Tay Conti says WWE denied her release to prevent her from joining AEW. The former WWE PC signee has grown to become a star with AEW.
Taynara Conti signed with the WWE back in 2016. She reported to their performance center. Conti went on to participate in two May Young Classic tournaments. She was also the first first female Brazilian to compete at WrestleMania when she participated in the Women’s Battle Royal at WrestleMania 34.
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However, success eluded her and she failed to reach her potential in NXT. She grew weary and unhappy during her time with WWE and asked for them to release her. However, her request was denied. She discussed her final year with them during her conversation with Aubrey Edwards on the AEW Unrestricted podcast.
Tay Conti says WWE denied her release to prevent her from joining AEW
“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.
“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.”
WWE finally released Conti as part of the cost-cutting releases during the pandemic
“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.”
“I’m so grateful for them because honestly, they changed my life. I came to the U.S. They bet on me, and they helped me a lot. They really changed my life, and I’m grateful for it, but the last year. I was not happy. I gotta go. So that was super hard. That was one of the worst days of my life to be honest. I was lost, sad, upset and everything.”
I’m just so grateful
“It was like, damn, what am I gonna do now? It turns out that was the best thing that ever happened to me because after this, I had no job, and I bought a house. How did I do that? I don’t know. After a couple weeks, I was like, damn, I’m happy. That’s what I want. I was figuring out my life. ‘What I can do with the money that I saved?’ I came from a really poor neighborhood. My family was really poor. So having a house and a car was something that was not a thing for me to be honest.
“I had those dreams, but they were so far from me that when I did them, I was like, damn, I have no job, I’m happy, I just bought a house and I bought the car that I always wanted, what a good life! And then after this, I got my contract at AEW. I was like, oh my god, I have nothing to complain about. I live a good life. I’m just so grateful.”
H/T Wrestling Inc.
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