Being released from WWE can be devastating for some wrestlers. Not only are they leaving what many consider to be the pinnacle of professional wrestling, but they are also out of a job.
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However, this isn’t the case for everyone, and it especially isn’t the case for Bea Priestly, formerly known as Blair Davenport.
.@BeaPriestley96’s WWE contract expired today…so we had a catch-up! https://t.co/FBjb4GwsnQ
— Tom Campbell (@TomCampbell) May 9, 2025
Priestly announced she was released back in February, and in a recent interview with Tom Campbell of Cultaholic, she revealed that it surprisingly filled her with joy.
“As soon as I got the call, I was like, ‘Oh, I can go back to being Bea again’” Priestly said, laughing. “It’s one of those things, you don’t realize how unhappy you are until you feel happy that you got the call saying that you don’t have a job anymore. That was kind of the thing, I was like, ‘Oh, okay, maybe it was good for me to be fair.’”
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Priestly went on to say how everyone backstage immediately reached out to her after the news went out.
“The actual outreach that I got from loads of people within WWE — It is what it is, I don’t take anything personally, it’s business, but I do think a lot of people felt bad for me because I just got called up, I didn’t even have a year on SmackDown or Raw or whatever.
“The amount of outreach I got from actual talent within the company basically saying how sorry they were and they wish me the best and they’re sure I’ll be back or be fine, it was nice to be like, ‘Oh wow, a lot of people do actually care about me.’”
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Finally, Priestly revealed what could be next for her, saying that while she’s open to heading to AEW, she currently wants to focus on her own thing.
“Definitely now with Toni [Storm], everyone knows how close me and Toni are. We’re like sisters at this point,” Priestly explained. “She lives in Orlando as well, we see each other fairly often. But I’m also along the lines of I’m definitely open to having conversations but I do also want a little bit of time just to do my own thing because I’ve just come out of a contract where it’s like you have an app.
“If you’ve got a dot on this day, you have to be there, you have to show up. If you’re sore from the gym or you’ve had a hard match and they book you the next day, you can’t say you don’t feel like it. You have to go do it even when you don’t feel 100 per cent, or you don’t particularly feel wanting to do it. You just have to.”
Bea Priestley, formerly Blair Davenport, reveals she is “open to having conversations” with AEW following her WWE release. “Everyone knows how close me and Toni [Storm] are. We’re like sisters at this point. She lives in Orlando as well, we see each other fairly often. But I’m… pic.twitter.com/0xBmyorQwP
— Cultaholic Wrestling (@Cultaholic) May 9, 2025
“So I kind of just want to be able to take things that I want to do and do it because I’m looking forward to it or enjoying it rather than doing it because someone else is telling me to.”
“Even WWE, I was very happy like, ‘Tell me what to do. I’m more than happy to do whatever.’ I’m not one of those people who is like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to lose.’”
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