Saraya’s return to pro wrestling was supposed to be a miracle after a career-threatening neck injury forced her into early retirement at 25. But it turned into an emotional rollercoaster she wasn’t ready for.
On the One-on-One with Andro Mammo podcast, the former AEW star, who many fans still remember as Paige from her WWE days, got real about how tough 2022–2025 was for her in AEW. When Saraya returned, fans were pumped. She was pumped. But just a week later, things took a turn.
“I came out, and I was like, yes! This is amazing,” she said. “And then the week after, I did a promo, which wasn’t very good… I didn’t do a good job, and then they completely tore me apart online. It made me think I made a mistake coming back.”
Saraya says the online criticism hit harder than expected
The feedback was harsher than she expected. Between the nerves, the anxiety, and the pressure to perform, Saraya was second-guessing everything. And the intense AEW fan didn’t make it easier.
“The AEW fans, especially anyone that comes over to there, like, holy crap, they’re unforgiving. It’s crazy. So I was having a rough time just dealing with that.”
So to protect her mental health, Saraya started to distance herself from the noise — literally deleted social media off her phone and gave herself space to breathe.
“Time. Deleting social media, just getting reps in, and stuff like that. Again, deleting social media because I did not want to listen to what they were saying, because they can be cruel,” she explained. “It was rough, and so it kind of like dimmed my spark for a lot. And then after a while, I just started having fun and not caring what people think.”
And eventually the spark came back. Saraya found her groove in AEW and even became Women’s World Champion in August 2023. In March 2025, she decided to leave the company. She said it was personal , she didn’t feel like she fit into the plans anymore , but stressed there was no drama or bad blood with AEW or Tony Khan.
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