Leva Bates reportedly found out she was done at AEW from other talent

A couple weeks ago, Leva Bates tweeted out a very professional statement announcing that her AEW contract hadn’t been renewed and that she was done with the company she’d been with since its inception in 2019.

The news of Bates’ exit left “a number of people sad”, per Wrestling Observer Newsletter, “as she was very well-liked.” It was also something several of those people may have learned about before she did, according to a Fightful Select report:

It was further added that Leva Bates only found out the news due to an internal AEW email stating that the company was not renewing Bates’ deal, something that led to other AEW employees reaching out to her, which is when Bates came to know about her AEW status.

That lines up with the wrestler who was known as “Blue Pants” during her WWE NXT run said on a Twitch stream (h/t Post Wrestling) over the weekend:

“When I got out of the dentist, I was going to do a work call, was gonna get done with the work call, call around for vets [for her pet] and then take him. I got out of the dentist and realized I didn’t have a job (she laughed). So, that changed some plans. I had to figure out a lot of things very quickly. Had to have a lot of conversations.”

Bates, who in addition to working as talent also helped out in public relations, hair & make-up, and with their female-focused “Heels” fan organization, continued to be very gracious about her time with AEW in other comments on the stream. But it had to sting finding out they weren’t bringing her back through the grapevine after a mass email.

It’s also the kind of thing it’s a bit surprising to hear is still happening after Tony Khan expanded and re-defined the talent relations team in response to similar incidents last year.