Leva Bates Was Surprised To Be Signed By AEW As The Librarian

Leva Bates, who plays the librarian gimmick in All Elite Wrestling, was ecstatic when she heard that the company was going to sign her.

AEW’s President Tony Khan wanted a librarian character for the company and it was decided that a wrestler would be chosen through an audition. Many wrestlers sent in their audition tapes, but Bates was ultimately chosen to play the part.

Well, you just had to know that I was gonna jump in on this.

Attention, @AEWrestling, l believe I have something you’re looking for..#theLibrarian

— Leva Bates (@wrestlingleva) March 21, 2019

Speaking to Comicbook.com, Leva discussed why she decided to submit the audition tape for the role and revealed how she reacted when she was chosen.

“I was just kind of doing it for the fun of it. So yeah that was really just one of those, ‘Oh my god it really worked [situations]!’ I mean obviously I did have intentions on wanting to be with AEW. Out of all of the companies that was my number one spot I really wanted to be at. It fits me and my personality and I feel like this company is where I belong so I took a chance. But yeah, no, there was no talk of me being within the company at all. It was one of those like, ‘Okay, I’ll just try it.’ And then I literally thought it was going to be like, ‘Oh, cool yeah a little bit of PR. I’m moving forward,’ and then when it actually panned through I was beyond shocked and over-ecstatic. It was definitely a moment where I didn’t expect when I got that call,” Bates said.

Bates was actually not the only one selected for AEW’s librarian role. The company had announced that they had also selected Peter Avalon for the role, and now there would be two librarians. She made her singles debut at Fyter Fest but quickly booed by fans. Bates said that fans were initially not very welcoming to the idea of a librarian duo, but she believes that they both can work well together and fans just need to give the pair a chance.

“It actually went through a roller coaster. People were super excited, especially at Double or Nothing [in a backstage segment] they were super happy about it. But then in the flesh they weren’t sure what to think of it because if you look at it I’m a super good guy and Peter is not. So it’s a very interesting dichotomy and I don’t think people gave, at the second, a chance to really let it build and grow. Because I felt like Peter and I are a wonderful, odd couple team. We gel really well with each other but we both have different personality traits. So I don’t think people knew how to handle it since everyone, especially at Daytona, everyone knows me as the super gamer girl, super nerd cosplayer so I’m coming out not necessarily in that form,” Bates said.