In a huge shocker, former Knockouts Champion, Angelina Love was released by TNA last night. Angelina, real name Angel Williams, is Canadian and had been working in the States under a work visa which was issued when she was signed to her WWE developmental contract in 2004.
The visa has expired or is soon to expire, reports PWInsider. It seems as though she hasn’t worked out a new one in due time.
TNA’s ‘hands are tied’ cites a source to PWInsider’s Mike Johnson, as they cannot employ her if she’s not legally able to work in the United States.
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It is assumed that Love will return to TNA after the whole situation is fixed. Though PWInsider does report that with her release, she’s no longer legally bound to the company and could even accept an offer from WWE.
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55 Comments
Are you fuking serious………….NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
This cant be happening this has to b a joke OMG TOTAL SHOCK i am so pissed off rite now
O…M…F…G.
I’m speechless. I’m just speechless. :(
She should have got her Visa in order.
TNA can’t have someone working for them who don’t have the correct documentation, they can get in a lot of trouble. I doubt they’d want to lose her.
I’m sure as soon as it is fixed she will be back.
This is HUGE news, OMFG, she was like THE Knockout, OMG, this is so weird, sooo weird!! I never considered myself a fan of her in-ring work……but OMFG!!
OMG………i dont really watch TNA but I know she was the top heel. What in the world I cant believe it.
What are they gonna do with the tournament now? But Madison Rayne instead.
huge loss, but not a big deal to be honest.
just like Rebecca said: ‘I’m sure as soon as it is fixed she will be back.’
i doubt they wouldnt want to re-sign her…
That really is shocking. TNA should’ve noticed this sooner, but I’m surprised that she herself wasn’t on top of her visa. It’s going to take at least three months for her to get a new one either way.
OMFG :’( this sucks
she was my favorite knockout when i first started watching TNA
and now this means the beautiful people are over! :(
im pray they re-hire her, once she gets her visa
im so shocked
what does this mean 4 velvet sky?
and what about the rest of the tag tounament?
I know Angelina would be bak though but do any of you guys remeber a couple of months ago in a interview i think angelina said she would probably go 2 wwe one day…I wonder if she will go now ?.
I hope not
More details including spoilers & theory.
I won’t get too panicky yet since I’m sure that if everything gets resolved (a new Visa) TNA are obviously gonna re-hire her, it’s a no brainer. You don’t just fire your top female heel for no good reason.
Angel and TNA should have checked the status of her Visa so much earlier and had it renewed before all this trouble. IF it’s only ‘about the expire’ then she’s technically not working illegally in the US.
Really nervous how they will handle the tag tournament and THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE. OMG, Angelina is a huge part of it. What are gonna do without her now?
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Wtf Now What Bout The Tag Team Tournement they probaly have to do 1 of the matches again.
id say its tar/christy hemme vs sarita/taylor wilde
the beautiful people are over
OOMG! when i first heard it i thought that tna has released her, but then i read it & fount out they tna released her b’cos she not allowed to compete in america.
so its not tna’s fault, its just the fact that her visa has expired.
i bet madison & velvet will team up & win the belts
Put TBP on hold for a while. Have Love reunite with Velvet in a big way so they’ll get their inevitable title shot against whoever the KO tag champs are.
i seriously was thinking, vince is the type to play tna’s game and actuall hire Angelina, and come on who wouldnt want to be signed with the WWE+her fanbase could be $$$ for vince,
I read on a wrestling news site that TNA had Taylor Wilde and Sarita in mind to the win the titles, so since TBP weren’t scheduled to win any titles, they can just but the group on the back burner until she gets her visa renewed. Worst mistake would be not to re-hire her, if WWE tried to hire her, she should say no since they made a fool of her when she was in developmental by releasing her 1 day after putting her from DSW to OVW – she must’ve been broken when that happened.
It’s so crazy to think about. Angelina’s one of the biggest stars in TNA period. She – well, The Beautiful People, but she’s obviously the figurehead/leader/star of that group – have been getting a non-stop push to the moon for so long now. There’s going to be an obvious gap without her there. But yeah, hopefully this all works out quickly and she’s back in a few months.
@afca if Angelina had any sense she’d stick by TNA, WWE would never give her the character direction, push or air time TNA has give her. She’d end up being talent going to waste just like Gail Kim and Jillian Hall and Natalya.
IDC afca,if angelina really wanted to go to WWE,then she would have left TNA when her contract LAST YEAR so it’s all up to her really,i doubt she would leave all her close friends like taylor and velvet but we’ll see
how long does it take to get a new work visa?
@kerz, i agree with you seriously, i rather see her with the k.o’s where she is one of the biggest instead of fading in the wwe-roster, lets hope she will stay with thna,
&rkoyou, i dont think she would have left since that would be her choice and then she would be job-less cause she shouldnt be 100% sure they would want to sign her u know, but now its a different story & since dixie loves to get her some wwe-superstars vince might just do the same, but i hope she will stick with TNA
They should even make a storyline about Angelina injured to cover the hell up!
I just hope Dixie doesn’t totally drop the ball with the rest of them as a result. That division has come a long way. Please let this awful news disappear and she comes back sooner than later :(
If She goes to WWE you guys think she will fit in the PG TV?
Melanie, this is MAJOR news. If they want to keep TBP together it will have to be with Madison Rayne and Velvet Sky; otherwise, bye-bye vain ones!
well angelina working for WWE is out of the question right now,she’s needs a work visa to work with the WWE also so looks like she’s stuck until she gets a new one
Since she’s no longer under contract to TNA, she could choose between WWE or TNA if/when she can get a new visa. One would be naive to think that WWE doesn’t keep an eye on TNA’s product, no matter what they say. Like Gail, I expect they will reach out to her sooner or later.
Well, that sucks. Hopefully she can get her visa worked out soon.
I’d hate to see her go to WWE, it’d be a waste of talent. She’d end up a watered down “Diva” with all her spark and fun gone, they’d never let her do the sort of promos or segments TNA lets her do. She’s still under contract with TNA, it’s just the situation with the work visa letting her down. So I’m very sure she’ll get that sorted and return to where she belongs. As look at what they did to poor Gail Kim when she returned to WWE … if Angelina has seen that she should be well warned by it.
Noooo…
I hope she gets back soon. The knockouts division’s not the same without the Beautiful People.
melanie-WWE contacted Gail because they wanted an asian that could wrestler to represent in the womens division,to be more diverse.WWE already has enough angelina loves for example maryse,kelly kelly,michelle mccool,tiffany etc. so i doubt it but it could happen,anything in this world can happen
Since Maryse is WWE’s carbon copy of Love, I’m not too certain they will want to sign her as their characters are too similar (ie hair spray antics etc)…
I think RKOyou has a point…as soon as Gail Kim was hired, Lena Yada got fired.
@ Jaj-So they still have Angela Fong.
but angela fong is still in development and rumor has it that she’s going to replace Lillian garcia so yeah
if WWE does contact angelina,then there NO BETTER then TNA when it comes to swipping talent from the other company
@Johnyfaction3 – Sad thing is that none of the girls is similiar to Gail, but if I had to pick one as the most similiar to G-Kim, it would be Fong. They’re trying to make her go blonde…not working ;P
my jaw literally dropped……….i wish the best for Lauren Willams :)
This is weird. I was in the car today thinking, ‘What if Angelina Love got a release.. what would she do?’ This is just crazy ironic, and it’s creepy. I really hope she goes back to TNA though, and not WWE.
Angelina Love will be welcomed back with open arms, I don’t see her even CONSIDERING going to the WWE, when they treated her like crap years back. She’s in a company that ACTUALLY cares about their Divas, and she like the rest of the Knockout’s love the rising division, but I do hope that things get worked out. At first, when I heard this I figured that she was going to the WWE since she was released, but the entire situation is one that TNA has no choice but to handle in that manner. We’ll more than likely see Love back in a couple of months, I’ll miss her ’till then, she was one of my favorite Knockout’s.
I agree there’s no way she’s going to the WWE. She was reamed hard by them only two years ago and it crushed her. An extra zero isn’t going to tempt her since she isn’t at an age where she’s thinking about retirement as Kim is and she parted ways with the company on far worse terms.
Does anyone know how long it’d take, reasonably, for her to be granted a new work visa?
The division suffered a slump for months after Gail left. Now the division is stacked with talent so it won’t be as bad as last time, but still ANGELINA LOVE the woman was the face of the Knockouts, or at least one of the major ones (along with Kong, Gail when she was there and now Tara).
@ Matt, Gail Kim did indeed leave on messier terms as her salary was a large part of the negotiations breaking down. TNA are in no way going to just let her go for good once the visa situation is resolved. When they do they should obviously be contacting her offering her another contract. She’s just too valuable to TNA.
NT86 – As someone already pointed out, barring any complications a work visa usually takes 3 months to obtain.
guys,this DOES NOT look good,sources are saying that angelina work visa expired 2 years ago,she had a WWE work visa but it expired when she was fired from WWE so shes been an illegal alien in the US for 2 years,she could be Banned from the states for a few years,it’s no joke
RKOyou – Until I see solid proof of Lauren Williams being an illegal alien for two years, I’m not belieivng that, and I don’t anyone else will or else TNA wouldn’t have hired the woman in the first place. The source on Diva-Dirt is believable, but the rumor that you’ve heard from wherever just doesn’t seem believable what-so-ever, when TNA released her because her work Visa was either about expire or had just expired. Lol, if she had been an illegal alien for two years, TNA wouldn’t have hired, since they released her for her Visa either expiring shortly or just expiring.
If she was an illegal alien with a visa that expired 2 years ago, TNA would have been absolutely brainless if they only JUST found that out. The KO’s were initally signed to 1 year contracts, I believe, so she’s probably been re-signed once last year and if that had happened and they hadn’t noticed it they’d be pretty dense.
If she got it in 2004 when she began in WWE developmental, I’m guessing it was a 5 year work visa (it’s now 2009).
Fingers-crossed, she’ll be back in the first or second quarter of next year.
A big reason they couldn’t get Sarah Stock/Sarita to sign was due to visa issues. Angelina should have got it sorted out earlier but TNA could have been more vigilant. Especially when it involves one of the most important stars in the company!
^^^By that (the Sarita stuff) I mean they wanted to sign her for a long time, but could only do it when she finally obtained a visa to work in America.
OMG OMG OMG NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
THATS My Angel she cant go! NOOOOOOoOOO
Im so sad NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!
:(
:(
NT86-angelina has been with TNA for 2 years now,remember she debuted in 2007 and the source is saying that her visa expired 2 years ago just when WWE released her so yeah
I’m praying that they get this taken care of and soon! Angelina is my favorite female wrestler. I hope this gets settled soon.
I don’t think she’ll jump ship, and head for WWE. She can’t work for either company until her visa situation is settled.
Okay, I’m not going to freak too much because it seems pretty obvious she’ll be back when she can. But did they really have to fire her? Wasn’t Sarita and Hamada both already signed months before they debuted and they too had visa trouble?
I hope they do a smart thing, they could even re-tape the tourny matches and have somebody else go over TBP instead, but then that would mean needing Roxxi back again.. ehh, good luck, TNA.
Ironic: Green Card to the USA Video advertisement directly below this article hahahahaha