Taya Valkyrie, former Impact Wrestling Knockouts champion, announced on social media that she turned down a contract extension offer from All Elite Wrestling, opting to test the waters of free agency. In truth, she only wrestled one match for the ROH brand at the beginning of 2026, and it has been almost a year since she worked a match anywhere so she’s probably one of the performers that many forgot was still under contract to All Elite before she announced her departure.
While I think it’s completely possible that Tony Khan offered her a contract extension, the odds are about the same that he also allowed her deal to simply expire since there were clearly no plans for her, nor had she been given the opportunity to do anything of major importance during the three years she was signed to the company. I found it somewhat odd that in the social media post to comment on her exit, she mentioned that her “team” put a statement out and that “her team” will be working with her for future opportunities. I have to be honest, it sounds somewhat silly that Taya has or would need a staff to work on her career, considering that it’s not as though she’s spinning that many plates at the same time. Yes, I understand that she did some acting work and made an appearance on a reality show in Canada when she wasn’t being used in AEW, but it’s not as though she’s some type of pop star that is so in demand that she can’t handle her own schedule.
But, it certainly paints a better narrative of “focusing on other career opportunities” as opposed to “Tony forget I was on the payroll,” especially if she actually plans to get back in the ring on a regular basis at some point in the future. She actually released an EP to launch a music career a few weeks ago, but I hadn’t heard about it until the news of her decision to leave AEW made the rounds online so who knows if it gained any traction or found an audience. I usually listen to Neil Young, Tupac, Marvin Gaye, or Warren Zevon so maybe I’m not her target demographic for listeners. If she releases some Johnny Cash covers, there’s always a chance, though.
It will be interesting to see if this “press release” of her decision not to renew her All Elite deal was geared toward letting the wrestling world that she’s on the market, or if it’s a way to distance herself in some ways from the industry to try to parlay her fan base into a different career path. If she can make a living singing or on Canadian television, it’s definitely an easier occupation compared to the toll that pro wrestling takes on the body.
In some ways, Taya just wasn’t at the right place at the right time to truly have a major run in the business. It’s disappointing when you consider how many notable organizations she’s worked for throughout her 15-year career, but timing seemed to be the biggest issue. She has the talent, she wouldn’t have gotten the chances to work at those places if she didn’t, but there was never a time that there was a path for her to take the ball and run with it so we don’t know if she would’ve fumbled or scored a touchdown. I’m aware that since she’s Canadian, a hockey reference would’ve been more appropriate, but the football analogies seemed much more apropos for parallels to sports entertainment. Although, a Bobby Orr comparison to Taya Valkyrie would be tremendous.
After her debut in the sport, she worked for AAA in Mexico in the early-2010s, but the entire lucha libre scene was completely under the radar at the time, which is more or less the direct opposite of where it is now after the WWE purchase of the promotion a few years ago. With Lucha Underground as an American spinoff of AAA, she wrestled on the television series, but we discussed the limitations, and ultimately, the reasons that the project couldn’t survive long term. Yes, it was a cult favorite, but the networks was too small to generate the ad revenue to keep it a float, and without a live touring schedule, it wasn’t a concept that could generate nearly enough revenue to retain talent.
She landed in Impact Wrestling in 2017, and had the KO title run that was mentioned earlier during the course of the three and a half years that she wrestled there. Unfortunately, the most substantive screen time of her career was at such a low point in the history of TNA that you had to send a search party to find the show. Keep in mind, this was after the show was canceled from Spike TV and bounced around a series of networks before it was rescued by Anthem. During Taya’s tenure, Impact aired on Pop TV, The Pursuit Channel, and AXS. There were times when ice fishing was literally the lead-in programming for the wrestling show.
By February 2021, she was inked to a WWE deal, working as Franky Monet on NXT television. It was very disappointing that when she was finally offered a contract, it was in the midst of the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, leading to her release less than a year later as the company made budget cuts to compensate for the lack of live gate revenue at the time. It was purely a corporate maneuver to pay lip service to the shareholders as a way to keep the stock price stable. The release had nothing to do with ability as a performer, and all things considered, she wasn’t truly given an opportunity to make a name for herself.
She returned to Impact for a year until she signed with All Elite Wrestling in 2023. As I said, she didn’t get the chance to do much of anything during the three years that she was on the payroll so she doesn’t have much momentum as a commodity in the industry. Obviously, it wasn’t her fault if she wasn’t scheduled to compete, but the reality is, “out of sight, out of mind” can sometimes be the narrative in the wrestling business. Again, how many fans realized that she still worked for the company?
As far as where she might go from here, it all depends on if she wants to continue wrestling at all. At 43, she’s not past her prime as an athlete, but she’s undoubtedly in the latter stages of her in-ring career. With only one match this year at an ROH taping, it appears that she doesn’t have much interest in working the independent scene. Another return to TNA is possible if she wants another steady paycheck from the sports entertainment industry, but that would be more or less running in place with no new ground to cover. She has a track record in AAA, but I’m not sure if what she did in Mexico more than a decade ago has any cache for the WWE project today. In theory, she could always end up back in NXT, but there are a lot of moving parts involved with that, specifically if there are call-ups to the main roster or not. If the brand needed to replenish some depth on the roster, a comeback for Franky Monet, a veteran with a lot of television experience would make sense.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
E mail [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
