WWE: Kelly Kincaid Says She “Wasn’t Given The Option” To Renew Her WWE Contract, AJ Lee Match Reportedly Still Planned for WrestleMamia 42, Sami Zayn Reportedly Pushed To Win WWE Titles at Royal Rumble 2026

Feb 7, 2026

Kelly Kincaid Says She “Wasn’t Given The Option” To Renew Her WWE Contract

As noted before, NXT backstage interviewer Kelly Kincaid, real name Kelly Verbil, announced on Friday that she will be leaving WWE once her current contract expires on February 14th.

In a recent response to a fan question on Twitter, Kincaid stated that she was not given the option to renew her contract with WWE.

This fan stated “I wish you all the best Kelly did you not want to renew?” and Kincaid responded back stating “I wasn’t given the option.“

I wasn’t given the option.
— Kelly Kincaid (@KellyKincaidWWE) February 7, 2026

AJ Lee Match Reportedly Planned for WrestleMamia 42 Despite Lee’s Royale Rumble 2026 Absence

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that despite AJ Lee’s abscense from last week’s Royal Rumble 2026 event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, WWE officials still have plans in place for Lee to face off against Becky Lynch for the WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 42.

Meltzer reported that the Lynch vs. Lee match for the Women’s Intercontinental title was still scheduled to take place at WrestleMania 42 as of the release of his report.

In regards to Lee’s abscense from the Royal Rumble 2026 event, Meltzer reported that the reason was due to WWE officials had felt that it would have served no purpose for her to be in it.

Meltzer also reported that WWE’s recent shift in focus towards within their Women’s division has resulted in the Women’s Tag Team title division being clearly ahead of both of the Women’s singles titles in terms of priority. Meltzer reported that WWE putting more top tier talent and effort in Women’s tag team title feuds and mutli-women feuds has resulted in a thinning out of available quality challengers for the Women’s singles titles.

Sami Zayn Reportedly Pushed To Win WWE Titles at Royal Rumble 2026

Last Saturday’s WWE Royal Rumble 2026 event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia featured Drew McIntyre defeating Sami Zayn to retain the Undisputed WWE Championship.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE officials were still undecided on who should win the match right up until the day of the show. Zayn reportedly had pushed for him to win the Undisputed WWE title due to the significance of where the event was taking place.

One source spoken to reportedly stated that the match was originally scheduled to go on second, after the Women’s Royal Rumble since it would have been a more advantageous spot for it. Meltzer reported that the match was eventually moved to the third spot on the card and it was known within WWE that the match would not get the same reaction due to it would now have to follow AJ Styles’ retirement. Meltzer also reported that the idea was the Gunther vs. Styles match would get over no matter where it was put on the show due to the Styles retirement stip.