Quincy Elliott recently reflected on his firing from WWE NXT and the controversy surrounding some of the comments he made online. Elliott was fired by WWE in September 2023 and spoke to Developmentally Speaking about his time with WWE and the backlash he faced surrounding allegations that he used a throwaway Twitter account to make transphobic comments and harass wrestling fans in December 2022. Here are some highlights, according to Fightful:
On being off TV after having surgery: “I had surgery and was off TV for a while, and then there was a lot of drama going on and I was jumping around a lot trying to get my momentum back.”
On the backlash they got on Twitter complicating things: “At the time, I was dealing with a Twitter storm that got to the company, where a lot of stories were being posted that were inevitably untrue or taken out of context. The company had already received backlash against the character, so the negativity about it was already a little bit troubling for them, but they tried to get me in the right frame of mind, keep working, keep training hard, and give me opportunities here and there. But eventually, I feel like NXT started to shift more towards what you might call an energy, more of a way of showcasing people rather than being character-driven. A lot of people that were on TV weren’t on TV anymore. It was really 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. It was kind of stagnant, just waiting for something to happen from January until September, when I got fired.”
“I knew the character was still new at the time. They put a lot of time and energy into me, so I just 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 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 issues 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.”
Did you expect to get fired? “Yeah, I expected it. I was training at the Performance Center that day and someone 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 are getting fired, I’m totally out of 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 addressing the Twitter “drama”: “Honestly, I’m proud of myself. I could have just run around and stormed out and said anything and disrespected people, but I decided to just be grateful for the opportunity. It’s frustrating, but not everyone gets to fulfill their childhood dreams. I got to fulfill 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. That’s how it is in the wrestling world. People come and go. I was one of them.”
When asked if he had anything to say to WWE, he said, “Thank you. I’m very grateful. Thank you. I’m sorry if I came across negatively. I’m sorry if I gave you a headache or whatever. But thank you. I appreciate it. You changed my life. Even if it was only for two years, in those two years my life changed and I learned so much. I learned the craft of wrestling. I’ll never be able to explain it, but I’m grateful. I want to pass on that knowledge as best I can and keep it to myself. But just thank you. WWE is a business. 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.”