Saraya talks signing with AEW, free agency, potential return to WWE, and more

Former WWE and AEW star Saraya sat down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studios in Hollywood, CA to discuss the decision behind leaving AEW and what’s next, her current contract status, if returning to WWE could be possible, wanting to wrestle as Paige again, being cleared to wrestle after suffering a career ending neck injury, the movie “Fighting With My Family” being made based on her life, winning the Divas Championship on her main roster debut, being in promo class with Roman Reigns while in NXT, her book “Hell in Boots: Clawing My Way Through Nine Lives” and more!

On the decision to sign with AEW:

“I was never open to the idea of wrestling again, because I just assumed I wasn’t going to do it. So when me and WWE parted ways, I was like what the f*ck am I going to do with my life now? I can’t wrestle, what the hell am I going to do? I was a little stressed out, but then, within a couple of weeks, WWE was calling me again to come back. Hunter was the one that called me, and then AEW called me at the same time. So I was just like, well, what the f*ck do I do? Who do I go with? And then WWE was like, ‘If you want to wrestle again at some point, we can check your neck and we’ll keep that coin in your back pocket.’ And I was like, Okay. Then I was just gonna do a GM role again there. So I was like, Okay, that sounds great. But then AEW called me, and they were just like, ‘We’ll sign your brother.’ And I was like, ok.”

On being a free agent:

“I’m a free agent now. I could pop up anywhere. No, my contract’s done, done. That’s one thing that helped is because they gave me the opportunity to walk away from this contract. Not a lot of companies or businesses would do that, but Tony was really, really great about it. So I was like you can keep paying me, or I can just take a hike.”

Is there a non-compete?

“No, Tony was great. It was a clean split.”

On whether the WWE return would be as Paige or Saraya:

“Paige, 100%. I miss Paige so much. I tell people all the time. So again, when I went to AEW, I didn’t want to be close to my character in WWE because of the comparisons. I was like, Okay. And then I ended up being like a chicken sh*t heel with AEW, which is all fun and good, but there’s a ceiling to that. Whereas Paige, I mean, she’s generational. I love her. She’s bad ass, tough as nails, just screaming all the time. I loved being her. She was a f*cking badass, and that felt more like an elevated version of myself, rather than doing what I was doing in AEW. But again, that was my decision to be like that. But then I was like, Damn I wish I leaned more into my original character, but it is what it is. You live, you learn.”

On a possible WWE Evolution appearance:

“It’s like a bittersweet thing, because the first one, I couldn’t be on it because of my neck. So if I had the opportunity to be on this all-female pay-per-view, of course, yeah, I would think about it.”

On possible WWE dream matches:

“I always get Rhea to either be a tag team partner [or opponent], the original goth sister to now, the ultimate goth sister. So I’d love to be in a team with her or wrestle her, because that’s what people want. I would love to wrestle Mercedes down the line, because it’s a built-in storyline. All the girls now, they’re all superstars, dude. I would get in the ring with anybody at any point in time. They’re all amazing. Probably Nattie again. I love Nattie. I’ve wrestled her a billion times, but, oh my God.”