Tay Conti On WWE Initially Rejecting Her Release Request

Prior to her WWE release in April 2020, Tay Conti asked the company to let her go in January, but the request was refused and she returned at an NXT live event a month later. 

Now with All Elite Wrestling, Conti reflected on initially asking for her release on the AEW Unrestricted podcast and she revealed WWE told her they wouldn't release her so she couldn't go to Tony Khan's company. 

"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 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," Conti stated.

"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," she continued.

"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."

Following her release, Tay Conti debuted in AEW in July 2020 and she has impressed many during her time with the company so far. She was also recently featured at the top of the women's division and she unsuccessfully challenged Hikaru Shida for the AEW Women's World Championship on April 21. 

H/T to Wrestling Inc.