Jordynne Grace explains why she decided to leave TNA

With her WWE arrival likely imminent, Jordynne Grace was the guest on a new episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet uploaded on Tuesday.

Grace has reportedly signed a multi-year WWE contract and could appear as soon as the Royal Rumble this weekend. Her interview on Insight was recorded before her future was locked in, but Grace explained why she decided to let her TNA contract expire. Grace said she’s more confident in herself than she used to be and felt like this was the right time to enter free agency.

“I’ve been at TNA for a very long time — since 2018 — and I’ve never let my contract expire before. I’ve always just re-signed, and I don’t know if it was just the uncertainty of not knowing what was going to happen next, or I was just scared that no one was going to want me. But I feel like now I’m more confident. I had an amazing 2024, and I think it’s time. I’ve done so much in TNA. I’ve done pretty much all there is to do and I feel like if there was ever a time to move forward, it will be right now.”

Originally, Grace’s TNA contract was supposed to be up in October 2025, but she asked TNA if she could move the expiration date up after Scott D’Amore was fired by the promotion. Van Vliet asked Grace if she thinks she’d still be in TNA if D’Amore was in charge.

“Well, when he left, I was very emotional when he left, like a lot of other people, because it was just so out of the blue,” she responded. “We found out on a Zoom call, it was very corporate I feel like, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But at the time, I was just like, ‘You know what? I only really signed here because I had faith in Scott that he was going to do good things for me and good things for the company.’ He’s the one that kind of set in motion the whole rebirth of TNA. And I told them I wanted my contract to be like cut, basically. So it was supposed to be until October of this year, and I was like I want to get out in January of this year. I mean, kudos to them. They heard me and they let me. So I’m very lucky for that. But I think probably I’d still be at TNA.”

Grace’s final night in TNA was a loss to Tessa Blanchard at Genesis on January 19. She had three Knockouts Championship reigns during her run with the promotion. Grace’s last reign ended when she dropped the title to Masha Slamovich last October.

If Grace is in the women’s Royal Rumble this weekend, it will be her second straight year competing in the match. She was a surprise entrant in the 2024 Rumble while still contracted to TNA. She has also made several NXT appearances with the partnership that exists between WWE and TNA.

Grace told Van Vliet that she would love for WWE & TNA to have a Worlds Collide event. Grace said Shawn Michaels has told her that he likes that idea as well.