After spending five long years away from the WWE, one of the homegrown stars of the original NXT version, Emma found her way back to the company in the Fall of 2022. She made a return in early October, sighting the SmackDown Women’s Championship, then held by Ronda Rousey. Unable to capture the title, the Australian Superstar is still trying to make an impression on the WWE Universe.
Since coming back, Emma has been fortunate enough to get involved in a relationship storyline with her real-life boyfriend Madcap Moss on WWE SmackDown. She still has the pledge to call herself a champion but then again, she came up short while securing the Number-one Contender’s spot for the SmackDown Women’s Championship in Gauntlet Match.
WWE Smackdown: Ronda Rousey Suggests Emma To Join Dancing With The Stars
Making an appearance on Out of Character Podcast with Ryan Satin, Emma discussed how her anticipated return to the WWE became a reality. The process started after she became a free agent following her tenure at Impact,
“I actually was working with Impact, and my contract was coming up. I guess maybe even without really realizing it, I had this idea in my mind that maybe I’m done with Impact, and maybe there are other options that I should explore and to kind of see what’s possible.”
Emma also noted that she had been watching WWE closely since Triple H became the head of the creative team in the WWE and that multiple Superstars found their way back to the company. She was enjoying what she saw which amped up her excitement in her with the prospect of going back,
“A short time after that, probably a month or two, we ended up in touch. He actually said to me that he’s been meaning to reach out even sooner, that I’ve been on his list and he’s been swamped basically, as you can imagine.”
WWE Smackdown: Emma Didn’t Hide To Keep Her Return A Secret
Emma was informed about her sudden WWE return at the very last moment
Following her conversation with Paul “Triple H” Levesque, Emma was gradually brought back into the WWE fold where fans can witness her similar to her previous NXT character. As noted above, she initially became a surprise challenger for Ronda Rousey but despite all her efforts, she came up short in the contest for the SmackDown Women’s Championship. Apparently, it was at the very end that she received the information of her returning appearance on SmackDown in October.
“I found out very last minute. … I think I got my flight [information] the day before I was flying out,” Emma revealed.
Emma wasn’t instructed to hide her WWE return
Unlike most of the returns that happened under Triple H’s regime, Emma was advised not to keep her appearance a secret, perhaps due to the reason that her open challenge acceptance was leaked ahead of time and some of her fanbases was really excited about the return,
“It was weird because it felt kind of normal, but at the same time I’m like, ‘I haven’t done this in 5 years,’. And there [are] so many new faces too, and old faces. People were just shocked to see me. … There was definitely a lot of reminiscing and catching up. It was a very exciting and fun day.”
Emma was previously released from WWE in 2017
Despite all the potential she had shown on NXT, the former Emma-lina never got the opportunity to showcase her skills on the main roster. Before coming back in 2022, her last WWE match took place on the October 23, 2017 edition of Raw, where she lost to Asuka before getting released in the same week. A day earlier, on October 22, she also lost to Asuka at WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in her first and only singles pay-per-view outing in a title match capacity.
