Saraya calls title win at AEW All In 2023 a ‘wild emotional experience’
Saraya, the former Paige in WWE, opened up about her reaction to learning she was to win the AEW Women’s World Championship in a new interview.
Speaking to Poker Scout, Saraya said that she was told she’d be winning the title the night before she did so at AEW All In 2023 in Wembley Stadium. She says she cried when Tony Khan told her the news.
Saraya said:
“When Tony told me the night before, I cried my eyes out because I never thought that I would ever be back in the ring again, first and foremost. I never thought I’d win a championship again, I never thought that moment was ever gonna come for me ever again.”
“I got told I would never wrestle again in my lifetime and then for some reason my neck miraculously recovered. I don’t know what happened. Maybe I’d like to say my sobriety and healthy living kind of helped, but having my family be a part of it and in my home country in front of my home people, it was just such a wild emotional experience, I was crying my eyes out.”
“As soon as I came back, everybody was there, my buddies, everyone was surrounding me and giving me hugs and stuff, and it was just such a powerful moment and that’s something I’ll never forget and I’m so grateful for Tony for giving me the opportunity.”
After winning the title at All In, Saraya successfully defended it against Toni Storm the following month at AEW Grand Slam 2023 at Arthur Ashe Stadium. She then dropped it to Hikaru Shida on the October 10, 2023, episode of Dynamite.
Saraya was asked to compare working under Tony Khan and working under Vince McMahon. She said that she enjoyed working both places, appreciated the structure in WWE, but also the freedom in AEW.
Saraya continued:
“I’m grateful that I got the opportunity to work in both places. Like whoever leaves WWE, I tell them to go to AEW and enjoy your time there and if someone leaves AEW, I say go to WWE, and you’ll enjoy your time there. I know it feels like a political answer, but I just love that there’s like multiple places you can go, like even Impact now, they did such a good job on their pay-per-view and they sold out an arena and you haven’t seen Impact do that in a very long time, so like they’re really doing something special over there as well.”
Saraya hasn’t wrestled in over 13 months, with her last match having been on the October 8, 2024 episode of Dynamite. She mutually parted ways with AEW in March and has since released a memoire and started her own podcast.
Saraya also recently announced a new fashion project called Sobriety Club. More information is available in her Instagram post below:
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.