Nia Jax explains how WWE changed under Triple H
When Nia Jax returned to WWE in 2023, the company felt like a different place than it was during her first run.
Jax was released from WWE during a round of roster cuts in 2021 but was brought back in 2023, returning after Paul “Triple H” Levesque gained power as head of creative. On a new episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Jax opened up about how she benefitted from that two-year absence.
“I feel like I changed in a better way. Like, I got better and I elevated my game a little bit more,” she said. “Not that I didn’t think I had the opportunity in my first part, but I think because it was a different schedule and — I wasn’t really, like, locked in as I could have been. When I had the break and I was able to see what I could improve on, I was able to change it coming back.”
Jax’s first stint with WWE happened while Vince McMahon was still in charge of the company. During that time, she felt like WWE had to be her entire life and everything else needed to take a backseat. Now, there is a healthier balance where she is still passionate about her job without it becoming her entire existence.
“Some of the girls that I came up with, we all kind of made WWE our whole lives. Like, morning, noon, and night, storylines, talking about it all the time and worried about our bookings,” Jax said. “Back in the day, if you got hurt, you were forgotten about. It was hard to get back in the rhythm, so we pushed through things. Like, ‘I’m not hurt, I’m fine, I’m going to stay and I want to skip on all my friends’ weddings and baby showers.’ And then coming back, it felt different to where it’s like, no, WWE is my passion and I love it and I want to be a part of it, but it’s not going to be my entire life. I’m not going to make it like the focal point.”
When McMahon ran WWE, Jax felt like she was working for an audience of one and had to wrestle in the way that McMahon wanted her to. There is now more freedom with Levesque encouraging Jax to show the audience what she can do in the ring.
“I was taught a certain way, like, ‘You’re a certain size, you can’t do these things. Stay away from this. Don’t let them do this to you.’ So I was kind of pigeonholed into a little bit of — and I was afraid to get out of it because, you know, the person telling me is somebody who runs the show and you work for an audience of one. And so this time around, Hunter was more like, ‘Be you. Be you, do you, show them what you can do.’ Because he’s like, ‘I know what you’re capable of.’ So I feel like the difference is just me kind of being myself a little bit more. I’m more adding who I am into my character instead of, like, I’ve got to stay here and make sure that, you know, somebody’s happy.”
Jax was a Women’s Champion under both the McMahon and Levesque regimes, most recently holding the WWE Women’s Championship on SmackDown from August 2024-January 2025. She also won the WWE Queen of the Ring tournament in 2024.
On Insight, Jax noted that she has lost 100 pounds from her highest weight. She participated in the women’s Royal Rumble last weekend but was eliminated by Charlotte Flair.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.