After a half-decade away from the ring, Saraya, who was known as Paige in WWE, has returned to the professional wrestling world as a member of AEW.
Though her exact role in the promotion is rather unclear, as some have suggested that she was not cleared to wrestle very recently, Saraya has shot those reports down with a simple, yet effective tweet and has also gone on to praise the reaction she received from the fans assembled at Arthur Ashe Stadium for Grand Slam via an NSFW tweet can you can read a censored version of below.
Based on the reactions of fans on Twitter, folks couldn't be happier to see Saraya back in a wrestling ring too, as the former two-time Divas Champion remains incredibly popular and is able to trend on social media seemingly at will whenever she opts to weaponize her 2.7 million followers. Fans want to see her wrestle, especially against Britt Baker, and even if that isn't in the cards, as Saraya did almost get paralyzed by Sasha Banks in a match back in 2017, having the one-time SmackDown general manager hold court over the women's division could provide the pop needed to elevate the floor for all parties involved. Saraya could be Kayfabe assigned booking duties for the division or at least tasked with serving as a special consultant for Tony Khan and could become a fixture of television without having to do so much as throw a lariat.
One big-time Saraya fan who is excited to see her back in the ring is actually a pretty big deal of his own in WWE Hall of Famer Booker T, who took to his The Hall of Fame Podcast to discuss her return to television.
Booker T is excited to see his former WWE buddy debut in AEW.
While discussing the decision to bring back Saraya at Grand Slam, Booker T celebrated the decision, as transcribed by Wrestling Inc.
“Great way to bring her back too, Arthur Ashe Stadium,” said Booker. “This crowd, you know, it popped. You could tell she was happy … That smiling was just radiating around the arena so man, I'm glad to see her back. Me, personally, she's always been one of my favorites. She's always been that chick, so I'm just glad to see her back.”
Booker continued his discussion with co-host Brad Gilmore while discussing what it was like to work with then-Paige in WWE.
“I'm serious, it was like a night off working with Paige,” he continued. “I remember getting her in trouble one night because I told her to introduce me at the ‘OG brother from the hood.' [She got] so much e-mail [and] social media, people were blowing her up. I actually had to go out and defend her and say, ‘Come on, guys, I told her to say that'. … She wouldn't have done anything like that. I always had a good time working with Paige.”
While Booker knows quite a bit about seeing co-workers suffer career-ending injuries, see Bret “The Hitman” Hart as one of countless examples, in the end, the head of Reality of Wrestling is happy to see his friend continue to pursue her dream, especially since she's only 30-years-old and has a whole lot of life ahead of her.
“I'm just glad to see her still chasing that dream,” Booker said. “Because, man, that's what this thing is all about.”
“Paige's departure from the squared circle was unceremoniously not due to her anything of her own doing or anything like that, not really wanting to leave the business, but a medical issue. It was a scary, scary deal when Paige got that kick to the back, and her body was just totally all over the place … WWE is very, very serious about neck injuries. Very serious and touchy. Daniel Bryan was out for a neck injury for quite some time … Saraya is still young enough to actually know, you know, her body limitations.”
Will Saraya's run in AEW live up to her time as Paige in WWE? Will WWE fans who loved her work or Florence Pugh stans who got into wrestling after watching Fighting With My Family accept this version of the character? Only time will tell, but for now, Saraya is looking to add to her legacy.
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