Saraya Says She Never Spoke With WWE About In-Ring Return

[Liz]

During her latest stream on Twitch (via Fightful), Saraya spoke about her decision to sign with AEW and revealed she never spoke to WWE about an in-ring return. Here are highlights:

On signing with AEW: "When I spoke to Tony (Khan) he was so great about it. He said, 'You can still do your Twitch.' The thing that got me was freedom. I just wanted to have the freedom to go do whatever I wanted."

On leaving WWE: "I love WWE, I just like the opportunities I'm getting with AEW. The one thing I don't like is, 'WWE got you that movie.' No they didn't. You know who got me that movie? The Rock. He made that happen. He asked WWE, 'You can be part of this, but I'm doing this anyway,' and WWE decided they could make money off of it and put their names on it. The Rock should get all the credit. Without him, there would be no movie. WWE were wonderful, they gave me a lot of opportunities, and I am forever grateful for that. The only downside that made me pick AEW from WWE is I don't like sitting on my butt and not knowing what I'm doing or if I'm allowed to do certain things. I'm pro-WWE, but I love AEW and I wanted something new and I wanted freedom. That was very important."

On wrestling in AEW: "I'm not looking to bump around like crazy like I did before. I need to make adjustments and be smart about it. I'm very aware of what I can and can't do."

On not talking to WWE about an in-ring return: "We never had that discussion. I never had that discussion with WWE because they let me go. I've been working years to better myself and be healthier and stronger. Me, mentally, I never brought it up because I had this mental block. I want to be as safe as possible. I know what my body can do. Me and WWE never had that discussion about having a match. I never brought it up to them about me potentially wrestling. If I was to talk them about it, I'm sure they would do the research. I wasn't mentally ready. It still makes me nervous, but I'm way smarter about it. I know what I can and can't do. I'm not expecting to do six German suplexes off the top. I'm not that wrestler anyway."