Tay Conti Claims WWE Denied Her Release Because They Didn’t Want Her To Go To AEW

AEW star Tay Conti tried very hard to make a name for herself in NXT, but to no avail as she was simply not used much there. It made her miserable and ultimately, she was granted her release from the company last year as part of the COVID-19 budget cuts.

Conti then made her way to AEW and has now seen a significant amount of improvement in her in-ring skills, the likes she had never seen during her time in WWE. While speaking on the AEW Unrestricted podcast with Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone, Tay Conti talked about the last few months of her time in WWE.

Tay Conti claimed that WWE repeatedly denied her request to leave the company as they did not want her to go to AEW. Tay Conti at that time didn’t know anyone in AEW and she didn’t even have a plan once she would be granted her release.

“I was asking for my release for a couple months. I was not happy. I was so unhappy there that I didn’t have any plans. I was just like, I want to get out of here. I’m not happy, and I never thought about, oh, 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, and of course, they said no a couple times. We were having 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.

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“I remember they told me, ‘No, you’re not gonna go to AEW. ‘We put a lot of money on you. You are star blah, blah, blah.’ I’m like, ‘Yes, you guys don’t use me here. So I gotta 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 end of the day, we figured it out. They said, no, and I still had two years in my contract. And I was like, well, what I’m gonna 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.’ And I was like, no, it’s okay. I’m going to make it two more years.

“I’m going to keep working, I have no choice right? We decided to keep working, and everything was good. We got in good terms, and then something had to change because I was not with training the schedule, whatever. I was back to work normally. Out of nowhere, they called me because of — I mean, not out of nowhere. Everybody knew was what was going on because of COVID, but I was not expecting the call since we were okay. They told me ‘we are finally letting you go’ not in a really good, I don’t how to explain it without being too mean, they’re not too nice.”

Tay Conti would also explain why she improved so much more in AEW compared to WWE. It ultimately boiled down to the fact that she is simply happier in AEW and continues to grow as a competitor. There is no doubt Tay Conti will eventually win the AEW Women’s Title as she continues to hone her craft as a pro wrestler.

h/t to Wrestling Inc for the quotes.