In a recent interview with the Talk Is Jericho podcast, independent women’s wrestler The Notorious Mimi (formerly Sloane Jacobs in WWE NXT) discussed several topics, including her release from the company, pitching ideas during her time and more.
Highlights of the interview are below:
On her WWE release: “So, I was signed for, I want to say 8 or 9 months, it was from mid-March to October 31st, we love getting fired on Halloween, I was carving a pumpkin damnit, but it was honestly an amazing experience the whole time that I was down there. I got to work with the normal coaches people always bring up, like Robbie Brookside, Norman Smiley, AJ Winkler who is from wXw in Germany, and I really enjoyed learning all these super different styles, I feel like it expanded what I knew a lot, but I wasn’t on TV all that much, as anyone who really kept up would tell you, I had three main TV matches and that was it the whole time that I was down there, and I’m not really sure, I never received particular guidance on what they wanted changed or not, but I think as most people who’ve been around the business, or specifically paid attention to the way that the WWE developmental system works for a while, mass releases are a really common thing and I was one of five or six specifically on that day and definitely like one of 20 or 30 in that year that, you know, just got the boot at some point. They didn’t offer a ton of explanation, it was like a minute-long phone call, but I got a call the next day from the Head Coach which I appreciated, Matt Bloom gave me a call and was just like, hey we appreciated your work, you worked hard and we hope that you don’t leave wrestling for this, which I both felt very complemented by, and at the same time I was like, I’m not going to leave wrestling for this, you don not own my love for wrestling, I’m going to wrestle anyway, thank you very much, but I really appreciated everyone there and everyone was super friendly, I just wish maybe it had gone a little longer.”
On pitching ideas and characters during her time in the company: “I was still 19 when I got fired actually, it definitely really sucked, but at the same time, part of me immediately went, I actually get to wrestle again, I was so excited because I had done nothing for 3 months, I pitched stuff, it had gotten ignored, I’d offer storylines, characters and stuff like that and it had gone completely unnoticed and I couldn’t even get on the live events for the life of me. Even though I was really sad, I think it was kind of one of those things where you see it coming, but more so, I was just like thank God I get to actually wrestle again, because I have 13 matches in 2022, which is way low for me, or something like that, and I’ve already had like 30 this year. It’s like you feel privileged to get the training and be able to make the paycheck, but at the same time, if you’re not actually producing the product, you feel kind of pointless being there.”
The full interview is available at this link.
