AEW: More on Taya Valkyrie’s Debut, AEW Contracts Reportedly Lack Non-Compete Terms, More News

Mar 16, 2023

More on Taya Valkyrie’s AEW Debut at Wed.’s AEW Dynamite Show

Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show in Winnipeg, Canada featured Taya Valkryie making her official debut in AEW. Following the TBS Championship match between Nicole Matthews and champion Jade Cargill, Cargill asked Renee Paquette if that was the best that Canada could offer for competition. This resulted in Valkyrie making her surprise debut and quickly got involved in a brawl with Cargill and Leila Grey.

Fightful Select reported that they had held an interview with Valkyrie in early February which involved Valkyrie informing them that she was in the process of signing a potential long-term contract with AEW. Valkyrie also stated that she had informed other promotions of her intent to sign with AEW following her departure from Impact Wrestling.

It was reported that several promotions were made aware of her signing with AEW as far back as late February. It was also reported that Valkyire currently intends to honor her remaining commitments with Major League Wrestling that go into this April.

AEW Contracts Reportedly Do Not Contain Non-Compete Clauses with One Potential Exception

AEW talent contracts reportedly do not contain non-compete terms with one possible exception, according to Fightful Select.

It was reported that their sources stated that none of AEW’s talents currently under contract have non-compete clauses attached as part of the terms of their deals. The reason reportedly is due to the nature of how AEW handles their talent contracts, which they generally do not release talent early from their deals outside of special requests and disciplinary reasons. This is different compared to standard WWE contracts which contain non-compete terms and also allows WWE the ability to release talent at any time and for any reason.

It was also reported that while this is not a standard feature in AEW contracts, CM Punk’s contract might be an exception. Many talents backstage reportedly are currently under the belief that CM Punk does have a non-compete clause attached to his contract that would prevent Punk from potentially returning to WWE for a set period of time if he were to be released early from his contract.

AEW News & Notes

As noted before, Ricky Starks was seen in attendance backstage during this past January’s WWE Royal Rumble 2023 event in San Antonio, Texas. Starks was invited by Cody Rhodes to attend his match due to both being close friends since their time together in AEW. During a recent interview with the Swerve City Podcast, Starks revealed that he has been considering the idea of filing a lawsuit against Alamodome officials for leaking his appearance at WWE’s event to the public and the issues it caused for him afterwards. Starks stated “I’m in the process of maybe suing Alamodome and getting some money out of it (image that surfaced of Starks behind Cody Rhodes at Royal Rumble 2023) because how crazy is that? How are you a security guard and you go, you know what I got? Rewind the tape, let me show you right quick. Let me show you right quick.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

Riho recently posted on Instagram thanking everyone who has shown support towards her following her deleting her Twitter account over hateful messages she was recently receiving.

In a recent episode of the Grillin JR podcast, co-host Jim Ross stated that he will be absent from AEW’s commentary team for this Friday’s AEW Rampage show due to him currently dealing with an ankle injury and did not travel for this week’s set of AEW shows in Winnipeg, Canada. Ross also stated that the long flights for AEW shows in recent weeks has taken a bad toll on his body and he made the decision to take the week off for rest and recovery.

Chuck Taylor recently announced on Twitter that the reason why he was absent from Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show in Winnipeg was due to him recently undergoing emergency dental surgery.

As noted before, WWE Hall of Famers The Bella Twins, now known as The Garcia Twins, left WWE this past Tuesday. Nikki Garcia recently stated on Instagram that Brie Garcia and herself currently do not have any plans of joining AEW in the future. Garcia also stated that the reason for their backstage appearance at AEW’s Revolution 2023 event earlier this month was so that her son Matteo could watch his uncle Bryan Danielson wrestle at the show.