WWE reportedly offered Saraya GM role, chance to wrestle again before AEW deal was signed

[Chris]

According to a Thursday report from Fightful, Saraya was offered a return to the on-air general manager position by the new WWE creative regime nearly a month after her deal expired in July.

The report also stated the "higher-ups also mentioned to her that if she ever wanted to return to the ring and wrestle, they would make that happen."

It stated the former Paige got three health checks herself to get clearance to return while WWE didn't have her checked at all. The Vince McMahon-led regime didn't have interest in bringing her back and wouldn't sign off on x-rays to even explore the opportunity.

We have not been able to independently confirm this report and Saraya has yet to comment on it on social media. She made her surprise debut at AEW Dynamite Grand Slam and got physical on Dynamite just over a week ago, indicating some sort of clearance.

Other details from the report include:

• She was informed about the WWE non-renewal when the announcement was made publicly, had a "surprisingly low" deal, and that her ability to commit to outside projects was somewhat restricted.
• Paul Levesque was reportedly "shocked" her deal wasn't renewed and his new regime made an effort to keep her in some form or fashion.

"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," it read.

Report: Saraya offered WWE GM role, chance to wrestle after deal expired

A Thursday report had the new WWE regime wanting to bring Saraya back this summer.

www.f4wonline.com

 

[Deezy]

Who would've thought Vince McMahon had no interest in bringing someone back who has been nothing but a PR nightmare since she got out of NXT.

 

[Chris]

During an appearance on Talk is Jericho, Saraya confirmed that she did talk to Paul Levesque before signing with AEW and considered returning to WWE.

She said Levesque thought it was her decision to leave as he wasn't there at the time her deal wasn't renewed by Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis.

She was thinking about returning, but questioned if she would be "100% happy going back." While she doesn't have issues with WWE, there were "so many years where I could have been utilized more."

Chris Jericho revealed he was pushing Tony Khan to call her and at the same time, she was getting calls from WWE. He said Moxley thought she was going back to WWE after a talk she had with Renee Paquette and he gave the heads-up to Khan again in addition to calling Saraya himself.

She was questioning if there was Jon interest after not hearing from Khan for a few months, but after talking to Jericho, Moxley, Paquette and Britt Baker, and then Khan, she wanted to give a new home a shot after doing so much in her long tenure with WWE.

"I miss that side of wrestling where you can pitch your own ideas and you can just have fun. I haven't felt excited about wrestling in a very long time, so the first day of being here, it was awesome. Everyone is so nice. It's crazy just how different it can feel," she said.

The former Paige in WWE said her neck is healthy and feels fantastic, but wants to take it slow when it comes to getting physical. As much as she wants to get back in the ring, she wants to be smarter based on what happened in WWE the last time she was in the ring and not be a "bump monkey" anymore.

The two talked about her opening AEW promo which was critiqued afterward. She admitted she was nervous and should have talked to Jericho and Moxley beforehand as the first unscripted promo after years of following WWE's scripted style can be challenging.

She joked that ring announcer Justin Roberts was mouthing words to try to help her along, but that it wasn't helping.

She talked about the night she assumed her career was over after re-injuring her neck in WWE -- an injury that put her out for five years. She credited McMahon for giving her a retirement promo six months later in New Orleans which is also where she debuted.

She explained that she found out from "Road Dogg" Brian James that they were cutting the WWE GM spot and wasn't going to be needed for a while. After she did a final promo, she wasn't used for years despite offering to do media, voiceovers, etc.

She said she didn't speak up until her Twitch was about to be taken away and had an argument with McMahon's assistant about it. Six months later, she said Laurinaitis gave her the call about the non-renewal of her deal and while she was thankful for the opportunity, she was frustrated that so much of her time was wasted.

Saraya confirms that she considered WWE return, why she chose AEW

The AEW star did a deep dive on her current situation with Chris Jericho.

www.f4wonline.com

 

[Necro]

Hard to read the situation from the outside. I can see her being annoyed by not being used, but also was getting paid the whole time.

 

[Chris]

Hard to read the situation from the outside. I can see her being annoyed by not being used, but also was getting paid the whole time.

Yeah seems like it was more if a minor annoyance but she was fine with it until they took away the Twitch stuff and then she was like "well fucking let me do something" lmao

 

[Necro]

Yeah seems like it was more if a minor annoyance but she was fine with it until they took away the Twitch stuff and then she was like "well fucking let me do something" lmao

We are starting to see Tony getting in the same situation with talent. I swore Tony made a statement saying WWE should let people go if they want to go before but I could be wrong. Now there are rumors where he told people he's not letting them out of contracts anymore. So should be interesting what happens in the future.

 

[Cwalker]

When WWE deems you unable to perform, takes a while to change their mind. Edge and Bryan eventually got cleared but they pretty much had to threaten to leave to get it. And they’re big names, Paige/Saraya probably was never going to get that luxury.

That being said, like Chris mentioned, taking away the Twitch stuff really had to be a deal breaker.

All in all, good for her that she’s happy and in a good spot. From a business perspective, not much was lost. But maybe she can do something for AEW

 

[Chris]

We are starting to see Tony getting in the same situation with talent. I swore Tony made a statement saying WWE should let people go if they want to go before but I could be wrong. Now there are rumors where he told people he's not letting them out of contracts anymore. So should be interesting what happens in the future.

I still don't remember him ever saying this tbh just people talking about it lmao not saying he didn't bc I see it brought up a lot but I don't remember the original quote at all. Are we sure it wasn't about "not using talent" lol Saraya didn't want out anyway it seems, she didn't seem to happy it was pushed as a mutual thing when she was let go and even Trips said he thought it was her decision to leave when it wasn't

 

[Chris]

Like here's one from 2021 that supports what I thought was Tony's philosophy all along was "honoring contracts until the end" which would include not granting releases nor surprising people with releases

“So I just think there’s a lot more security with a contract here. I can’t say I’m gonna extend every contract or bring every person back, but I also through the last couple years have not been doing mass layoffs even though I’m not the most profitable company of all time. I don’t brag about being the most profitable company of all time. I do brag about bringing in a lot of revenue for a start up and being a real success story. But what I will brag about is that we haven’t been doing mass layoffs and we haven’t fired 15 people last week or 18 people the week before that. It’s not anything to be proud of when a company lets all those people go, and when you’re putting press releases out like that frequently, I don’t think it’s a good thing. And so, to me, I don’t want to make light of that kind of thing ever.

 

[Chris]

Was it about Cody when he left actually? I think I do recall some comment there about it maybe, I'm not finding anything on Google but that's mostly bc 90% of the results are now the recent articles about him saying he's not granting any releases after the contract tampering allegations and I'm not sorting through all the million dirt sheets copying and pasting the same story

 

[The Gipper]

Shoutout to Justin Roberts though, good on him for atleast trying to help with that promo.

 

[Cwalker]

I could’ve sworn he said the same thing a while ago. That he wouldn’t just randomly cut people. But I could be mistaken.

And he does seem to be doubling down on it with his recent comments. Which sucks because I’m sure there are some guys that do want out and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen.

 

[Chris]

Shoutout to Justin Roberts though, good on him for atleast trying to help with that promo.

He's the unsung hero of live events too lol I love how he keeps the crowd engaged during commercials

 

[Chris]

I could’ve sworn he said the same thing a while ago. That he wouldn’t just randomly cut people. But I could be mistaken.

And he does seem to be doubling down on it with his recent comments. Which sucks because I’m sure there are some guys that do want out and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen.

I think the "if they don't wanna be here they can go" comment was probably after Cody left if anything since that popped into my brain just now but I just can't find it lol either way tho he's always been about honoring contracts til the end, like how he kept paying Janela and Stunt when they were working indies. The only releases I can remember were for scandals like Jimmy Havoc