Nia Jax was among the bevy of releases WWE announced on November 4th. Immediately rumors flew as to why she was among the releases. Jax had been in and out of the women’s tag team picture after teaming with Shayna Bazler. Jax had been off TV since late September and no official reason was given.
Now the Irresistible Force has responded to the rumors on Instagram, putting some to rest but raising a lot more.
Why Was Nia Jax Fired?
While we don’t know the full reason, Jax (Real name Savelina Fanene) claims the release may have had something to do with her asking for more time off for mental health reasons:
View this post on Instagram
Jax claims that she took a few months off to deal with some personal issues. When WWE asked her to return on November 15th, she again requested more time off. Jax states that she received no response and then was promptly fired.
There were reports that Jax was fired due to her refusal to take the COVID vaccine. During the pandemic, Jax posted the following seemingly “anti-vax” comment.
“The Covid Vaccine is 90% effective after 8 months of development when the flu vaccine is 40% effective after 70 years of development. I’ll go with my immune system, as it’s 99.9% effective. God made my immune system, and I trust him the most.”
However, Jax claimed in the post that her vaccine status was not brought up.
Nia had also gotten herself some “heat” backstage when things got a bit too real with Charlotte.
[video_player type=”youtube” id=”CxJO6yJigZ4″ playerid=”b4Kcmo16″ ratio=”landscape” credit=”” crediturl=””] during a match.
Related: WWE Suffers Another Covid Outbreak, Vince McMahon Slams Stars
Other Surprise Releases
Jax was one of several releases. Most were NXT stars who hadn’t quite hit the main roster or television yet. Some were a surprise.
- Keith Lee: I feel like Lee was one the verge of being great but was derailed after complications from COVID.
- Karrion Kross: Kross was positioned in NXT to be a big star. While his gimmick on the main roster had starts and stops, he still had potential. There are rumors that Kross and his fiance Scarlett Bourdeaux were both released due to a refusal to take the COVID-19 vaccine, though this is unconfirmed.
- Ember Moon: The former NXT champ was positioned for a few main roster pushes that were put off due to injury. She will be a great addition to any else’s women’s division.
A few of the other releases made little sense as well. Harry Smith had yet to even debut in the company, though there. Gran Metalik had reportedly asked for his release and looks to continue his stardom in Mexico and Japan.
Here are my two cents, since you came all the way down here: I know a lot of fans are “upset” by the releases. Though from what I can tell a lot of these upset fans weren’t supporters of any of these wrestlers. It just looks like people are looking at what WWE regularly does (trim the herd) and are pretending to be outraged over it. The only real loss is Keith Lee, who I believe is a generational talent who should be in the main event every night.
Do you think Ni Jax deserved to be released? Let us know in the comments below.
