AEW announced that Anna Jay is returning to the ring on this weekend’s (May 2) episode of Collision to challenge TBS Champion Willow Nightingale. This is Anna’s first match since we last saw her in an AEW ring in November 2025. It’s also part of Willow’s current gimmick as the “Comeback Killer,” after she defeated Kamille, Hikaru Shida, and Queen Aminata in their recent AEW return matches.
Earlier this year, there were rumors about Jay’s AEW contract expiring in the coming months. On last night’s
Fightful post-Dynamite reaction show on YouTube, Sean Ross Sapp threw this interesting tidbit out there about Anna being unhappy with her booking in AEW last year, to the point where she mentioned calling up Shawn Michaels, presumably to look for work in WWE NXT.
“I don’t know if she has re-signed or not. Months ago, I was told she wanted to be in Blood & Guts, wasn’t in Blood & Guts, and she extended some frustration to AEW. She’s like, ‘I wanted to be featured.’ And I heard that she was also very clear that she had Shawn Michaels’ number and would use it as needed.”
Sapp speculated that Jay is a perfect fit for NXT, and he said The CW would love to have her aboard.
“CW loves that. CW specifically loves when people like EVIL, Ricky Saints, Ethan Page, Jordynne Grace, Joe Hendry, all those people come over from other television properties, and other companies. Because the people that I talk to at CW are of the belief that all the WWE fans that want to watch NXT already do. So they are very keen on dragging over New Japan, and TNA, and AEW fans, which would make a lot of sense.”
He finished his thoughts by outlining two possibilities for Jay’s return to AEW this weekend.
“To me, there are two possibilities. Possibility 1: She is leaving [AEW], and this is there way of saying, well we’re getting something. We’re leaving here with something, and you have Willow beat her.
The other option is she has re-signed, she’s staying. I don’t know which of those two it is, but it is almost certainly one of those two.”
Today, Jay responded to a fan summary of Sapp’s information about her frustration in AEW. Anna said he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and “Please shut up.”
Sapp then responded by saying everything he relayed came straight from Anna Jay’s people. If the info is bad, it’s her people who are to blame.
“Full disclosure, I have reached out to Anna Jay today to communicate this — The information came directly from her reps/agents at the time when the details of her deal came out last year. Literally all of it. They have since said that she is handling her new deal herself. If they misrepresented that info, sorry to relay that info! But that’s the complete story about how that emerged. Every bit of it.”
Do you think Anna Jay will be calling up Shawn Michaels for a job in NXT soon after Willow Nightingale kills her AEW comeback this weekend? Let me know your thoughts on Jay’s future with AEW in the comments below, Cagesiders.
