Fans show surprising support for Jin Tala post WWE release

Jin Tala is receiving a lot of support online from fans wanting to see what is next in her career.
WWE Live - Tryout
WWE Live - Tryout | Marc Pfitzenreuter/GettyImages

There’s a lot of talk across online outlets about the recent group of WWE releases. Wes Lee was the most prominent name on the list, as his time with WWE NXT came to an end. However, there’s one performer who is getting a lot of praise online as fans hope she continues to hone her craft in professional wrestling. Jin Tala is getting a lot of surprising praise from fans online, and the next steps of her career may be something to watch for in the future.

Who is Jin Tala? That’s an excellent question, as she’s someone that the casual and even hardcore WWE watcher may have missed. Also known as Leigh Laurel, she has less than a year of wrestling under her belt and only 17 matches on her Cagematch listing. Those matches took place on WWE LFG and EVOLVE, two outlets that many fans overlooked thanks to the amount of wrestling content available day-to-day.

Still, there’s an interesting rise of support for Tala online. Several point out her looking the part of a sports entertainer, or the potential that they saw in her abilities. As with all things on social media, the trending tweets started out with supporting Tala as a performer before swinging over to negativity. Tala took a few days before releasing a statement about the situation on Sunday.

“I found my passion and I was all-in,” Tala posted on social media. “I wasn’t just fascinated by the physical aspects of pro wrestling, what hooked me was the psychology…the emotions that can be expressed by wrestlers and felt by the audience. Maybe it came down to timing, did I break down those walls quick enough? Maybe I was just an unrecognizable name on a list, or maybe they just don’t see what I see in myself. At the end of the day, the only person I have to prove my worth to is me. I’m not giving up; Jin Tala may be no more. But Leigh Laurel has always been a fighter.”

WWE’s talent development process is going to create a lot of these situations. Just because a performer shows up on a platform like LFG, EVOLVE, or NXT does not mean they will break through in any way. What it does create is a situation where these individuals can take their time in WWE and perhaps build on that to craft a fruitful career. Mara Sade is someone who is looking to do the same now that she’s signed to TNA Wrestling. If Jin Tala remains in wrestling it will be interesting to see how she rebounds from this moment.