Saraya, formerly known as Paige in WWE, made her shocking debut for All Elite Wrestling at Dynamite: Grand Slam.
The 30-year-old arrived in AEW following the 4-Way match for the AEW Interim Women’s Championship. Toni Storm successfully defended the title against Britt Baker, Serena Deeb, and Athena. After the match, Britt, Jamie Hayter, and Serena Deeb attacked Toni and Athena in the ring.
Saraya then made her way to the ring to an enormous pop from the crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium. AEW has announced that she will be addressing the crowd this Wednesday on Dynamite.
Booker T Praises Saraya After Her Debut In All Elite Wrestling
Two-time WWE Hall of Famer Booker T spoke about Saraya’s debut in AEW on his Hall of Fame podcast and noted that he predicted that she would return to the ring after WWE opted not to re-sign her.
“Arthur Ashe Stadium, nice crowd, big pop. You could tell she was happy, you know, that smile was just radiating through the arena. So yeah man, I’m glad to see her back. Me personally, Paige has always been one of my favorites. She’s always been that chick, so I’m just glad to see her back seriously.
The 57-year-old also discussed the time he got her in trouble for a joke on WWE Backstage and said he enjoyed working with her on the now-canceled talk show.
“It was like a night off working with Paige. I remember getting her in trouble one night because I told her to introduce me as ‘The OG mother from the hood’. She got so much heat on social media man, people were blowing her up.I had to actually go out and defend her to say ‘come on I told her to say that’. That was all me. She wouldn’t have thought of anything like that.” [17:58 – 19:01]
You can check out Booker’s comments and the entire podcast below.