Mandy Rose was released by WWE back on December 14th in highly controversial circumstances.
The star was let go after WWE became increasingly uncomfortable with the content she was posting on her subscription website. Rose has since claimed that she was released despite her previously removing one particular link when asked. At the time of her exit, Rose had been in the midst of a lengthy run as NXT Women’s Champion which saw her recruit Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne.
The trio, known as Toxic Attraction came together in the summer of 2021 shortly after Rose returned to NXT. During their time together, Jayne and Dolin won the NXT Women’s Tag Team Titles twice.
Speaking during an appearance on Busted Open Radio, Jacy Jayne opened up about her run as part of the group and feeling like she was the third wheel.
“Crazy, really surreal. Because I feel like, being in Toxic Attraction, I was always a third wheel. You know, everybody always talked about Mandy. She’s been here for so long. Everybody always watches everything she does. Then, you have Gigi, who had a huge name on the indies before she came to NXT. Everybody kind of looked at me and was like, ‘Well, who the hell was that girl?’ So now for everybody to actually be paying attention and have my name in their mouths, and I’m the talk of the town, that’s huge for me. That’s all I’ve wanted for a really long time. So, I’m happy about it,”
Expanding further, Jayne said that she only really started to get credit after Rose was released.
“Yeah, I think recently, I’ve been starting to get more credit for everything, especially, honestly, after Mandy left,” she said. “As sad as that whole situation was, and we tried to make the most of it going forward. I feel like that helped me break out of this Toxic Attraction shell. Now, people were paying attention to me more and listening to what I had to say. I haven’t gotten a lot of credit, while we’re all together.
I’m starting to show my character and how much I’ve grown over the last year and a half, two years. So I think this was honestly my breakout moment. Even at Vengeance Day it was sink or swim for us, like, ‘Now you’re on your own. You have to prove that you can do it by yourself.’ So I went into that match with that mind frame like you need to kill this performance. Because if not, you don’t know what’s gonna happen going forward.”
Jacy Jayne broke out on her own on the February 7th episode of NXT after turning on Gigi Dolin. During a special edition of Ding Dong Hello! with Bayley, she attacked her long-term partner kicking her through the set door in vicious style.
Shawn Michaels “Didn’t Fire” Mandy Rose
Shawn Michaels recently addressed Mandy Rose’s WWE departure on a media call. The WWE Hall of Famer said that the situation was less than ideal, and claimed that he wasn’t the one who fired her. Michaels had nothing but praise for Rose from his time spent working with her, describing her as “phenomenal.”
H/t to Fightful