In an interview with Developmentally Speaking (via Fightful), Jake Atlas spoke about a possible return to wrestling after he got his mind right with the help of therapy. Atlas had a brief run in WWE before he was released in 2021. He made several appearances in AEW on a per-appearance deal, but they released him in May 2022. This was due to a domestic violence arrest, although the case was later dropped.
Atlas said: “It’s been really peaceful, and that has nothing to do with WWE or wrestling. I’m very thankful for my therapist and the work that I have done over the last three years through therapy has allowed me to find peace in my life. So it’s been really peaceful. It’s been a new experience. I’ve had to live with a lot of grief, saying goodbye to the industry and being able to mourn this character and this personality that I created over the years and I worked really hard for. So yeah, it’s been peaceful, but it’s definitely been sad, and I’d be lying if I said that it wasn’t sad. It wasn’t a choice that I was able to make on my own to kind of stop. I think that there’s a lot of sadness that comes with that, being kind of forced out without saying a proper goodbye or without being able to turn things around or change the narrative, if you will. But I can live with peace. I’m very thankful for therapy and being able to really dive into a lot of those things, talking and going through my experience in WWE, my experience in wrestling in general. It’s been really humbling and really eye-opening to just understand what happened better and why it happened. So peaceful is the word that comes to mind. Yeah, obviously I think if it was the right time and right place, I obviously would. I think my goal, this is something new that I’ve been playing with, and I’m talking about it openly now, maybe just to speak it into existence, is I want to be a fan again. I completely stopped watching, and I’ve completely removed myself from it in general. Obviously, I know some things my friends are doing, I’m in the know on that and just general things, big general things. Once you’re kind of in this industry, it’s really hard to leave because you know people and you’re friends with these people. But just on the day to day, I don’t know what’s going on. I haven’t really sat down to watch a match or any form of wrestling content in so long, maybe two years now. One thing I’ve been exploring is trying to watch it again and just trying to find that affinity for the actual art again. I think that’s a good first step to just open the door back up and loving it and kind of having that relationship with it in a sense. So I’m talking to a few friends to be able to attend some of the upcoming shows, to be able to attend them and just watch from afar and support. I think that would be really healing for me, and it would be a way to kind of connect with it again. I obviously have a lot of goals that I still want to accomplish in my life, potentially in wrestling or in entertainment in some form. The best thing that I could do is just take the time to just heal my soul and kind of separate myself from the trauma that has happened because of wrestling, and I hope that in the next year, I’m able to find the courage to use my voice a little bit more to get back out there and get people to hear what I have to say.“
