During her appearance on After The Bell, Beth Phoenix cited a variety of family reasons as to why she chose to leave the WWE in 2012. Here’s what she had to say:
Both of my grandparents and my one and only uncle that I was very close to passed from cancer very suddenly. So I had three family members pass away in about a year and I missed funerals. I missed being there. I was starting to get exhausted with the road schedule. It had been 12 years since I had been traveling as an indie wrestler and I missed a lot of stuff. I hit some roadblocks, I shed tears over hoping that I didn’t waste my life. I really wanted to make a change to inspire little girls like Chyna inspired me and Bret & Owen inspired me. I was afraid I wasted all that.
At that point in my life I had also met a very nice man and he was in a state of mind. He had been told he had to retire from wrestling and never do it again, so he was wrapping his head around that. I was wrapping my head around a lot of change in my life and I thought maybe I’m ready to start a family. That was mainly why I stepped away.
You can listen below:
Credit: After The Bell. H/T Wrestlezone.