Tony Khan Says He’ll Be Granting Tay Melo’s Release From AEW

Tay Melo’s release request will be granted.

Ahead of the AEW Redemption pay-per-view, Tony Khan hosted his pre-pay-per-view media call, and one of the questions asked of him had to do with the status of Tay Melo.

It was reported by Bryan Alvarez of F4WOnline that Melo requested her release from AEW in 2025, but it was denied.

Khan said that Melo did request her release, but that happened after the June 6th, 2026 AEW Collision during which she and Anna Jay challenged for the AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championship. She told Khan that she wanted to step away from wrestling, and Khan said he would be granting her release.

“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? And with Tay, 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.”

Melo first began appearing for AEW in 2020 after her release from WWE.

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