Jake Atlas Gets Candid About WWE Career Messing With His Mental Health

At one point in time, Jake Atlas looked to be one of the hottest young prospects in wrestling, especially after signing with WWE in late 2019 following a strong run on the independent circuit. Instead, things went the other direction, with Atlas being released from WWE less than two years later in August 2021. He later left wrestling altogether in 2022, after a brief run in AEW ended due to injury and a domestic violence arrest in May 2022.

Earlier this week, Atlas resurfaced, sitting down with "Developmentally Speaking" to talk about his wrestling career, particularly his time in WWE. And Atlas was fairly candid, especially about the effect his WWE run had on his mental health.

"It really messed me up mentally," Atlas said. "I think...man, what I would say today is different than maybe if you would've interviewed me fresh off of my release. I think I've grown and changed so much over the last three years. But that's an interesting question for me, because at the time, if you would've asked me when I got released I would've told you 'Yeah, it was difficult. I didn't know how to handle it, I wasn't ready for it, ect.' 

"I think now, I can say that definitely was. I think that...if I wasn't ready for it, it was more so on a personal level than it was on a professional level. I think the style was easy to adapt to, and I don't think that it was my talent holding me back, or my ability to do the job that was holding me back. I think it was more so the personal struggle at the time."

Atlas did note that there were some stylistic differences in WWE from his time on the indies, and admitted that his experiences came during a time when WWE was still under the thumb of Vince McMahon, who has since departed after being accused of sex trafficking and abuse by Janel Grant. Even still, he described an environment that, at least from his perspective, wasn't always the friendliest to indie wrestlers, especially those who didn't have extensive track records.

"I'm only speaking for my experience at the time," Atlas said. "I don't know if that has changed since. But the system can sometimes challenge you and your confidence. WWE is not the independents, and they do a very good job of reminding you of that. And I think that there's a difference when someone has been on the indies for 10 years, showing up to 'NXT' and knowing how to blend that, and somebody that's only been on the indies for 3 years, and showing up to 'NXT' and not knowing how to blend that. 

"So it was really difficult to adapt to their style because I had a really huge personal struggle internally on how to understand what was going on, understanding the politics within it as well. So yeah, there's definitely a different style. I wouldn't say it's harder or easier, it's just more of a mental challenge than it was a physical challenge."

Atlas did point out that the problem didn't just begin and end with WWE, stating that mental health was an industry wide problem in wrestling during his time, and that part of the problem was wrestlers putting so much pressure on themselves. He also revealed that there was at least an effort on WWE's end to help those struggling, though Atlas quickly pointed out that more was required.

"I can say that there was...I can't remember what his official title was, but there was someone that was kind of around, always having meetings with us once a month, kind of talking about athlete...like, mental health kind of things," Atlas said. "He wasn't necessarily a therapist or psychologist, he was more of...like a sports coach or something, like a sports/life coach. So there was that, but it was like one person for 150 athletes. It's difficult to kind of...yeah."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Developmentally Speaking" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription