … leader of that locker room.”

Grace also noted that it was dropping the Knockouts title in 2020 to Deonna Purrazzo that led to a turning point in her training.

“I had just won the Knockouts Championship for the first time, and Deonna Perrazzo had come over to TNA, and she won the title from me her very first weekend there. And I remember feeling so expendable and so just off-put by that, I just thought to myself, ‘Well, something has to change, because if someone can just come in here and just take my spot, I have to do something. I have to change something in order for that not to happen ever again.’ … I actually got my first [fitness] coach that following week.”

Grace’s full interview with Yahoo Sports is available here.