AEW: Kyle O’Reilly Injury Update, Leva Bates’ Contract Update, Awesome Kong on AEW Career

Kyle O’Reilly Injury Status Update

Kyle O’Reilly has been out of action for AEW since this past June due to him currently dealing with several injuries.

A recent episode of the This Is VANCOLOUR podcast had O’Reilly as the guest. One of the topics discussed included O’Reilly providing an update on the status of his injuries.

“This October, I’ll be wrestling for 17 years now. It’s a lot of bumps, a lot of wear and tear on your body. Fortunately, nothing serious has really happened to me. I’ve been hurt a lot, I’ve been injured, but I’ve always grinded through, made the date, showed up and performed as well as I can in the ring despite whatever I was nursing. Sometimes, the medical staff needs to save us from ourselves. As wrestlers, we’ll go until the wheels fall off. ‘My shoulder is hurt? Okay, I won’t do any moves where I land on my shoulder.’ We’re crazy like that. This is something I’ve been dealing with, it’s a nagging thing that I’ve been dealing with, specifically, pretty bad for the last five years. In the last few weeks of wrestling on AEW, I’ve been really banged up and didn’t know the extent of it until now. I still don’t know all the information, so I don’t want to disclose exactly what is happening with me. I need more information and I should know probably this week what the recovery time is going to be and what the recovery will entail. All I can do is, if there is time off, use it to remotivate myself, get in better shape, and come back stronger than ever before.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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Leva Bates AEW Contract Status Update

A recent episode of Thunder Rosa’s Taco vlog had Leva Bates as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Bates revealing that she is currently under a double contract with AEW, one for talent and one for backstage office job.

“So, I don’t know if a lot of people know this or not, I feel like I’ve been a little bit more open about it. I’m a double contract, which means I’m talent but I’m also office so, I run the makeup department, the wardrobe department, I do P.R., I co-run ‘Heels’. I am like the connector between a lot of different departments, like especially if Speedy [AEW photographer] needs some help with like, ‘Hey, I need the girls for a photoshoot’ or, ‘Can you help me out?’… So I guess help — basically, I do a lot of stuff that Brandi [Rhodes] and I did together. I’m still doing it so, I do a lot of things. I’m also the ‘mood maker’, I like to call myself. I do birthday cakes.”

Bates also stated that she is currently interested in pursing an acting career alongside her wrestling career.

“Focusing really hard on going back to my acting roots. So, getting agents, I got an agent, I got a con agent, I got an acting agent, I’m trying to get more agents in areas, different areas. But, I started doing small modeling gigs, doing music videos, you know, trying to get my foot in the door. I have my acting reel, I have my voiceover reel. I definitely want — I mean I love wrestling and I had so much fun today [Mission Pro Wrestling event] and I would love to continue wrestling whether it’s AEW, somewhere else, I want to continue to perform. I’m a big performer but, I also wanna look at all my other options and all my other avenues because that’s just something that’s in my heart and in my soul. I wanna perform, so I’m trying to do it all so, I would love to see myself on — my goal is to be on a Netflix TV show. I think that would be the coolest thing ever. That or hear my voice on Crunchyroll. It’s the anime streaming service. I think it’d be really cool to be a voice of some sort of an iconic character, be in a video game.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

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Awesome Kong Comments on Her AEW Career & Issues with Her Time in the Company

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast had former AEW talent Awesome Kong as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Kong’s thoughts about the issues that impacted her time in AEW as part of the Nightmare Collective.

“I don’t want to sound like I’m bashing the crew over there at AEW, especially since we were just up and running. We are all new executives and trying to think outside the box and really give it to y’all. Something new, something that hasn’t been seen. We’ve seen it all. We were trying to give you something that you haven’t seen. I felt unheard. I wasn’t in control. All I could do was say, ‘I have this idea of XYZ.’ I couldn’t get in the room where final decisions were made. Believe me, Kia [referring to her real name Kia Stevens] stalked that room. I would stay there after big meetings and pick up the water bottles and cups like, ‘Huh, Y’all need…you need me to go? Okay’ [Laughs]. I tried to get into that last meeting where decisions were made. Never had a chance to. That’s just not going to happen, so I’m not going to push it.’ When you see this [makes a box with her hands] is who they are comfortable with making decisions, that’s not a read or a critique, that’s just who was comfortable making decisions. What do you do? It’s out of my control. If I had control, give me 15 minutes of Kia. Kia’s 15 Minutes of Fame. ‘Go out there and steal the show from them boys. You, you, you. Nyla (Rose), go steal the show from the boys.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com