Under the ring name Avery Taylor, Grado made her wrestling debut around May 30, 2018 in American Combat Wrestling (ACW). She went on to establish a career in the Florida wrestling promotions including ACW, Shine Wrestling, Evolve and Full Impact Pro. She became a three-time Women's Champion including two women's title reigns in American Combat Wrestling and a single women's title reign in World Xtreme Wrestling. Grado made her televised debut on the September 23 episode of NXT during which she competed in a Number One Contender Battle Royal won by Candice LeRae. It was reported as early as February 24, 2021, Grado signed with WWE. She made her debut under the new name Jacy Jayne on the July 20 episode of NXT in a match lost against Franky Monet. On the debut episode of NXT 2.0 on September 14, Dolin and Jayne faced Carter and Catanzaro in a tag-team match, which ended in no contest after Rose interfered, during which she debuted a new dark-haired look, and they subsequently wrestled Carter, Catanzaro and Sarray in a six-woman tag team match, in which Rose, Dolin and Jayne emerged victoriously. She quickly joined the women's stable Toxic Attraction led by Mandy Rose in 2021, thus establishing herself as a heel in the process. During the September 28 episode of NXT, the group was represented in their first in-ring match by Gigi Dolin and Jayne, in an NXT Women's Tag Team title match won by Io Shirai & Zoey Stark. At NXT: Halloween Havoc, Dolin and Jayne defeated Shirai and Stark, and Indi Hartwell and Persia Pirotta in a Scareway to Hell Ladder triple threat tag team match for the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship, marking the first championships for both Dolin and Jayne in the company.
