After being forced to retire from in-ring action in 2017 due to a serious neck injury, Saraya finally made her return to the ring and wrestled her first match in five years against Britt Baker this past weekend.
Saraya debuted in AEW at Dynamite Grand Slam in September and immediately set her sights on Britt Baker. A few weeks later, the former Paige revealed that she had been 100% cleared to return to the ring and marked her return to action with a victory over Baker at Full Gear.
Prior to her in-ring return, Saraya sat down with AEW Unrestricted and revealed which surprising star had a helping hand in her feud with Britt Baker.
Jon Moxley Worked In A Producer Role On The Saraya And Britt Baker Feud
Saraya and Britt Baker were scheduled for a sit-down promo with Renee Paquette on the November 2nd edition of Dynamite, but the former WWE Women’s Champion told AEW Unrestricted that plans for the segment changed on the day of the show, thanks in part to Jon Moxley:
“I was thinking about that promo [announcing she was clear]…we changed it up last minute with the sitdown. Me, Britt, Renee, and Mox [Jon Moxley], because Mox has been a big producer on our segments. After the first promo, he was like, ‘I’m going to f**king make sure that we make this as best as possible. I want to help you.’ We changed the sitdown because they only gave us two minutes. We’re not going to be able to tell a story in two minutes, especially backstage and without a crowd, you can’t feel the energy. That promo, we were supposed to do in two minutes in a backstage. We’re just like, ‘We’re going to change this.'”
Saraya also revealed that they made the decision to change things up without getting clearance from AEW President Tony Khan:
“We didn’t ask Tony about it, we just did it. Britt had to go do something anyway at like five and she was like, ‘I’ll be right back.’ We just went, ‘We’re going to change it and say she didn’t turn up. It fits in with her thinking that I’m coming in, Renee is my friend,’ we could piece it together so much easier in two minutes. We did that, it went way better, then we told Tony, ‘is it okay if we get this promo next week?’ Luckily, he was so great with it, even though we’re changing his show on the day. ‘Great, we’ll get Britt backstage explaining why she didn’t turn up, next week we can give you six minutes,’ we went over, ‘we’ll give you six minutes.’ It felt right. I’m sorry we went over, but the emotion in the crowd felt good,”
H/t to Fightful for the transcription.