During TNA’s Victory Road event in September, then-Knockouts World Champion Ash by Elegance broke some hard news. She revealed that due to an health issue, she would be relinquishing the title and stepping away from in-ring competition. She has since confirmed that she is retired.
Fight Network and TNA have released a “Immersed” documentary featuring Ash’s journey through with TNA. TNA creative team member Tommy Dreamer was interviewed and recalled when Ash contacted him and shared that she could no longer compete in the ring.
“It was one of those phone calls that, you know, when you get ‘em, they’re so early in the morning, right away you’re concerned, and she’s like, ‘I can’t wrestle anymore,’ and I was like, ‘What?’ Basically, tells me she’s no longer medically cleared to wrestle, and I could hear the heartbreak in her voice. She said she was really nervous and upset. Feeling that she had let me down and I was like, ‘You never let me down,’ and she reminded me so many times of, like, how real and powerful this thing called professional wrestling is because she’s going through some health stuff. But her biggest concern is representing the women’s division and being champion. But, there is a bigger picture.”
Ash spoke the following after she broke her devastating news:
“I thought winning that title was hard. This was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my career. Going out there and being vulnerable to the crowd, being vulnerable to myself… and I’m getting emotional now. That’s what I said when I knew TNA was a family and that locker room was a family and that’s what I’m gonna miss. I’m gonna miss that so, so much, and I will be at the front and center so each and every woman can feel what I felt tonight and the love and the support and the appreciation, and I think I left my legacy in the ring. Like I said, I don’t know what happens from here. But my home is here. My home is in TNA. Feels so weird to take that last step out of those ropes, and not have my title. I didn’t know a title meant so much, but that ring means so much more. The message doesn’t change. I said it in the start and I’m gonna say it now: Never give up.”
You can watch the documentary below –