Saraya Reveals How She Trolled The Crowd During Her First AEW Match

AEW

Saraya (formerly WWE’s Paige) made her in-ring return at AEW Full Gear, nearly five years since her last match.

Although Saraya had done everything she could to prepare for her first match back, she recently discussed the ups-and-downs of returning to the ring.

Speaking to TMZ Sport’s Dean Muhtadi (formerly Mojo Rawley), Saraya said:

“When it came to the wrestling side of things [her in-ring return], the thing that I was worried about was if my wind was gonna get me through and it did but I was dying…

“Everyone was really fantastic.

“Jerry Lynn was backstage, he’s like this old school wrestler and legend and he was like, ‘You kept your head down a lot. You need to pick it up’ and I was just like, ‘Bro, I couldn’t keep my head up. I was blown up.’

“I could not breathe.

“I was face down.

“I was like, I could not believe I went out and did that.”

Reflecting back on the match, Saraya clearly wanted to make a point in the face of the online criticism she received, saying:

“I think we did a total of 14 minutes and the first initial thing was everyone was really excited I was in the ring, right?

“So they’re very hyped.

“So then I did the first bump and I wanted to do that first bump where I was like, I psyched everybody out because everyone was like, ‘As soon as she takes the first bump, she’s gonna break her neck,’ because it’s really crazy to me that people were so supportive of the men coming back but I don’t know if it’s a female thing or not and I don’t wanna make it about that really but coming back, there was a lot of mixed reactions about it.

“People were supportive or they were just really mean to me and I’m like, what is happening?

“Shouldn’t this be a really cool thing for people to witness?

“So I wanted to go out there and prove everybody wrong but also troll them a little bit with the first bump.”

From there, the response maybe wasn’t quite what Saraya expected from the AEW fans in attendance, observing:

“I decided to act and pretended like I hurt my neck and everyone went dead quiet in the arena.

“They went like [gasped] and then I got up and just started laughing, you know?

“And then the crowd went quiet again because after that, all the bumps, they were all just like, oh my God, please don’t get hurt and I realized afterwards it’s just because people genuinely don’t want me to get hurt in the ring again.

“It’s a scary situation and there was that viral video of me getting hurt in the first place so I understood and once I got through it, everyone was clapping afterwards like, whew.

“She got through it, you guys.

“Good job.”

Saraya previously discussed how her character is different from Paige, describing her as “more mature” among other characteristics.

She also recently shared a video of herself, post-dental surgery, having come around from the anaesthesia.

Transcript from Post Wrestling.

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• Saraya
• Full Gear
• AEW

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