Saraya says The Outcasts are leaning into their association with WWE to make fans mad.
Saraya, formerly known as Paige, signed with AEW in September 2022. She was a babyface upon her arrival, but she and Toni Storm turned heel in January 2023. The duo later aligned with Ruby Soho to form The Outcasts, and the faction has been feuding with Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter ever since.
Speaking with Joseph Staszewski of the New York Post, Saraya noted that she is enjoying her run with The Outcasts, as she stated that the members of the group are having “mountains of fun.” Staszewski wrote that the trio have drawn from inspirations ranging from D-Generation X and the nWo to “Mean Girls and the Bella Twins, and Saraya explained that she loves being compared to these groups.
“All those groups are so iconic, why wouldn’t we [tap into them]?” Saraya said. ‘I love being compared to them.”
Saraya then recalled how she came up with the idea of spring “Ls” on their rivals, and the initial idea was for them to draw an X, but she wanted to avoid being confused with DX. The former WWE star described how it’s hard to do something entirely new, as everything has been done before. With that in mind, she stated that The Outcasts are leaning into their WWE roots to get more heat.
“Everyone’s done everything so it’s hard,” Saraya said. “We are creative in our own way, but it’s hard to do something without being compared to something else in this business. I said we might as well just embrace it and have fun.
“That‘s why we did The Shield powerbomb and stuff like that. Now we are just leaning more into it. That’s where we came from [WWE], so we’re gonna embrace it to make the fans even more mad.”
Saraya will likely be at ringside when Storm challenges Hayter for the AEW Women’s World Championship at AEW Double or Nothing. WrestleZone will have coverage of the show as it airs.
Catch up on our coverage of the May 24 episode of AEW Dynamite here.
