Leva Bates breaks the silence on her AEW departure.
Bates revealed at the beginning of the month that her contract with AEW would not be getting renewed and that she was officially a free agent after signing with the company at their launch back in 2019. Aside from her duties as a wrestler, Bates had multiple backstage roles including work with the AEW Heels program.
During a recent stream on Twitch, Bates opened up about her release.
Yes, I am no 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, as you know, 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. Trying to wrestle as many places as I can. To go, maybe, who knows where?
She adds that she does have some indie bookings lined up and could still potentially pop up on Being The Elite every now and then.
I’m trying to act. I have some stuff lined up to get me on my journey. I have a really cool meeting for some voiceover demo stuff. Hopefully that goes well and I can move forward with that and hopefully land a voiceover agent and all the things you’re supposed to do so, I got a lot of things in motion. I’ll be honest, I already got a couple of indie bookings kind of lined up. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say where they are yet because we literally just locked them down… I’m coming to a town near you probably so, definitely keep your eyes open. I’m going to be available to you more probably than I have before. Peter (Avalon) and I jokingly have thought, well maybe I should still do BTE. I don’t know if that’s an option, maybe. Maybe you’ll see me on B.T.E. still. I don’t know, or maybe I’ll do my own thing… I’m gonna miss it a lot.
Bates later discussed some of her work on Heels and how much she is going to miss that community.
I really, really put a lot of love and work into Heels. I think that’s gonna be one of the things I miss the most because that community, they’re just so wonderful. I love them so much. If there’s any Heels in the audience right now or in the chat, please let me know. So hopefully, I’ll still be around in one capacity or another. I’m always a Heel whether I’m there or not. I’m still part of the community so, you know, sometimes you just gotta walk away from a very comfortable situation but sometimes you have to do the scary things to make the dreams happen… But yeah, it’s gonna be okay. I know a lot of people are sad. I was a little sad. I went through a gamut of emotions. Also, really excited so, I am excited to see what’s next. I think I got some good stuff coming.
A report recently surfaced revealing further details about Bates’ AEW departure and how certain talents reacted when they found out. You can read about that by clicking here.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)