Various: Taylor Wilde Stepping Away from Wrestling, Tama Tonga on Decision to Leave NJPW, Marty Jannetty on Potential Leg Amputation

Feb 1, 2024

Taylor Wilde Announces She Is Stepping Away from Wrestling

Impact/TNA Wrestling talent Taylor Wilde has been noticeably absent from wrestling since this past August.

A recent episode of the Wilde On podcast featured host Wilde providing an update on the reason for her current lengthy absence from wrestling and her decision to step away from her wrestling career for the foreseeable future.

“Wrestling is put on the shelf for me, again. I went through a ton of shit. I haven’t even publicly spoken about this. I went through a lot in my personal life. I touched on the custody battle and the divorce. My dad had a heart attack and first responders did CPR on him for almost an hour. He made it, but it was eight months in the hospital. He was in the ICU, he almost died a couple of times, he got COVID, he had to have a tracheotomy, but he’s home and independently living. That was beautiful. The custody battle and divorce got nastier at that time and affected my work life, both wrestling and as a firefighter. I moved in with my sister and now late brother-in-law during that time. Almost a year to the day that my dad had a heart attack, my brother-in-law had a freak accident happen and passed at 37. That left my 32-year-old sister and my then-two-year-old niece without a dad. With everything I had already been through, I thought, I better take a break. I was going to take a leave from firefighting, just do my podcast and be on the road full-time. What people don’t know is that when I came back to wrestling, I was bringing my son on the road with me full-time. That’s two 12-hour TV days with TNA, and then I was still doing my podcast, working full-time as a firefighter. I think, when I walked away from everything and was just going to focus on wrestling, my body pooped out on me. I had a neurological emergency that scared me enough to where I thought, ‘If this is any correlation to wrestling, then that’s it for me.’ I was going to give wrestling my all this past year and after everything I had been through, whether it was stress, the COVID vaccine, or it was going to happen to me anyway. My body gave out on me and so wrestling is on the shelf for me right now.”

In response to a question from guest Brian Cage about when she might potentially resume her wrestling career, Wilde stated:

“What happened to me was so scary and so forever changing, that I’m still not…I’ve been medically cleared if I ever change my mind, but my life is not 100 percent yet; they take certain privileges away from you if these things happen. Being a mom and recovering from all the emotional things that went on for two years, my life focus has changed. My self-worth was always wrapped up in producing: Wrestling, being a firefighter, being the best mom, doing, doing, doing, and maybe not dealing with emotional pain that, now that that all got wiped from me, my happiness stems from having a family. I met the love of my life during this and I just love family life. I would have loved to stay involved with IMPACT. Just because it may have been wrestling on the shelf, I would have loved to stay in a manager role. The Coven was my baby. I wrote that shit. Being a witch on screen was everything I dreamed of in the 90s. All that shit is really who I am. Producing backstage, participating creatively, commentary, I would have loved to stayed. I guess, the way the company goes, right time and right place, it didn’t end up staying that way. I’m living in the world that I always am, which is, I don’t know. I retired at 25 and then I came back ten years later. I don’t know.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Tama Tonga Comments on His Decision to Leave NJPW

As noted before, Tama Tonga was set to leave New Japan Pro Wrestling at this end of this past January due to family-related reasons.

A recent episode of the Midnight Wrestling & Kingdom podcast featured Tonga as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Tonga’s thoughts on his decision to leave NJPW.

“You know, I came here for the G1 for one month and I went home and my kids grew up too fast. I missed their birthdays, I miss so many things and as I’m getting older, I don’t wanna miss my kids growing up. I love Japan, but I love my wife and my kids and I wanna be there. I wanna be a part of their life growing up.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

Marty Jannetty Announced His Doctors Want to Amputate His Leg

Former WWE wrestler Marty Jannetty recently announced on Facebook that this past Tuesday was a very rough day in his life due to the combination of his doctors had recommended for his leg to be amputated and his sister had passed away.

“I can’t hardly formulate a sentence right now, it’s a tough time in life, yesterday day they told me they want to cut my leg off.. struggling with that my brother called last night and, my sister died in his arms basically. I don’t even know what I’m saying right now. I don’t think I’m doing the podcast show tomorrow night, please forgive me, I do loves y’all..I just can’t. I’m so lost right now.
PS- Many of y’all know both my sisters, Diane is still hanging in tough as a mo-fo, Diane STAY STAY STRONG, KEEP BELIEF, YOU TOO GENO!”