Ellering’s two matches for AEW saw her and ring announcer Dasha Gonzalez team come up short against Diamante and Ivelisse in the first round of the AEW Women’s Tag Team Cup tournament, followed by a singles match against Penelope Ford. Ellering recalls instantly feeling at home within AEW, due to familiar faces like Ford, and the overall environment of the promotion, which provided her with a shot of confidence she felt she’d been missing following her WWE departure.

“It’s just good to be around people that are…they’re all there for the love of the game,” Ellering said. “We all genuinely love this. So it was just good people to be around for kind of my first experience coming out of that. It’s like a confidence booster, right, where everyone there is kind of building you up, where it’s your first thing back in a really long time. So I left feeling super confident about it. And I also left ‘Hey, I think this is where I want to put my roots down next. Kind of set a new goal on top of the 87 I already have in wrestling.’ I really just liked the energy there. You could just feel that. I still feel that every week now that I’m there. It’s just a different energy than places I’ve been prior. It’s an energy I really, truly love.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “AEW Unrestricted” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription