During an emotional appearance on Busted Open Radio this week, Saraya opened up about how much recent fan support has meant to her.
The former Paige was asked if AJ Lee’s return to WWE has inspired her to want her own comeback. She responded by expressing interest in the idea, along with potentially working with Lee on-screen again at some point.
“You know, I’m always going to have that feeling, because WWE is doing amazing things right now,” Saraya said. “And you’re just like, man, I miss being in the locker room. I miss being around people like Nattie. I miss my sisters. You know, I do miss that. And I miss being a part of these things.
“And then when I watched AJ, I’ve watched that over and over again, because she’s my fairy godmother, dude. I love her so much. She was one that kind of took me under her wing when I first came up on the roster, too. And we traveled together and we had the frenemies thing.”
Saraya said, after Lee’s return, there have been a lot of fans on social media voicing that they want her back. That’s especially meaningful to Saraya because she thought fans didn’t like her anymore.
“And my social media has not stopped. It has blown up. I cannot go on there without hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people doing videos being like, ‘Please bring Saraya back, please bring Paige back.’ And I get excited — because I keep forgetting, I feel like people don’t like me anymore,” she said. “And it sounds pretty, you know, insecure and I’m not trying to get sympathy, but it made me really emotional for the past couple of days.
“And I have like shed some tears about it. Because I’m like, ‘Oh my god, people still like me. And they still want me to be around.’ That’s probably the best feeling in the world for me. Like, you know, I get insecure about these things. This world can be a little stressful and you get insecure. And so, yeah, that’s been amazing.
“With AJ, I would love to be her tag partner again or run it back eventually. You know, I’m not saying right away. She needs her moment. Like, people are excited for her to come back. Maybe one day, we’ll see.”
Saraya departed AEW this March, with the split being mutual and the sides remaining on good terms. She has taken some time away from the ring to focus on other pursuits, including launching a new podcast called “Rulebreakers.”
Despite moments of insecurity, Saraya said she does realize that she’s had a great career. Right now, she feels like she’s fallen in love with wrestling again and wants to advance her style in the ring.
“I feel like the past couple of years, I wasn’t fully invested in it as much. But I just found my love for it again,” she said. “And I’m just like, man, this is such an exciting time for wrestling. And I miss it. And I want to get back. I want to be Paige again — like the way she wrestled — the way Paige wrestled in NXT. I want that back, and I want to upgrade her. I’m not going to be crazy, but like I’m going to be — I want to do the new generation style of wrestling.”
If Saraya were to return to WWE competition, it would be her first time wrestling for the company since 2017. She was medically disqualified due to neck issues but remained with WWE in a non-wrestling role until her departure from the promotion in 2022. After that, she joined AEW for a two-plus year run that included a reign with the AEW Women’s World Championship.
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