AEW President and CEO Tony Khan participated in the AEW Redemption media call to discuss various topics, including reports that Tay Melo requested her release.
Khan said, “With Tay (Melo), also a lot of inaccurate things I saw about Tay. And to be honest, in this case, there was smoke to the fire but people were reporting the fire in the wrong place, so what does that really accomplish?”
On when and why Melo asked for her release:
“Tay had said she wanted to step away from wrestling. She has said, ‘I love AEW and I love the people here but I wanted to step away from AEW and step away from wrestling,’ and that’s what she told me. That wasn’t in 2025. That was weeks ago at Collision after she wrestled against the Divine Dominion, and she came to me after the match, and said, ‘I would like a release,’ and I was taken aback, and we had a very nice talk. It’s far to the contrary of what I’ve seen reported about this being last year or that it’s been an ongoing thing. And I heard from Tay this week and she said she’s not putting those reports out and it really bothered her, and we haven’t had an unpleasant conversation ever. I’ve always had a very good relationship with Tay, and she has asked about stepping away recently. It hasn’t been a long thing and also, I haven’t kept her here. Since that talk, I haven’t brought her back, booked her, and I am gonna give Tay that release.”
You can check out Khan’s comments in the video below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
