Kacy Catanzaro Opens Up on WWE Release, American Ninja Warrior Fame, Career-Threatening Injury & More in Exclusive Interview with Chris Van Vliet

This week, former WWE Superstar Kacy Catanzaro—best known to fans as Katana Chance—joined wrestling journalist Chris Van Vliet for a candid conversation on the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast. The two discussed a wide range of topics, including her recent WWE release, the emotional challenges that came with it, her recovery from a serious back injury, and what’s next for her both personally and professionally. While the interview didn’t focus heavily on her time on American Ninja Warrior, her groundbreaking accomplishments on the show remain a defining part of her legacy. In 2014, Catanzaro became the first woman to complete both a city qualifying course and a city finals course on the show’s sixth season, earning national recognition and inspiring countless fans by scaling the iconic 14.5-foot Warped Wall—an achievement that helped launch her into the spotlight and eventually paved her path to WWE.

Here is snippet of the interview courtesy of chirsvanvliet.com:

On being in WWE for 8 years:

“It’s funny. I always say that there was something, I don’t know that I’ll be able to explain it well. But no matter how long I was in wrestling, I always felt like no matter what, I was the newer person there. Because I had never wrestled before, when I walked into the Performance Center, I’d never wrestled. No matter how long I was at the PC or in the company, I always felt like wherever I was I’m still the newer person here, even though it had been almost a decade that I worked there. It’s hard, I just could never shake that feeling.”

On being a legend in American Ninja Warrior:

“I’m very, very grateful to have that. I feel like it’s something very special to me to have done that, and sometimes I kind of forget about it. I feel like when I’m going through some rougher times, like I said, it feels like different lives. So sometimes I forget about that, and it’s good to look back and be like, I put really hard work in and I made a difference. I feel like that’s my main goal to inspire people to make a difference, kind of that you can overcome anything. I’m a lot smaller than most people, so that was a huge thing with American Ninja Warrior and in wrestling as well. So I feel like having that little reminder sometimes is nice.”

On no longer being with WWE:

“I think at first I thought that I was in shock and not able to process it, because I feel like when you work there, there is a joke of you could literally be fired at any time. We’re nervous about it often. Not like I’m sitting there upset every day. But enough that someone will make a random joke every now and then like oh, something happened. Well, what if we get fired? It is in the back of your mind because it does happen, and you know how the business works. But I actually was very surprised. It wasn’t on my radar. Then as I was telling the story of kind of how it led up to it, at first I was like, Yeah, I really didn’t have any notice. Then as I told the story, I was like wait, maybe I could have taken some of those as signs that something could have been coming. But also things change so often. If every time something got pushed, or every time we didn’t travel I went into a spiral thinking that we were gonna get fired, I wouldn’t have enjoyed my time. So I feel like I was surprised. It was a shock, but I had been there for so many years that I think that’s normal. So now I’m just working on really letting myself process it and kind of feel everything, figure out how I feel. So I’m not really sure. I’m bummed because I know that I have a lot more potential that I could have shown that I didn’t get to. But if I think about it, I could really say that about anything I’ve done. There is no top, there’s always more you can do. So I think I will come to terms with that. It’s just you kind of have to grieve it, appreciate it, be grateful. Be okay that it’s sad and then be kind of excited for whatever’s gonna come next.”

On her 2019 back injury:

“I don’t really ever talk about this, but there was a time back in 2019. I had started in 2018, I was about a year or so in. I had just done my first Royal Rumble in 2019, and I had a back injury from that. I was struggling with this injury. It was kind of the most serious injury I had had since being there. Also, the Performance Center was mentally very, very tough at that point for me. So there was a period where I was dealing with this injury and really like, can I come back from this? The injury wasn’t that serious that I wouldn’t be able to come back, but in my head, I was like do I really want to do this? And kind of having this crisis about it, is this something I’m going to continue to do? I was open about that with my job, and they were very supportive about it. They were like, We want you to heal, we want you to come back, and we want you to be here, it’s important to us. So when the big releases were happening in COVID, I was like, they’re gonna let me go. Because I wasn’t sure if I could do it. I didn’t know if I would be good enough, or if I could survive, or I was having these doubts, so I really thought they’re gonna let me go because they’re letting people go that wanted to be here and I didn’t know if I could. I’ll always be very grateful for that, that they believed in me and they stuck with me even when I was having these struggles. So those big releases are always very, very scary. So when it comes down to it, I’m so grateful to have survived so many of those. To think about it in a weird way that, yes, it’s sad. But also, again, trying to spin things and not live in the negative. Yes, I wish I had done more. I wish I had been able to show things, but I was with WWE for eight years, that is the dream. That is a huge accomplishment, something that a very small percentage of the world gets to say that they’re doing. So whenever I start thinking about that, I try to lean more towards I am just so grateful I was there and I did that, and it’s another section of my life story, if that makes sense.”

You check out the full podcast episode below on these platforms:

Spotify: