Before Nia Jax's WWE career came to an end, she had been involved in quite a few controversies. Jax had a lot of expectations due to the family linage in the Samoan Dynasty as the cousin of The Rock. WWE hoped that Nia could find the same level of success as Roman Reigns and the Usos in the women’s division.Even though Jax did accomplish many great things in a short time, she never lived up to that potential and found her name mostly in negative stories. Nia was always been outspoken outside of the ring and had a lot of criticism for her work in between the ropes, and Jax's reputation will always be controversial when looked at in retrospect.
Jax Had A Reputation For Injuring Her Opponents
The first controversy that comes to mind when looking at Nia Jax’s career is her reputation as being a reckless wrestler. Quite a few women suffered scary injuries when facing Jax in the ring. Injuries are a part of the job and can happen in any match, but the frequent nature of Nia botching and hurting her opponents by delivering reckless moves in the ring became too obvious.
Bayley missed a planned SummerSlam title match for the Raw Women’s Championship due to an injury suffered in a match against Jax. Charlotte Flair was on the other end of a Nia botch when landing on her neck and almost suffering a major injury. The bloody face of Becky Lynch after getting busted open by Jax helped her in the long run due to the visual, but a major star missing time due to a reckless worker was another strike.
WWE’s women’s tag division saw Kairi Sane becoming the most frequent victim of Nia’s botches in their physical matches. Jax recklessly throwing Sane into the ring steps led to her looking visibly shaking and busted open. Another match saw Kairi getting dropped on her neck in a scary moment right before leaving WWE, as Nia became controversial for not protecting her opponents.
She Often Clashed With Other Performers
If the injuries and reckless moves weren’t enough, Nia Jax found her way into a few high-profile issues with other women in the company. Becky Lynch wasn’t pleased about the facial injury she received at the hands of Jax, nor did she like Nia bragging about it on social media. Jax got into a public war of words with the hottest name in the company, which never benefits the other person.
Ronda Rousey was even called out by Jax during a couple of interviews for her working style. Nia's bizarre explanation was that Rousey injured her opponents by working recklessly, even though that is the biggest criticism towards Jax herself. A wrestler having beef with the two biggest stars in their division is never going to help their case.
The most recent instance of Nia finding her way into controversy in the ring came during the infamous match with Charlotte Flair. Both ladies appeared to break character with Charlotte throwing a slap and things coming out awkwardly. Charlotte revealed Nia is one of her closest friends, so it wasn’t as personal as the other issues, but it still was public for the fans to witness on live television.
Controversial Firing
No one knows for sure what the real story is regarding Nia Jax’s firing after multiple conflicting reports. The first story to break featured the New York Post outing Jax as one of the WWE stars to not get vaccinated. WWE’s touring schedule could present issues for Nia to appear in certain venues, so it would make sense to have that be the reason for her release. Other wrestlers in that wave of firings were also reported to have the unvaccinated status harm their standings in WWE.
However, Jax went out of her way to reply to the story claiming that WWE never expressed an issue with her being unvaccinated. Nia's version of the falling out revealed that she took a short leave from WWE for her mental health. Jax claimed that she requested more time when WWE sent her the house show schedule and that she was subsequently released.
There was no denial from Nia that she is unvaccinated, and it leads to both stories being within the realm of possibility. Regardless, the end of Jax's WWE career is mired in as much controversy as her in-ring career was. WWE wanted Nia to join that upper echelon with Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Bayley, and Becky Lynch. Unfortunately, her history of controversy and underperforming led to her time with the company ending before anyone expected.