Tay Conti recalls WWE telling her that they were not going to allow her to go to AEW after they had invested so much time and effort into her.
Before her release, Tay Conti was very unhappy in WWE. Having not been used in any significant manner during her time in NXT Tay openly admitted that she wanted to leave WWE and gain experience elsewhere. She did not have any contacts for any outside promotions but she knew that she would not grow any further in the WWE Performance Center
During her recent appearance on the AEW Unrestricted podcast, she explained how many times she asked for her release from WWE and the meetings they had with her where she was told specifically they were not going to allow her to go to AEW.
“I was asking for my release for a couple of months, I was not happy. I was so unhappy there that I didn’t have any [backup] plans, I was just like, ‘I want to get out of here. I’m not happy.’ I never thought about, ‘What am I gonna do if they give me my release? I never thought about it. I was like, ‘I just need to be done with them,’” Tay recalled.
She continued,“Of course, they said no a couple of times. We had a bunch of meetings. I was like, ‘Nope, I’m just done. Please let me go.’ So at the last one, they told me, ‘No, you’re not going,’ and they mentioned AEW. I remember they told me, ‘No, you’re not gonna go to AEW. [We've invested a lot of money in you.] You are a star.’ I’m like, ‘Yes, you guys don’t use me here. So I’ve got to go somewhere, but it’s not there. I know nobody there. I have no plans to go to AEW.’ I had no plans because I had no contacts at all. At the end of the day, we figured it out. They said no, and I still had two years in my contract. I was like, well, [what can I do?] I’m gonna be here. They told me, ‘Okay, you can be at home. We’re going to pay you. You can be at home.’ I’m like, ‘No, because I know everybody’s going to forget about me, and I won’t be able to work.’ I was like, ‘No, it's okay. I'm going to make it two more years.’”
Ultimately, she wound up being released on Wednesday, April 15, 2020. She first joined AEW as part of the Deadly Draw Tag Team Tournament and is now currently signed with the promotion.
Elsewhere on the podcast, Aubrey Edwards recalled the negative experience she first had when she met Tay and how happy she is that she got to reconnect with her outside of the WWE Performance Center environment. Learn more here.
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