Quincy Elliott joined WWE in 2021 and, alongside Shotzy, hosted NXT Halloween Havoc 2022. In September 2023, Elliott announced his departure from the company.
During a recent episode of the “Developmentally Speaking” podcast, Elliott opened up about his time in WWE and recalled missing television appearances after surgery. The former NXT star also spoke about the “drama” that derailed his career.
On his absence from NXT TV: “I ended up just disappearing from TV for a while. Then there was a lot of drama going on and I was jumping around a lot trying to get my momentum back.”
On the Twitter flurry: “At the time, I was dealing with a Twitter flurry that reached the company. There were a lot of stories going on there that weren’t necessarily true or were taken out of context. The company had already gotten backlash for the character, so the negativity around it was already a little bit troubling for them. But they tried to get me in the right frame of mind, keep me working, keep me training hard, and give me opportunities here and there. But eventually, I feel like NXT started to shift more into what you might call an energy, more of a way to showcase people rather than be character-driven. A lot of people that were on TV weren’t on TV anymore. Really, it was all over the place, but I kept working, kept doing live events, started pitching new ideas. They kept putting me in as a heel for live events and stuff. From January to September, it was kind of stagnant, just waiting for something to happen. That year, I got fired.”
On her character: “I knew the character was still new at the time. They invested a lot of time and energy into me, so I tried to make the most of it. I think it would have been better if I had more opportunities to showcase it. But I’m grateful for what happened. I did more than I ever thought I could do in wrestling. But that’s the way it is. I did my best. I wasn’t an adult yet, and I had a lot of problems at the time. But I tried to make the most of the opportunity. I tried to listen, and I did some cool things. So I don’t have too many regrets.”
On getting fired: Yeah, I expected it. I was training at the Performance Center that day and somebody came up to me and said, “Hey, Dolph Ziggler’s been fired.” As the training went on, he said, “Mustafa Ali’s been fired.” I was like, “Mustafa’s on the pay-per-view next month, so if these guys get fired, I’m totally outta here.” [laughs]…So it was a depressing day. I was literally at the Performance Center 30 minutes before I was supposed to be released. I was driving home and I was like, oh well. I got a call, they contacted me and let me know I’m not going to be there anymore. It’s depressing because I’ve worked my whole life to get this, but at the end of the day, I feel like everything happens for a reason.”
On handling the drama: “Honestly, I’m proud of myself. I could have just run around and stormed out and said anything and put people down, but I just tried to be grateful for the opportunity. It’s frustrating, but not everyone gets to live out their childhood dreams. I got to live out my childhood dreams for two years. At the end of the day, if 5-year-old me would have been told I’d be in a room with Shawn Michaels discussing creative ideas, I would have freaked out. That’s the reality, but I’m grateful for the opportunity. In some ways, I feel I was misunderstood in some ways. This is the world of wrestling. People get replaced. I was one of them.”
On his time in WWE: “Thank you. I’m very grateful. Thank you. If I came across as negative to you guys, I’m sorry for the headaches and stuff. But thank you, I’m grateful. You guys changed my life. Even if it was only two years, those two years changed my life. I learned so much. I learned the craft of wrestling that I’ll never be able to explain. But I’m grateful. I want to pass on as much of that knowledge as I can and keep it to myself. But just thank you. WWE is a business and business moves on. That’s in the past. It’s been almost a year since I was fired and I’m learning every day to move forward.”