Former WWE star Kay Lee Ray, known to WWE fans as Alba Fyre, has opened up about her exit from the company and clarified that she wasn’t actually released in the way many people believed.
After WWE’s post-WrestleMania roster cuts earlier this year, many assumed Fyre had been among those let go. But according to her, that wasn’t the case. WWE simply chose not to renew her contract when it expired.
The timing shaped the narrative around Kay Lee Ray’s WWE exit
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Ray explained that she had already been thinking about her future before the conversation even happened.
“I think in the last one I did, maybe the words were a little bit misconstrued. I had been thinking for a while if I wanted to re-sign or not. But as I said before, I’ve been with WWE for a long time. So I at least wanted to give them the courtesy of having that conversation,” Ray said.
She knew her contract was coming to an end.
“I knew my contract was up in three weeks by the time I spoke to them, maybe four weeks. It was at Mania, so I was like, ‘Look, I know we’re really, really busy right now. I’m not asking to have that conversation now, but can we have that possibly soon?’” she said.
She didn’t have to wait long for an answer.
“Then unfortunately, I got the phone call the next week saying that they didn’t want to be offering me anything. On that, I was like, ‘Cool, this was the decision I was already heading towards anyway. If that’s the way we want to go, that’s fine,'” Ray said.
Because it happened around the same time as WWE’s annual roster cuts, many people assumed Kay Lee Ray had been released.
“It wasn’t a surprise to me. Again, it’s kind of like a pattern recognition. You know, that time of year, after Mania, there’s going to be releases, there’s going to be firings. My contract was just up and it fell at that unlucky time,” she explained.
Without the restrictions that usually come with a WWE release, Alba Fyre was free to return to the independent scene right away. She immediately resumed competing under her Kay Lee Ray name and even made a surprise appearance for Pro Wrestling EVE.
Read More: Former WWE Star Had the Option To Stay With the Company Before Recent Exit
