TNA Star Zoey Serrano Reveals How Terry Taylor Saved Her Career

Zoey Serrano Credits Veteran Coach Terry Taylor With Saving Her Wrestling Career

Former WWE NXT star Zoey Serrano has opened up about a severe knee injury during her time in NXT, revealing that veteran coach and producer Terry Taylor played a pivotal role in preventing what could have been a career-ending situation.

Speaking during an appearance on Zoey’s 1001, Serrano detailed how she tore her ACL while performing a high-risk ladder spot. During the match, the ladder was pushed over while she was near the top, leading into a springboard landing on a group of wrestlers. Despite suffering a torn ACL in that exact moment, Serrano pushed through to finish the scheduled match spots and attempted to conceal the severity of her injury once backstage:

“I tried. This was when I was in NXT and I just did a ladder spot where I’m on top of the ladder, girls push it over. I go from the ladder, do a springboard and land onto the girls. Well, in that very moment, I tore my ACL, it hurt.”

Hoping to avoid missing ring time, Serrano attempted to walk off the pain and hide in the women’s locker room to evade medical scrutiny:

“I go to the back. Everyone’s asking me if I’m okay cause obviously, ‘Oh, yeah. No, I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine.’ So, I try to go up to the women’s locker room, right, I’m trying to hide cause I don’t want anybody to know that I’m actually kind of a little bit in pain.”

However, Terry Taylor intervened before she could reach the locker room. Spotting that something was seriously wrong, Taylor insisted on taking her to medical personnel immediately:

“Terry Taylor, love this man. He pulls me aside and he says, ‘I know you are injured. You are going to go to medical right now and if you don’t, I’m going to take you there personally.’”

Taylor personally escorted Serrano to the medical room, where physical evaluation confirmed severe damage:

“He actually walked me into medical to get my knee tested. And what they do is they mess around with your knee. Go left, right, up, down, see if there’s anything a little wonky. Of course, there was.”

The resulting procedure required reconstruction of her ACL as well as extensive repair to her meniscus, with surgeons removing 85-90% of the meniscus tissue. Serrano emphasized that had Taylor not stepped in, attempting to wrestle through the injury would have completely destroyed her knee:

“And I had to get ACL surgery and meniscus surgery. They actually took out 85-90% of my meniscus. It’s just it’s not there anymore. Because Terry Taylor did that, he actually saved my career. I was able to get surgery, recover, and come back. And the reason why I say that he could save my career is because my knee would be completely gone if I just tried to cover it up.”

Serrano also expressed deep personal gratitude for Taylor, describing the profound bond they developed during her developmental tenure:

“Terry’s a man that I actually really look up to. I look up to him as a mentor, would even say as a father. He’s kind of like more of a grandfather’s age, but I look up to him. I love him dearly.”

Serrano competed in NXT from 2021 through 2023 before making her main roster debut, where she aligned with Trish Stratus during her high-profile rivalry against Becky Lynch. Following her WWE departure earlier this year, Serrano returned to TNA Wrestling in August.