Leva Bates has addressed her departure from AEW.
Bates announced on May 1 that her contract with the promotion had expired and would not be renewed. The following day, she addressed leaving AEW during a live Twitch stream.
Bates said:
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'm so happy to be there from day one before we even had a show, before we even had our first pay-per-view. 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 realized, I am not performing as much as I'd like to perform. So I'm taking all of this energy and focussing it on trying to make things happen, trying to wrestle as many places as I can, to go who knows where? I'm trying to act. I have some stuff lined up to get me on my journey.
She continued to say that she already has some independent dates booked.
Bates revealed later in the stream that she found out she no longer had a job while at the dentist.
On Saturday, Fightful reported that AEW never discussed Bates' contract status with her. She only found out when people called to check on her after they heard the news through an internal AEW email.
There were also said to be several people in AEW who pushed for her to remain with the company upon hearing the news.
Bates trained at the 3D Academy before making her pro debut in 2006. Before signing with AEW in 2019, she wrestled with promotions such as Shimmer and Shine. Bates also had a run in TNA and on WWE NXT as "Blue Pants."
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