When news broke that Dana Brooke was being released from WWE mere days before NXT Battleground, it turned more than a few heads across the IWC.

Sure, Brooke hadn't really done much on the main roster since the 24/7 Championship was retired and was a minor player during that era, too, if we're being completely honest, but against the odds, the former gymnast found a new life in NXT, where she was working a program with Kelani Jordan that sometimes featured Cora Jade too, at least before she took off time due to injury. With Jordan set to wrestle at Battleground with Brooke in her corner, the idea of her exit even surprised Shawn Michaels, who was expecting to have the 35-year-old vet on the show right alongside fellow RAW mainstay Mustafa Ali, who was also released by the promotion before the show.

And yet, after taking a few months off to serve out her 90-day non-compete clause, Brooke returned to professional wrestling at TNA Hard to Kill, where she stood ringside and was introduced by the new moniker “Ash By Elegance.”

Discussing what it was like to return to wrestling after a few months away on Busted Open Radio, Brooke celebrated the experience, as she's stoked to be able to continue her professional career outside of the WWE Universe.

“It was such an amazing feeling. Being in Vegas, being at TNA Wrestling, Hard to Kill,” Dana Brooke told Busted Open Radio via Fightful. “Walking into an amazing arena and watching the Knockouts Division title match with Jordynne and Trinity, it was such a great feeling to make my presence be known as such an amazing event.”

Asked about her new moniker, Brooke explained that the idea is a simple one: she wants to bring elegance to the world of professional wrestling and showcase herself in a more refined way.

“Ash By Elegance is a different side of me, but I'm trying with my life every single day as being super elegant,” Brooke said. “Elegant is a word that I feel has a variety and multiple meanings. It's classiness, it's elegant, it's beautiful. It just means so much, and I'm definitely going to bring that element into the ring and show everyone what class and elegance really means.”

Alright, while it's a tad unusual to explain what elegant means by using elegant in the definition, the concept she's trying to execute in TNA doesn't really need too much explaining, assuming she isn't straight up stealing “Timeless” Toni Storm's schtick, which some have accused her of, this concept should go over well.

Dana Brooke is ready to show a different side of herself in TNA.

Elsewhere in her conversation on Busted Open Radio, the former Dana Brooke was asked about her goals in TNA and how she plans to make it different from her run in WWE.

While she didn't get into too much detail, she did note that after being held back at every point in her wrestling journey thus far, Brooke is ready to finally let loose and really show fans who she can be moving forward.

“You're going to see drive and determination and a side of me that people haven't seen. I had mentioned to people before in the locker room, when I was at TNA, ‘I was never given the opportunity to show my true potential,'” Dana Brooke said. “The one match I did where I really felt like I opened up was one of my last matches, the kendo stick match, and a match after that with the champion where I was able to bring out a different side of aggression and passion and things I felt like I was held back from because I was working 90-second matches. What can you do in that 90 seconds beside tell the story you're given to tell the story with? I feel as though TNA is going to let me explore this side of me of who I truly am. I want to go to the limit. I was the girl, when we were putting matches together in WWE, ‘I want to do this. I want to go high flying, I want to dive onto a table and be hit in the back with a chair.' They're like, ‘No, we'll get there; we'll build to it.' I was the one, ‘Put me in coach, I'll do this and do that.' TNA is the place where I'll be able to do it. It's hardcore, and I'm ready for it.”

Alright, so Brooke plans to go with an elegant gimmick but also wants to work high-flying, hard-hitting, hardcore matches? Huh, I guess fans will have to tune into TNA moving forward to see how it all works out.