Bayley still has not signed a new WWE contract, and the word inside the company is that the choice is hers to make.
Dave Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio that the only thing he has been told about her situation is that she has to make a decision.
“The only thing I’ve heard from them when it comes to Bayley is that Bayley has a decision to make. So that’s the story, Bayley has a decision to make. She has not signed a contract. When she signs a contract, I’m sure she’ll be back on TV. If she doesn’t sign – I think they’re doing the same thing that Tony [Khan] does or has done, but I think the situation with her is if she signs a contract, she’ll probably come back and attack Lyra, and that’ll be her storyline. And if she doesn’t sign, she doesn’t come back and the Madison Square Garden thing was her write-off.”
Fightful Select has reported that her deal is expected to lapse by the end of the year unless injury time is added, and that she has not put pen to paper on a new one. AEW is reportedly prepared to move if she reaches free agency.
The on-screen version of this is already built. Lyra Valkyria choked Bayley out at Saturday Night’s Main Event on July 18 at Madison Square Garden, then kept going after the bell and put her through the steel steps. Two days later on RAW, Valkyria said she had run Bayley out of the company. Bayley has not been on television since, and she was quietly pulled from a SummerSlam weekend meet-and-greet she had been advertised for.
Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez read it as a feud blowoff with a trapdoor in it. If Bayley re-signs, she returns and goes after Valkyria and the story continues. If she does not, the Madison Square Garden beating already wrote her out. They compared it to Ricochet, who was written off in June 2024 by a Bron Breakker attack while his own deal sat unsigned, and who ended up in AEW.
Bayley has not helped anyone calm down. On Sunday she posted training footage from Natalya’s Dungeon 2.0 alongside AJ Lee and Mercedes Moné, captioned “all or nothing, baby” and set to a song called “All In.” Fans read it as a wink at two AEW pay-per-views. It could just as easily be her enjoying the noise.
AEW runs All In at Wembley Stadium on August 30.
