Leyla Hirsh is no longer All Elite.
Last week, it was reported that the 28-year-old’s contract was coming up and officials didn’t expect Hirsch to re-sign. Now it's not clear if Hirsh opted against re-signing or if AEW decided to not renew her contract, but Mike Johnson at PWInsider confirmed that her final date would be on February 28th.
Hirsch was officially removed off AEW’s roster page Sunday, thus she’s now a former All Elite Wrestling star. Leyla is one of the company’s originals; though she didn’t start instantly per se, she impressed fans and critics during the start of her run in 2020. AEW officially signed “Legit” in 2021 and it seemed that the company was a fan of the young star as well.
She's had nice matches against Hikaru Shida, Serena Deeb, and Kris Statlander. However, a torn ACL kept her out of action for a year and Hirsch made her return to Ring of Honor, which is where she’s been active ever since. Hirsch’s final match was at Final Battle where she lost her ROH Women's World Television match to Red Velvet. They were actually building a rivalry between these two as Velvet and Hirsch had a segment following the Final Battle match and she granted Hirsch a rematch, but on her own time. That rematch never happened.
It’s a shame as Hirsch was one of the more talented names on the roster. Though she was stuck behind the ROH paywall, she’s had some fun matches against several names including Diamante, Athena, and Velvet.
She was treated pretty well in ROH as she won more often than not. It did seem as if the company was building up to Hirsch finally win her first title within the promotion. Hirsch would fit in nicely with TNA or even WWE. But she may not be the only one leaving so soon. Bryan Alvarez stated on Wrestling Observer that more contracts are set to expire and he’s confident that a few more names will be released within the next 30 days.
“I think that this will not be the last time you hear this story in the month of March." Alaverez said on Wrestling Observer Live. "I have heard that there might be some departures coming up in March. Whether it’s people being released, people’s deals coming up and not being renewed. I think the fact of the matter is, they got way too many people under contract. I think I can comfortably say she [Leyla Hirsch] will not be the last in the next 30 days.”
Hirsch is free to go wherever she pleases since she wasn’t released. That means it’s possible that she’ll pull a Ricky Starks and show up on NXT this Tuesday.