When The Bella Twins announced their departure from WWE in order to cut it out on their own under their maiden name, Brie and Nikki Garcia, it left more than a few fans with one assumption and one assumption alone: The Bellas were heading to AEW.

Now why would fans think such a thing? Well, a few reasons, actually; AEW is the unquestioned number two company in professional wrestling, and unless a performer wants to sign a short-term deal in order to improve their stock and land a bigger, longer-term contract in the future – Mercedes Moné, anyone? – Tony Khan's company is the place to go. The Garcias also have a number of connections in AEW, including Brie's husband, Bryan Danielson, and wrestlers like Saraya, who they worked with extensively in WWE.

Discussing the decision to leave WWE on her favorite medium, IG Live, Bella addressed the possibility of going to AEW and ultimately threw cold water on the idea… at least for now.

“That’s the same,” Garcia said via Fightful. “There’s no hard feelings. I get because of everything in the past, especially the past maybe six months, it seems that way. We’re not going to AEW. I’ve seen a lot of that, because we are just there visiting Renee and Paige. I was like, I haven’t had an opportunity to take Matteo backstage to a wrestling event, and when he knew uncle Bryan was gonna be there, Matteo loves his uncle Bryan. Brie and I are like, we have to go see Bryan. The kids had so much fun.”.

Welp, that's that, right? The Bellas will never appear on AEW television, and fans will just have to move on? Yeah, I don't buy it; while AEW and The Bellas might not have had any conversations just yet, the Danielson connection, when coupled with the launch of AEW: All Access, makes it feel like only a matter of time before the duo are booked for something, even if it's just to MC a Women's Tag Team Tournament or something of the sort.

The Bellas explain why they left WWE to go independent.

Discussing why they decided to leave The Bella Twins moniker in the past in order to go out on their own on their Nikki and Brie Show for Sirius XM, Nikki noted that the duo were simply ready to start a new chapter of their lives in the full, unedited clip.

“When our contract came up with WWE, mutually, we all knew we needed to head into this next chapter,” Nikki said via Fightful. “We are so grateful for the past 17 years. I have learned so much in and out of the ring. I have traveled all over the world, I have incredible fandom. It's been amazing. This is part of relationships. Whether it's business, love, this is relationships in life. Sometimes, you come to this part of your life where it's like, ‘let's go separate ways. It doesn't mean it's forever, but we just know that it's right.”

“It doesn't mean that it's bad either,” Brie added. “When things like this happen, everyone wants to look for the negative. ‘What happened? It had to be something crazy.' It wasn't. It was actually something beautiful. [We] thought about it for a while. This has been years coming. I want to thank Brie Bella. The character, the name, pretty much that I've been the last 16-17 years. Thank you to that name because it caused a lot of change in my life and many lives. It did a lot of great things for me. It's really fun to end that chapter. For everyone, at some point in your life, to do a new change, a new journey. I'm so excited to close that chapter on Brie Bella, put that book to the side, and open up a new one, and see what Brie Garcia is going to do next.”

“I'm so beyond grateful for Nikki Bella. She empowered me, she inspired me, she truly made me become fearless,” Nikki said. “I found so much of what I had, through pain, childhood, or certain things that happened in my life, I lost that person. It took Nikki Bella to bring her out. I will always be forever grateful for her and look up to who that person was and still is, and the road that she has paved and what she's done for women and the youth and will continue to do, just as Nikki Garcia. I'm grateful for it. What's so amazing about starting this new chapter and with our names, our roots, what was from birth? It's super empowering because we're betting on ourselves. That leap of faith, we are taking that leap of faith, we're re-introducing ourselves after 17 years, and it shows…you and I have gotten to the point where we know our worth. We know what we've done, and we know where we want to go. We're at the point in our lives where we don't want to hear no. We've worked on that for 17 years, and this marks, finally, we put that in action a lot, but now we're doing it in a different way. Something like that is super exciting, and it's great for other people to know.”

“It's weird because I say ‘freeing,' and a lot of people are like, ‘What does she mean?' There's something really freeing about going back to who you were,” Brie concluded. “It's like you can go back to being your unfiltered, uncensored self. I don't have to apologize, it's who I am. I always hate when I have to apologize or be like, ‘sorry, didn't mean to do that,' when I actually did.”

Will The Bellas be on AEW in the next few months, or will they continue to transition away from wrestling and focus more on the opportunities associated with being reality stars? Fans will have to wait and find out but needless to say, it's going to be an interesting watch.