Back in November 2024, WWE announced its ID Program. Zayda Steel was the first prospect who joined WWE ID shortly after its announcement.
A year later, her WWE ID contract expired, and the wrestler informed fans that she would not be renewing it. Some months later, in January 2026, Steel joined All Elite Wrestling. She recently explained her decision to leave WWE ID.
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Zayda Steel Explains Why She Left WWE ID
On a recent episode of the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Zayda Steel revealed that she left the WWE ID program because she wanted to be around people who love professional wrestling just as much as she does.
Joining AEW wasn’t on the cards originally, but shortly after Steel announced she was not renewing her WWE ID contract, Tony Khan contacted her about an opportunity at his company, so she ended up signing with AEW.
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Here’s what Steel said:
“I chose to walk away from my previous employment by choice. I’m on my own journey. I love wrestling. I just want to be around people who love it just as much as I do. So I chose to walk away.
My plans at first were to go to Japan. I was gonna take the last 2-3 months of the year as a little mental break, financial break. I was gonna go overseas and do it the right way this time. Then 5 days after I tweeted that tweet [about leaving WWE ID], Tony Khan texted me, so plans changed.”
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Zayda Steel made her Ring of Honor debut last December. Tony Khan said that he was impressed by her in-ring work, and a lot of fans expected her to show up in AEW as well. She eventually showed up on AEW Collision in January 2026 and made her debut for the promotion against Marina Shafir, where she lost.
While Steel is only 22 years old with almost 3 years of in-ring experience, she’s worked with a wide range of talents across 40+ promotions so far. Many fans are hoping that she will become a household name for AEW in the next few years.
What are your thoughts on Zayda Steel?
Main image credit: AEW
Ishaan Sharma has been following wrestling ever since he was 8. That was over a decade ago. He loves to write about this pretend sport and has worked with online publications such as Sportskeeda and TheSportster, where he shared his insights about the wrestling business.