Saraya once helped pioneer a revolution in WWE, but she’s ready to help elevate a new division.
In early 2015, “The Glampire,” then known as Paige, helped spark the “Give Divas A Chance” movement alongside Emma and the Bella Twins. As time evolved, WWE officially began their “Women’s Revolution,” shining a prominent focus on their women’s division. Paige ended her WWE career a 2-time Divas Champion, and the inaugural NXT Women’s Champion before forced to retire from wrestling due to a reaggravated neck injury. The British superstar would then remain away from in-ring competition for nearly five years.
Now assuming her real name of Saraya, the 30-year-old recently returned to professional wrestling, officially signing with All Elite Wrestling. In recently on The Sessions With Renee Paquette, Saraya revealed one of the reasons that swayed her decision to join AEW. “If I can help somewhere with a women’s division, then f-ck yeah, I would love to be a part of that. The WWE women’s division is in such good hands, I’m like, ‘where would I fit in with this?’ There’s so many fantastic female wrestlers there, [but] there’s also fantastic female wrestlers in AEW but AEW is so fresh.”
Founded in 2019, AEW has steadily grown its product and women’s division, but still stands as newer company. “We could do so much with the women’s division,” Saraya said. “I was just like, ‘Man, I would love to be in a fresh place where I could come up with fresh ideas.’ The girls are so receptive to them too. They’re really, really good girls.”
“I loved working with the WWE girls [too], I was just that for a really long time. I just wanted something fresh where I could really get stuck in with a new division and help elevate in any way I possibly could. It just felt like a new flavor of ice cream.”
Saraya continued on to pinpoint a few “fresh faces” she’s been yearning to work with. “Having fresh faces where I can potentially work with was the most important part,” she noted. “There is old faces that I recognize that, but I was like, man working with Jamie Hayter could be really cool. ‘ Also Toni [Storm], I knew her before, obviously, but I never got to work her. I just thought she was one of the most amazing wrestlers, you know? And I was just like, ‘Man, I would love to work with her in some capacity.’ It was just, again, a different flavor of ice cream.”
Ultimately, Saraya wants to see more growth for the women in AEW. “I wanted the girls to get even more time [too] because I know the shows are a little shorter, but I’m just like, ‘we could still benefit from having more time with the women, but also more segments with the women.’ I feel like these ladies are really, really good. They are really good. It’s just like a lot of the time, you want to give them more platform too.”
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