Tony Khan confirms Tay Melo's release request amid media inaccuracies

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President Tony Khan was on a call with the media today ahead of this Sunday’s (July 26) AEW Redemption pay-per-view in Montreal. During the call, Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer asked Khan for an update on the status of Sammy Guevara, Anna Jay, and Tay Melo. Khan confirmed that this week’s story about Guevara not including AEW in his new bio on X was a non-issue, because Sammy didn’t have it there to begin with. Guevara reached out to Khan to make it clear he wasn’t trying to stir anything up with the new bio, and he is in good standing with AEW. Moving on to Anna Jay, there was reporting earlier this year that indicated her AEW contract was set to expire, and speculation followed about how much Shawn Michaels would love to have her in NXT. Khan took aim at the pro wrestling media while revealing that Jay has extended her AEW contract and is simply out injured right now. “I saw a lot of things on both of them being reported that were very inaccurate. Anna is in very good standing with us. Anna’s out injured right now. I was hoping to book Anna in recent weeks on shows. And she has an injury, and last week she was going for an MRI. But Anna is somebody who also is in good standing with AEW, and also has a lot of time left, and has extended their contract with AEW. So in her case also, it’s somebody that I see a lot of reporting about that is inaccurate. I have a lot of work, and I don’t think that’s a secret. I am not spending all my time myth-busting, and a lot of times these myths get carried away. So Anna’s actually extended, and is gonna be staying in AEW, which is far to the contrary of what a lot of the wrestling media has reported, which probably speaks to the accuracy of a lot of these reports that you see in pro wrestling.” Tony continued hammering the media on the recent story about Tay Melo’s request to be released. One version of the story claimed this is an issue going back to last year, which implied Khan has been keeping her in AEW against her wishes. Tony says that is bullshit. Her request to be released just happened a few weeks ago, and he is going to grant it. “And then with Tay, also a lot of inaccurate things I saw about Tay. And to be honest, in this case, there was smoke to the fire, but people were reporting the fire in the wrong place. So what does that really accomplish? With Tay, Tay has said she wanted to step away from wrestling. She said I love AEW, and I love the people here, but I wanted to step away from AEW, and step away from wrestling. And that’s what she told me. That wasn’t in 2025. That was weeks ago at Collision after she wrestled against the Divine Dominion. And she came to me after the match, and said I would like a release. And I was taken aback, and we had a very nice talk. It’s far to the contrary of what I’ve seen reported about this being last year, or that it’s been an ongoing thing. And I heard from Tay this week, and she said she’s not putting those reports out, and it really bothered her. And we haven’t had an unpleasant conversation ever. I’ve always had a very good relationship with Tay. And she has asked about stepping away recently. It hasn’t been a long thing. And also I haven’t kept her here. Since that talk I haven’t brought her back [or] booked her, and I am gonna give Tay that release. It’s amazing. In all three of these cases, Dave, I’ve seen a lot of things that were inaccurate, and all three of them are pretty different from each other…it’s amazing how often the things that are being reported are either exaggerated, or completely inaccurate, or made up. But that is the truth on all three of those.” What’s your reaction to Tony Khan’s update on the status of Guevara, Jay, and Melo? How do you think the story of Melo’s release request got out there, if it’s true that she had nothing to do with it? Does Tony need to follow better sources of pro wrestling news given how much inaccurate reporting he sees, or is he justified in lumping the media together in one bucket while shitting in it? Let me know in the comments below, Cagesiders.