Saraya, better known as Paige to the WWE Universe, came back to action after almost five years at AEW Full Gear 2022 edition. It marked her first match inside the squared circle for the first time since a WWE Live Event in December 2017 where her young career came to a halt due to a neck injury.
At AEW Full Gear Saraya battled Britt Baker in a singles match at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey to a standing ovation from the crowd. Throughout the match, Baker targeted her opponent’s neck in a kayfabe way to play out the neck injury issue. Baker delivered a neck breaker and then a stomp on the neck to terrify the audience. Ultimately, she came up short after digesting the previous Ram-Paige finisher in WWE.
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While speaking during the post-AEW Full Gear press conference, Saraya reflected on this physical and emotional ride as her return match has become a reality. About her triumphant comeback to professional wrestling, the veteran female wrestler revealed that Tony Khan refused to let her compete in the ring until she was 100% ready,
“I feel fantastic and the wonderful thing, I mean Tony takes care of us, like he said, ‘I’m not going to let you get back in the ring until you’re 100% ready to go.’ I was like, ‘I promise you, I got this, I promise you.’ I did MRIs and X-Rays and my neck was 100% ready to go.”
Tony Khan and AEW doctors took care of Saraya before in-ring return
Tony Khan has been credited to be a really caring person to the returning superstar. It was previously indicated that he was going to sign Saraya even if she wasn’t allowed to wrestle. Obviously, her superstardom was going to help the company in different ways in that case.
Now that the in-ring return has occurred, it appears that the UK native will have to go through some procedures on a regular basis whether she wrestles or not. During the conversation, Saraya revealed that she underwent thorough testing from an outside doctor to ultimately get the clearance to resume in-ring competition. “We did MRIs, we did CT Scans, we did X-Rays, and my neck was just 100% ready to go.”
While preparing for the match, AEW doctors took extra precautions with Saraya’s neck and they are likely to continue with the same routine for the time being,
“Before the match, they worked on my neck, they heated it, they put those electric pads on. They were going all the pressure point stuff and they said, ‘we’ll do this every single time you’re here, even when you’re not wrestling.'” (quotes courtesy Ringside News)
