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Just under five years after she retired from in-ring action as a member of WWE, Paige made her triumphant return to professional wrestling at AEW's Grand Slam at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York, under her given name, Saraya.
For fans who grew up watching, idealizing, or being inspired to enter the industry by the former Divas Champion, this moment was huge, especially since many assumed she would never wrestle again, but as crazy as it may sound now, with seven matches under her belt, it almost didn't happen.
No, had WWE opted to renew Saraya's contract when it came due in 2022, she never would have been eligible to make her debut at Arthur Ashe, her in-ring return at Full Gear, and the debut of the group eventually named The Outcasts in March of 2023, as she noted to Kenny McIntosh in an interview with Inside The Ropes.
“I was told I was never going to wrestle again” Saraya revealed. “I was told that, so I kind of had that in my head. But you know how every wrestler, you can never tell them no, when it comes to wrestling. So the past five years or so it’s been really difficult. But at the same time, I’m in a really good mental space, which has been a really positive thing. If I would have lost my career a couple of years prior to that, I don’t know if I would still be around right now,” Saraya said via TRJ.
“So I’m very, very fortunate in a way where it happened at a time where I have a really good community around me, like my boyfriend, my friends, my family, you know, I have a really good, stable community around me that’s always so positive.
“I was sitting on my a** for a couple of years, which was the most frustrating thing ever. I wanted to do media, I want to go there and do stuff, but I couldn’t. And plus, there was a pandemic, so they really didn’t have that much use for me since I wasn’t wrestling. They were like, ‘What are you gonna do? We could always do Zooms and all this kind of fun stuff.’
“Anyway, after a while I got the call from John Laurinaitis, and he was just like, ‘We’re not gonna renew your contract.’ And I was like, ‘That’s totally fine. You know, I don’t wrestle anymore, I don’t know what you would have [done with me].’ And that’s, that’s perfectly fine. We left on really good terms, which I appreciate from Vince [McMahon] and Johnny.”
As strange as it may sound, WWE relies on a “legal loophole” that allows the promotion to add time to contracts if performers are unable to wrestle due to injury – an unthinkable concept for fans of the NFL, NBA, NHL, or other major sports. Because Saraya's career was expected to be over due to injury, there's a chance WWE could have kept Saraya under contract for a very long time, if not indefinitely, had they wanted to, but, in the great Nick Khan pandemic talent purge, that was apparently deemed an unnecessary luxury, leading to a massive get for AEW. Still, just because Saraya's gone now doesn't mean she will be forever, as Paul “Triple H” Levesque offered the former NXT standout an incredible opportunity on the way out.
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Saraya reveals her conversation with Triple H after being released.
Finally free to explore opportunities outside of WWE, including ones where she could eventually get back into the wrestling ring, Saraya quickly started talking to Tony Khan about debuting in AEW under her birth name, but not before Triple H checked in on the second-generation grappler to offer a pretty sweet gesture before she walked out the door.
“Then a month down the line, Vince and Johnny took a little hiatus, and then Triple H came in and kind of took over, and he had no idea that they didn’t renew my contract, he had no idea. He just called me and was just like, ‘So what was the deal? Did you just want to leave?’ And I was just like, ‘Well, it wasn’t that, it was just I wasn’t of use, I guess anymore, and that was on their side,'” Saraya said.
“I had that conversation with Hunter, and he was really, really great. And he was like, you know, if you want to come back, the door's open, you know, and it’s, he was really, really gracious and kind, and he always has been.”
Could the day eventually come when Saraya puts back on her WWE gear and become Paige once more? Maybe yes, maybe no; Saraya has proven that she can still wrestle, albeit in a limited capacity, and is all but certainly about to wrestle in front of over 70,000 fans at All In in her native United Kingdom. Still, if WWE comes calling with an offer she can't refuse, who knows, maybe the biggest star of her generation could take her place at the top of the women's division once more.
