Allysin Kay spent a year and a half working with the National Wrestling Alliance, but after parting ways in November 2020, the former NWA Women's World Champion isn't sure that she would sign another contract with the promotion.
Speaking with Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp (full interview in the video above), noted that the decision to nullify the final two months of her contract was mutual and that it came about because she wanted to work independent dates but the company wouldn't allow it to happen with anyone whose program was available to stream.
"That was a mutual decision, me getting out of my contract with the NWA. So, my contract was going to end in December anyway and what had happened was—let me backtrack a little bit. So, pandemic hits. We were doing Maryland; we were just doing digital content. Once that stopped we didn’t do anything for a while. Then we started working with Championship Wrestling from Hollywood and we did Prime Time Live a little bit. I only did one of those episodes, wrestling Nicole Savoy. That was September.
We were always allowed—well, I was only with NWA for two years, maybe—but we were always allowed to work the indies and then when the pandemic has hit and we’re doing Prime Time Live now and not the YouTube show, we were told they didn’t want us to work the indies anymore. Which, I was like, ‘Okay. We’re doing stuff with Primetime, you want to make sure people are—‘Well, here’s the thing. I’m sorry, I should clarify. We weren’t allowed to do any streaming indies. But, the thing is, that was all the indies at that point."
Unfortunately, in the midst of a global pandemic, the only places with the ability to pay their performers were the ones that offered ways to watch their show besides physically being in attendance.
"The only real indies that were able to run that were going to pay you were the ones who were streaming because there was either no audience or limited capacity. So, that basically meant we couldn’t work the indies," said Kay.
Allysin Kay only worked one UWN Primitive Live Show in September, defeating Nicole Savoy. She would go on to appear at GCW's Bloodsport and Shimmer the following month. After not working for eight months and having her pay cut, Kay needed to start taking more bookings to help pay the bills. She and others wanted Powerrr to come back sooner than it did, but alternative revenue streams needed to be sought out when that didn't happen.
"Yeah. A lot of streaming. Unless I want to do a random show in a backyard in Michigan, which was definitely happening during the pandemic, which was not going to pay me very well. So, we were told not to do that. At that time I had already agreed to do Bloodsport and SHIMMERin October. So, I told them, ‘I’m doing these shows. I already agreed to it, they already advertised me. I’m doing them. But, after that, fine. Whatever. I won’t do them for the rest of the year, sure.’
But, then the Prime Time Live deal ended pretty quickly and then we were doing nothing. We tried to get Powerrr to come back, pushing Powerrr to come back in December and we just kept being told, ‘No, no, no. We’re going to wait.’ So, I did reach out and said, ‘If we’re not going to do Prime Time and we’re not going to do Powerrr this year, I would like to be able to work the indies. I need to be able to pay my bills.’
All of our pay was cut to some extent during the pandemic. So, I needed to make money and my request was to be allowed to work the indies. But, the response was, ‘Well, we can let you out of your contract for the next two months.’ I only had two months left anyway. I didn’t think it was necessary to let me out of it, but I was like, ‘Okay. I’ll go work the indies then.’ I knew I was going to make more money on the indies than I was making with my current pay since they were coming back, so I had to do what I had to do to pay my bills. Then AEW popped up right after. That was a rollercoaster of a week."
As for her relationship with the NWA, Kay says that they are on good terms.
"We’re on good terms," she said. "Billy made that very clear when we signed the release papers. We’re on good terms. I do want the fans to know that I wanted to be there. I do want the fans to know—I can’t speak for everyone, I suppose—but I would say the majority of the roster in January 2020, everyone that was there, that I was talking to anyway, wanted to be there. Everyone wanted to be there and don’t let anyone ever tell you any different."
As for the experience of working alongside Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, Kay says he was approachable and hands-on with the product, but that they didn't interact too much as there were lots of other people the wrestlers would typically deal with.
"At the shows he was approachable, I would say, at the shows. He was hands on, but we also have a lot of other people that we went to for the logistical things. So, I feel like I didn’t talk to him too much, but he always seemed very approachable. We had a good crew at the shows. Once the pandemic hit and you are only talking to people via e-mail and stuff, it changes, obviously. It’s different. Everyone went through a lot during the pandemic, obviously. I don’t know. It was fine. I’ll just say that."
While she is open to working for the NWA again, depending on the circumstances, Kay is not sure that she would sign a contract.
"I’m open to it, yeah. I don’t know that I would sign another contract, to be honest with you. But, I’m open to working with them again depending on the circumstances."
Allysin Kay won the NWA Women's World Championship in April 2019 at the Crockett Cup, defeating Santana Garrett to win the vacant belt. She would hold the title until January 24, 2020 when she lost it to Thunder Rosa.
Kay is also known for her time in IMPACT Wrestling where she performed under the name Sienna.
Fightful provides coverage of NWA programming every week.
