AEW Star Opens Up About ‘Miserable’ Period During WWE Run

AEW, WWE

After seeming likely to be forced into a permanent retirement at just 25-years-old with a serious neck injury, Saraya (FKA Paige in WWE) has opened up on her lowest point during her stint of inactivity in WWE prior to her departure for AEW.

Making an appearance on the The Mark Hoke Show, Saraya spoke of a period towards the end of her time in WWE when aside from her Twitch channel she had little else, with WWE not using her on TV or having her make media appearances despite still being under contract.

Saraya spoke of her lack of freedom during that period, saying:

“It’s not replaceable though. The feeling that you get from something you love is just not replaceable. You can’t just fill it with something else.

“I was doing Twitch but I was also being held back so much when I was in the WWE because they just didn’t give me the freedom to do what I wanted to do, to even try and find something else that could potentially fill that void and then also, they didn’t want me doing media, they didn’t want me to do anything so I was sitting on my ass for a couple years and people thought I enjoyed that.

“No, I hated that. I was miserable, it made me very depressed. Not to the point where I started doing drugs and drinking again because I was a lot smarter by that point but it would make me so miserable, like not being able to do anything.”

Upon joining AEW in September 2022, Saraya’s in-ring status was still unclear having not wrestled since December 2017.

Thankfully however, she would receive the all-clear competing in her first match in nearly five years against Britt Baker at AEW Full Gear last November.

Despite returning as a babyface, she, along with fellow ex-WWE stars Toni Storm and Ruby Soho, would form the heel faction known as The Outcasts and have been feeding with the AEW originals such as Jamie Hayter and Britt Baker ever since.

At May 28’s Double or Nothing PPV Jamie Hayter will put her AEW Women’s Championship on the line against The Outcast’s Toni Storm, who has built a great deal of momentum in recent weeks.

The card for the AEW Double Or Nothing event on Sunday, May 28 is as follows:

AEW World Championship – MJF (c) vs. Darby Allin vs. Jack Perry vs. Sammy Guevara

TNT Championship Ladder Match – Wardlow (c) vs. Christian Cage

AEW Women’s World Championship – Jamie Hayter (c) vs. Toni Storm

AEW World Tag Team Championship (Special Guest Referee Mark Briscoe) – FTR (c) vs. Jay Lethal & Jeff Jarrett

Anarchy in the Arena – Adam Page, Kenny Omega & Young Bucks vs. Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta

Unsanctioned Match – Adam Cole vs. Chris Jericho

Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn & Ethan Page vs. Isiah Kassidy, Jeff Hardy & Matt Hardy

International Championship Blackjack Battle Royal – Orange Cassidy (c) vs. 20 TBA

TBS Championship – Jade Cargill (c) vs. Taya Valkyrie

Transcript courtesy of POST Wrestling

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• Saraya
• AEW
• wwe

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