Saraya confirms that she considered WWE return, why she chose AEW

During an appearance on Talk is Jericho, Saraya confirmed that she did talk to Paul Levesque before signing with AEW and considered returning to WWE.

She said Levesque thought it was her decision to leave as he wasn’t there at the time her deal wasn’t renewed by Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis.

She was thinking about returning, but questioned if she would be “100% happy going back.” While she doesn’t have issues with WWE, there were “so many years where I could have been utilized more.” 

Chris Jericho revealed he was pushing Tony Khan to call her and at the same time, she was getting calls from WWE. He said Moxley thought she was going back to WWE after a talk she had with Renee Paquette and he gave the heads-up to Khan again in addition to calling Saraya himself.

She was questioning if there was Jon interest after not hearing from Khan for a few months, but after talking to Jericho, Moxley, Paquette and Britt Baker, and then Khan, she wanted to give a new home a shot after doing so much in her long tenure with WWE.

“I miss that side of wrestling where you can pitch your own ideas and you can just have fun. I haven’t felt excited about wrestling in a very long time, so the first day of being here, it was awesome. Everyone is so nice. It’s crazy just how different it can feel,” she said.

The former Paige in WWE said her neck is healthy and feels fantastic, but wants to take it slow when it comes to getting physical. As much as she wants to get back in the ring, she wants to be smarter based on what happened in WWE the last time she was in the ring and not be a “bump monkey” anymore.

The two talked about her opening AEW promo which was critiqued afterward. She admitted she was nervous and should have talked to Jericho and Moxley beforehand as the first unscripted promo after years of following WWE’s scripted style can be challenging.

She joked that ring announcer Justin Roberts was mouthing words to try to help her along, but that it wasn’t helping.

She talked about the night she assumed her career was over after re-injuring her neck in WWE — an injury that put her out for five years. She credited McMahon for giving her a retirement promo six months later in New Orleans which is also where she debuted.

She explained that she found out from “Road Dogg” Brian James that they were cutting the WWE GM spot and wasn’t going to be needed for a while. After she did a final promo, she wasn’t used for years despite offering to do media, voiceovers, etc. 

She said she didn’t speak up until her Twitch was about to be taken away and had an argument with McMahon’s assistant about it. Six months later, she said Laurinaitis gave her the call about the non-renewal of her deal and while she was thankful for the opportunity, she was frustrated that so much of her time was wasted.