Saraya, formerly Paige, was the first-ever WWE NXT Women’s Champion and made her RAW debut in April 2014, defeating AJ Lee to become Divas Champion.
Saraya revealed in an interview with Chris Van Vliet that The Rock told her she was going to win the title after telling her he wanted to make a film about her family one day. That proved to be correct, as “Fighting With My Family” was later produced.
“He was like, I couldn’t sleep one night while filming Fast and Furious, which thank God for insomnia, because it helped me here. But yeah, he watched it and he just fell in love with my family. And he was just like, I want to make a movie on your life. And I was like, Oh my gosh, what the f*ck? Are you serious? And then he was like, yeah, and then I was just in the writers room, and tomorrow, you’re gonna debut and you’re gonna win the Divas Championship. And I was like, what? And so there’s just overrun with this emotion. And I was just crying my eyes out.
And he’s like, handing me all these tissues like, like, you know, because I’m like, sobbing, I’m just like, I can’t believe it. I can’t believe this is happening at 21, this is so crazy. And so um, he was like, don’t tell anyone, no one’s supposed to know this, like any of it. And I’m like, I have to try and keep the secret? Like you’re telling a kid to keep something secret? I’m Okay, good luck.
But I went to walk out, Tamina was coming in because they’re cousins, she’s gonna go say hi. And then she looked at me like really confused why I was even in his locker room, you know, and I’m just like, crying and she was like, are you okay? And I was just like, I’m just a really big fan of Dwayne.
Like, I didn’t know what to say to her because I was like, I can’t tell you why. You know, so I’m just like, acting like the biggest f*cking fangirl, which I was, but I was just like sobbing. Then, you know, I leave.
The movie doesn’t get made until a few years later, you know, everyone is in production and then nearly got, like, stopped completely because the mistakes I was making so publicly, you know, and so like, I need to get my sh*t together because I was like, if this movie doesn’t get made because of my actions, I’m going to run the rest of my life. So I eventually did though, and it did come out and I did get my sh*t together, and the movie was a hit.”
You can watch the complete interview below:
(h/t to Inside The Ropes)
