Former WWE star Blair Davenport, now once again using her independent ring name Bea Priestley, has opened up about her WWE departure and her future in wrestling after recently becoming a free agent.

Priestley was among the names released by WWE ahead of the 7th February edition of SmackDown, a wave of cuts that affected multiple well-known talents. With her 90-day non-compete clause having expired on 8th May, she is now free to explore new opportunities , and she is in no rush to jump into the next chapter just yet.

Speaking to Tom Campbell of Cultaholic, Priestley explained that while she is open to future talks with AEW, she is prioritising some personal time and freedom following a demanding stretch under WWE’s schedule.

“So, I mean, definitely now with Toni , everyone knows how close me and Toni are, we’re like sisters at this point, we see each other fairly often. But I’m also on the lines of like, I’m definitely open to conversations but I do also want a little bit of time just to do my own thing because I’ve just come out of a contract where it’s like, you have an app and if you’ve got a dot on this day, you have to be there, you have to show up.

If you’re sore from the gym and you’ve had a hard match and they book you the next day, you can’t say I don’t feel like it, you have to go do it even when you don’t feel 100% or you don’t feel particularly wanting to do it, you just have to. I kind of just want to be able to take things I want to do and do it because I’m looking forward to it or I’m enjoying it rather than doing it because someone else is telling me to.”

Although a return to AEW , where she previously appeared under her real name before joining WWE , is a possibility, Priestley emphasized the importance of regaining a sense of autonomy before diving back into a full-time schedule. That includes potentially building toward a long-anticipated match with AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm.

“Yes. I’m all for , even in WWE, I [was] very happy to [be there], like tell me what to do, I’m more than happy to do whatever, I’m not one of these people who is like, ‘Oh I don’t want to lose’ or ‘I’m not happy with that.’ No, if I lose to someone like Charlotte Flair in a minute, I’ll be like, oh, that’s fucking great, I just had a match with Charlotte Flair. I don’t care if it’s only a minute long, sometimes I think that’s better to be fair.

But no, I’m just genuinely excited to be like, say there’s an opponent that I really want to wrestle, I can push that and get excited to wrestle someone who I’ve always wanted to and never had the chance to or have another match with someone who I really enjoyed wrestling in the past. So, yeah, I’m kind of looking forward to taking on my own stuff for a little bit and then maybe after I’ve done that, I’ll try to push a little bit harder. But I know Toni really wants to wrestle me, so we’re hoping it’s gonna happen someday.”