It was recently reported that WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix‘s contract with WWE had officially expired as she opted not to re-sign. Phoenix retired from full-time in-ring competition back in 2012, however she has had various short-term runs over the years. On the road to her husband and fellow WWE Hall of Famer Edge’s (now in AEW using his real name, Adam Copeland) last match in WWE, she returned to the ring to team with him. Outside of physically wrestling, she did test her strengths on the NXT commentary team for awhile as well. She joined the commentary team back in May of 2019 and proceed to call 135 episodes total, announcing her departure back in 2021.
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Beth Phoenix on Her Departure From WWE
“I am not [under contract to WWE] I am currently a free agent. I have a great relationship with WWE. I treasured my time there. I feel like there’s more, there’s other opportunities that have presented themselves,” Phoenix said on Insight with Chris Van Vliet. “I feel the motivation right now to kind of explore and explore what else is out there and explore myself but my relationship with WWE hasn’t changed. I have so many friends there and I appreciate and I enjoy the product as I always have and I love NXT, I have a special place in my heart for NXT of course and just the system and seeing young people come up and go through that excitement of developing themselves for the big time. I love WWE, I always will.”
As for if she plans on getting back in the ring, that’s a decision she wants to weight out with the rest of her family as she always has. However, seeing Adam get back into the ring full-time has given her an itch. “That never leaves. I’ll be transparent about that. I think that’s, at this age, been really tough for me to step back and step away because I truly get lit up when I see it and as much as I love all the things in my life. My family excluded, nothing lights me up career-wise like wrestling. I’ve tried a variety of different things. What’s the next chapter? What does this look like?
And I find wonderful things but nothing’s like performing in front of thousands of people and being able to pull those emotional strings and connecting with people in today’s world where I feel like connection has a buffer right now of technology. Wrestling is a very, like, just primal connection with the audience and community and it still brings that. If you go to a local indie show, and you get your box of popcorn and you’re sitting with others, I guarantee at some point, you’re going to hoot and holler and yell and scream and you’re gonna lose yourself in the story, just because it’s built in our emotional makeup” (h/t: POST Wrestling).
If she were to make the move to continue wrestling, the likely landing spot could be in AEW where her husband is currently signed to a contract. AEW could certainly benefit from a veteran like Phoenix in the women’s locker room, and several female talent agree with that sentiment.
Stay tuned to ComicBook for updates on Beth Phoenix and WWE.
