Tony Khan Confirms AEW Release (AEW News)
AEW boss Tony Khan has decided to grant this wrestler's release request amidst rumours.
Tony Khan has confirmed that he'll grant Tay Melo's request for release from her AEW contract imminently. The All Elite overseer told reporters this news during a media call designed to promote the weekend's Redemption 2026 pay-per-view.
Fightful is reporting that Melo requested her release following the 6 June edition of Collision. There, she teamed with Anna Jay in a losing effort vs. Lena Kross and Megan Bayne. Privately, Tay told Khan that she'd like to step away from pro wrestling for the time being. Tony plans to honour that and let Melo out of her current deal.
Bryan Alvarez of The Wrestling Observer previously claimed that AEW denied Tay's prior release request in 2025, but Khan says reports about that were "inaccurate". However, Tony was "taken aback" by Melo's pitch, and says the wrestler herself has repeated she didn't put anything out into the media. In fact, those write-ups "really bothered her" when they surfaced.
This all comes amidst concurrent rumours that Tay's husband Sammy Guevara could be leaving AEW soon. Guevara deleted all references to the promotion on his social media accounts earlier this week, so there's a decent chance he's on the outs too. It's important to note that this hasn't been confirmed though.
Khan himself has confirmed that Melo will be departing. The ex-WWE star joined AEW in 2020 as Tay Conti, but changed her ringname to Melo in 2022. She hasn't bagged any titles with the company to date, but her tag-team with Jay has been popular amongst fans.