Saraya made her long-awaited return to the ring at the most recent AEW Full Gear pay-per-view by defeating Britt Baker. Saraya recently discussed how AEW Producer Jerry Lynn approached her after the match and questioned why she kept her head down so much in an interview with Dean Muhtadi (aka Mojo Rawley) of TMZ Sports. Saraya acknowledged feeling exhausted.
“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,” she said. “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. 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.”
Saraya went on to explain how her first bump in the match was a joke on the crowd.
“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,” she said. “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. So 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 is advertised for the majority of upcoming AEW tapings, but it is unknown when she will make her return to the ring. She expressed her desire for Jamie Hayter’s AEW Women’s World Title to Renee Paquette during Friday’s AEW Rampage.
You can watch the interview below:
