Gone but Not Forgotten, Collectors Shouldn’t Forget about Cora Jade
Two weeks after touting the financial success of WrestleMania 41 came the disappointing side of the wrestling business. In what has unfortunately become an annual occurrence, news began to break that several WWE and NXT wrestlers were being released from their contracts. Ultimately seventeen wrestlers and counting were released from their contracts. While some names may have been expected, there were several high profile stars that were high profiler names that caught fans and collectors completely off guard. One release that was incredibly surprising to anyone who followed WWE and NXT was former NXT Women’s tag team champion Cora Jade.
Since signing with WWE, Jade had become a fixture at the top of the NXT Women’s division. Jade had several success feuds during her entire run, having main evented several NXT events against real life best friend and on again off again frienny Roxane Perez. Recently the two teamed up during the WrestleMania weekend NXT Stand and Deliver pre-show in a losing effort in what would be Jade’s final match. Naturally Jade’s fans were both shocked and angered by her release. After all she had been featured pretty heavily up until recently in NXT events, with many fans having an eye toward a main roster debut sometime in the near future. Unfortunately, now Jade will have to wait out her thirty day non compete clause before searching for opportunities outside of the WWE umbrella.
From a hobby standpoint, this will obviously have a negative impact early on in her market as leaving the WWE almost always accompanies a drop in sales for cards and other collectibles. That being said, prior to her release, Jade did have a strong market in the hobby. Recent sales data from just prior to her release point to that. Specifically her Topps Chrome base autos were selling for between $50-70 with numbered autos selling for significantly higher. At least in the short term collectors should expect those numbers to decrease. However there are some positives for collectors to look toward. Jade checks off a lot of boxes in what companies look for in a main event talent. Specifically she’s good in the ring, great with the microphone, has the look, personality and presence that attract fans' attention. Along with those traits , she’s also very young having just turned 24 so the majority of her career is ahead of her. For collectors, there may be a unique opportunity to take advantage of an undervalued market on a proven commodity such as Jade who’s best years could be yet to come.
No matter what profession you’re in, losing your job, especially your dream one sucks. However if anyone is equipped to manage this setback it would be Elayna Black, formally Cora Jade. Thankfully, the wrestling scene both with major companies such as AEW and New Japan along with independent promotions is incredibly strong, presenting many opportunities for her to work outside of the WWE machine. Although it’s much smaller scale, independent shows often allow fans and collectors to have more accessibility to a star of her caliber in terms of meet and greets or other appearances.
Given her age and her abilities, there’s a very good chance she goes the route of current WWE stars like Chelsea Green, Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre who were able to reinvent themselves outside of WWE only to return as even bigger stars. No matter what direction Elayna Black choses to go one thing is certain, that she is too talented to not find success. I know I won’t be forgetting about Cora Jade and collectors shouldn’t either.
