Saraya, formerly known in WWE as Paige, shocked the wrestling world a few weeks back when she joined AEW and became All Elite. She was not re-signed by WWE back in July after spending the past five years unable to wrestle due to her neck injury. In a new report from Fightful Select, her leaving WWE wasn’t as cut and dry as it seemed. Under the new regime, WWE did try to bring her back into the fold.
Fightful we’re told that there was some confusing messages sent regarding about her physical status, ability to wrestle, and the way that things went down. Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis chose to not renew her deal when her contract expired, and when the announcement was made publicly by Saraya was when she was informed on that decision. Those that Fightful spoke to said that Saraya’s deal was surprisingly low, and much of her outside projects were restricted to some degree.
Furthermore, those familiar with the situation told Fightful that Saraya was actually offered the General Manager position by the new WWE regime, about a month after her deal was not renewed. That was a spot she held years ago, before WWE did away with authority figures for a while before Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville revived that idea. However, higher ups also mentioned to her that if she ever wanted to return to the ring and wrestle, they would make that happen.
More from the report takes out any rumors that WWE doctors didn’t clear her –
There’s a lot of conjecture and rumors about WWE getting Saraya numerous doctors to get her cleared, but we’re told that’s not true — to the extent that WWE didn’t have her checked at all for a return to the ring, and Saraya actually went through three extensive health checks to gain clearance for an in-ring return herself. We’re even told that WWE wasn’t interested in bringing her back prior to the new regime, and wouldn’t sign off on X-Rays to have her examined, and that the case was closed as far as they were considered.
Ultimately, Triple H’s new regime did make efforts to get Saraya back in the fold, and everything we’ve heard points to a positive relationship between those two sides, with Triple H being shocked her deal wasn’t renewed by the previous regime. The information we’ve gained is that ultimately the freedom to do outside projects without giving up a cut, and other deal terms led her to signing with AEW.
In AEW, Saraya would get physical in the ring for the first time in nearly five years when she would strike Dr. Britt Baker causing a brawl to ensue in the ring with others two weeks ago.
