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Netflix's uber-popular Korean series Squid Game was recently adapted into a reality show called Squid Game: The Challenge, and it surprisingly features a former AEW star as a contestant. The person in question is Leva Bates.
Bates was a part of AEW 2019 until May 2023, when her contract with the promotion officially expired. Apart from her on-screen role, the 40-year-old performer was also an integral backstage figure in All Elite Wrestling. Since then, Leva Bates has only sporadically wrestled on the independent circuit.
She recently took to X to drop a piece of bombshell news, revealing that she was one of the contestants on the Squid Game: The Challenge, and added that she shot for the show earlier this year in January and February. Check it out below:
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"So I randomly disappeared in January/early February & traveled across the world, I was a part of the very first Squid Games: The Challenge on Netflix. I didn’t get slapped by Gong Yoo, I kinda feel cheated," tweeted Bates.
Leva Bates on her AEW departure
Following her AEW exit back in May this year, Bates spoke about how she was grateful for her four-year stint in Tony Khan's promotion.
She added that she had no regrets and was looking forward to performing across the globe:
“Yes, I am longer with AEW but that is okay. I put a lot of love and effort and energy into that place and no regrets. I am so happy to be there from day one before we even had a show, before we even had our first pay-per-view and I have made history. I am a part of history. So I am forever grateful and forever will just be so thankful to have been a part of that. But, as you know, probably realize, I am not performing as much as I would like to perform. So I’m taking all of this energy and focusing it on trying to make things happen. Trying to wrestle as many places as I can.”
It remains to be seen how things pan out for Bates and if she continues to grab more opportunities outside of the wrestling business.
What do you make of Leva Bates participating in Squid Games: The Challenge? Sound off in the comments section below.
Ex WWE writer blasts Liv Morgan HERE
