WWE NXT star Kacy Catanzaro recently spoke with Daily DDT about a wide range of topics.
During it, Catanzaro talked about her return to NXT in January of 2020 after being away for seven months with a back injury.
“I came in and felt like, ‘I don’t know if I belong here. I don’t know if I’m going to be welcomed here. I don’t know if I’m going to be good enough.’ All those doubts, all those worries. I feel like for a while, I let that put me in a box where I was supposed to be in this corner of this box and only do this and only say that and I’m going to do that and that’s what’s going to happen. That just didn’t work. It didn’t work for me in the ring, it didn’t work for me mentally, it didn’t work for my well being. When I came back and showed this is me now and I’m not going to be this scared person in the corner and I’m going to show what I have, it was crazy that people loved it. Now I get to be myself.
[Time off] is crucial for athletes and especially in this business. Our bodies and our minds are so important to what we do and sometimes those don’t line up and at that point I was recovering from an injury that I had and recovering from that injury really gave me that time to work on my mindset. ‘When I am here, how can I improve on myself and my well being and me as a person here in order to be the best wrestler I can possibly be out there?’ That time off and rehab with my injury really allowed me to figure out that, ‘Wow, when I’m cleared and ready to get back in the ring, what do I want to be? I get to choose this.’ It cleared my mind and made me come back with such a better mental aspect of it that allowed me to make myself better in the ring.”