Paige VanZant’s AEW career could be over as her trainer has confirmed she has stopped training for a return to wrestling.
The MMA and bare-knuckle fighter was a big part of the American Top Team Stable in AEW in 2022, teaming with wrestlers Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page in her debut match at AEW Double or Nothing. She was part of a six-man tag team match at the event, teaming with Sky and Page in her debut against Tay Conti, Sammy Guevara and Franke Kazarian, helping her team to victory in her first ever bout.
She impressed in her opening fight in the company and fans were excited to see what she would do next. The women’s division was looking weak, with injuries to stars like Kris Statlander thoroughly weakening the division. Sadly, she has not been seen since and many have hoped that she is not calling time on her career before it really began.
Prior to the match, VanZant had been learning to wrestle at the training school of a former WWE Legend. She was trained by David Heath, also known as Gangrel in WWE during the Attitude Era, helped to teach her the art of wrestling in his own wrestling academy in the build up to the match.
However, some shocking news has recently come out about Paige VanZant’s training for her AEW return. Despite being incredible hyped up as a new signing for the AEW Women, the MMA fighter has yet to complete any more training with Gangrel since her match at Double or Nothing 2022. This has shone a bad light on her and her commitment to the sport and could put an end to Paige VanZant’s AEW career.
During a recent interview at K&S Wrestlefest, Gangrel revealed that VanZant has not returned to train with him since wrestling her first match. He confirmed that she requested that the two of them watch back her match at Double or Nothing, in order to critique it and give her advice moving forward.
Unfortunately, he revealed that she had not spoken to him since and never once appeared at his gym to try and improve anymore. This could be indicative of an injury or simply an admittance of the end of her wrestling career.
Speaking at K&S Wrestlefest, Gangrel said:
“Yes, I did (train VanZant) for a little while there. She did well; she didn’t train as much as I would have liked for her to train, but I haven’t seen her since that match,” Gangrel said. “She did that match, she wrote me and said, ‘Hey, I’d like to go over the match with you and some critique.’ And I said, ‘Sure,’ and that’s the last I heard from her,” he continued. “She’s an athlete. She could have been really, really good at it actually.”
However, Tony Khan recently spoke to the Grapsody podcast and revealed that he hopes to continue featuring her into the future. He spoke about not signing her just for one match and that it may be money that is the sticking point on the negotiation table between her and AEW.
“Paige VanZant [is] very talented and commands a big dollar figure, but I’m also very interested in that. Paige VanZant, I would like at some point to come back. I really like Paige VanZant — she’s awesome. And I love Dan Lambert,”
You can watch the full interview with Tony Khan below;