Leva Bates shares her thoughts on her AEW exit.
Bates announced that her contract with All Elite Wrestling expired on May 1. She had been with the company since its early days in 2019, and in addition to her work as a wrestler, Bates had multiple roles behind the scene. She also worked with the AEW Heels program.
Bates opened up about the end of her time in AEW on a Twitch stream. (Transcription credit of Andrew Thompson of POST Wrestling.)
“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.”
Bates then described how she aims to wrestle as many places as she can. She also hopes to get acting roles, and she is exploring voiceover work as well. Bates was a regular on the “Being The Elite” series, and she admitted that she wasn’t sure whether she could keep doing that following the end of her time with the company.
“[I’m] trying to wrestle as many places as I can,” Bates said. “To go, maybe, who knows where? 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.”
As for AEW Heels, Bates stated that she’ll miss it, and it has been very important to her. She noted that she will still be around somehow. Looking back on her exit from AEW, Bates noted that she went though a range of emotions, but now she’s excited to see what’s next.
“I really, really put a lot of love and work into Heels,” Bates said. “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.”
For now, fans will have to wait and see what the future holds for Bates, both in wrestling and beyond.
