Saraya, formerly known as Paige from WWE, was given the green light to return to in-ring action late last year, shortly after she made her debut with AEW. This has allowed her to rediscover her love for wrestling, which she had previously abandoned.
The former WWE star suffers spinal stenosis, which has kept her out of competition for many years. WWE‘s doctors have not given her the green light to return to the ring because of her condition. On multiple occasions, Saraya had expressed interest in taking on roles inside the organisation, such as those of manager, ambassador, and general manager. Despite this, the organisation did not make much use of her for the entirety of her career because she was unable to wrestle due to medical restrictions.
After her departure from WWE, which the corporation chose to do since they didn’t renew her contract when Vince McMahon was in charge, it was rumoured that Triple attempted to sign her once he took over creative duties in advance of her contract’s expiration after he became the creative head.
A month before her contract was not renewed, Saraya was made an offer to return to the role of General Manager on SmackDown, which she previously held many years ago. If she wanted to wrestle again, higher-ups in WWE were willing to discuss the possibility of visiting a physician to get a medical clearance for her return to the ring.
During an appearance on The Mark Hoke Show, Saraya revealed that towards the end of her time with WWE, she was unhappy because the company didn’t put her to use.
“Unfortunately, it can’t be replaced. The emotion that you get from doing something that you love can never be replicated by anything else. You can’t just put something else in there; it won’t work. I was streaming on 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 for a couple of years, I sat on my behind, and people thought I enjoyed it. No, I detested doing it. I was in excruciating pain, and as a result, I felt quite despondent. It didn’t get to the point where I started doing drugs and drinking again since by that time I was a lot smarter, but it would make me so miserable that I wouldn’t be able to do anything.