Jordynne Grace at NXT Battleground WWE.com

Jordynne Grace Remembers TNA Wake Up Call Moment That Changed Her Career Trajectory

Originally posted on Wrestling on SI | By Rick Ucchino | Last updated May 31, 2025 4:29 PM ET

If recent reports are to be believed, Jordynne Grace is just days away from being called up to the main roster.

The former TNA Knockouts Champion last competed at NXT Battleground where she came up short in her bid to win the NXT Women's Championship from Stephanie Vaquer. The result may have been shocking to some, especially after the Dark Angel dropped the title on the next episode of NXT television to Jacy Jayne, but the Juggernaut has bigger things ahead for her.

Grace is reportedly set to join to the SmackDown Women's Division, where she has the size, strength, physique and star power to be a major player. Size and strength are attributes she's had throughout her entire pro wrestling career. Her current super hero-esque physique is a different story.

@JordynneGrace is on a mission! #WWEBattleground pic.twitter.com/CaBf9rQejz
— WWE (@WWE) May 26, 2025

"I've been lifting for years, since I was 15 years old, but I never dieted and I never really did cardio at all," Grace told Yahoo Sports. "Honestly, those are two of the main things that you have to do, unfortunately, to get your body to look in any type of way you want it to look like."

During a recent conversation with Cameron Hawkins of Uncrowned, Grace remembered her wake-up call moment during her days in TNA Wrestling. It happened on the night she first lost the Knockouts Championship, which came at Slammiversary XVIII in August of 2020.

"I had just won the Knockouts Championship for the first time, and Deonna Purrazzo had come over to TNA, and she won the title from me her very first weekend there. And I remember feeling so expendable and so just off-put by that, I just thought to myself, ‘Well, something has to change, because if someone can just come in here and just take my spot, I have to do something. I have to change something in order for that not to happen ever again.' ... I actually got my first [fitness] coach that following week."

Jordynne would go on to have two more reigns with the TNA Knockouts Title, totaling 495 days as the champion. She lost it for the final time to Masha Slamovich at Bound For Glory 2024, before officially signing with WWE this past February.

Grace told Hawkins that every sacrifice she's made over the past several years has led her to WWE, and within reach of achieving her career gold of winning the WWE Women's Championship.

This article first appeared on Wrestling on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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