Tony Khan has brought in a lot of talent since launching AEW in 2019, and with that comes hard decisions, as he can only use so many of them, leading to eventual departures. Unlike WWE, Khan doesn’t release people. Instead, he lets their contract expire.
That’s what happened to AEW Original Leva Bates, who has since confirmed that she is no longer with the promotion after being there since April 2019 as a wrestler and later having behind-the-scenes roles.
In her statement, she expressed gratitude for her time in AEW, although she found out from fellow wrestlers that her deal wasn’t renewed.
While speaking on her Twitch stream, Bates stated that she has no regrets about her time in the promotion and already has multiple independent bookings lined up.
“Yes, I am longer with AEW, but that is okay. I put a lot of love and effort, and energy into that place and no regrets. I am so happy to be there from day one, before we even had a show, before we even had our first pay-per-view, and I have made history. I am a part of history. So I am forever grateful and forever will just be so thankful to have been a part of that. But, I probably realize, I am not performing as much as I would like to perform. So I’m taking all of this energy and focusing it on trying to make things happen.”
Later in the stream, Bates noted that she learned she was no longer employed by AEW when she was leaving the dentist.
“When I got out of the dentist, I was going to do a work call, was gonna get done with the work call, call around for vets (for my pet) and then take him. I got out of the dentist and realized I didn’t have a job (she laughed). So, that changed some plans. I had to figure out a lot of things very quickly. Had to have a lot of conversations.”
H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription
