AEW wrestler Saraya was a recent guest on the “AEW Unrestricted” podcast to discuss her return to the ring at Full Gear 2022.
The podcast, which was recorded prior to the pay-per-view event, featured the former Paige discussing the IWC “inventing news and making assumptions,’ getting cleared to return, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the IWC inventing news and making assumptions: “I feel like I have to clear this up. I feel like the internet creates their own stories about how I was cleared, and who cleared me, and stuff like that. Which is just like: Calm down! You’re not with me, you’re not behind the scenes, you have no idea. The assumptions are strong in the IWC.”
On the rumor she saw multiple doctors: “People think I went to multiple different doctors. I didn’t! I went to one! AEW Doctor Sampson and Tony Khan were like, we can’t let you wrestle until we know you are a thousand percent cleared. They did it the right way. “You can do these physicalities here and there, but we cannot let you, in good conscience, let you get in the ring.” There’s too much liability, right?”
On visiting a top spine doctor with high-profile clients: “So Halloween [2022], which is a perfect day of the year, I went to go see a doctor here in Marina Del Rey. He’s fantastic. He works with NFL players, NBA players, huge singers. He is so up there as a doctor that there’s no way he would have cleared me without being 100% ready to go. People don’t realize that either, they just think I picked some random off the internet and was just like, give me a frikkin’ note.”
On doing X-Rays, MRI, CT Scans: “The doctor did the X-Ray, everything was looking really good. And then he was like, we have to triple-check. Let’s get the MRIs, let’s get the CT scans, we’ll try and get it done in one day. I went downstairs in the building, did both of them, came straight back upstairs again, and he was just like “it’s only been five years? You have full fluid around your spinal cord again.” Which is the thing that would have paralyzed me, because I didn’t have that [fluid] cushion around my spinal cord. I remember seeing it last time, and being like “ooh, yeah, there’s no spinal fluid there.” I’m not saying I’m an expert but I’ve seen a couple MRIs by now. There seems to be some fluid around that bad boy.
On her concern over the risk of paralysis: “Okay, so what’s the deal with the paralysis side of things? He just said, it’s rare. Now you have the cushion. You know your body, so if you start to feel a little sore here and there, which you’re gonna feel getting back in the swing of things, take care of yourself.”
On wanting to be cautious and take her time in her return: “So he asked me like how quick do you wanna jump in? I said, I don’t want to make the same mistake again [that I did on my first return five years ago] where I wrestle Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, taking all these bumps. I need to be cautious this time with myself. This is my decision. And Tony, everyone, was so accommodating with that. I love that. “We will go at your pace. Whenever you’re ready to start getting fully in the swing of things we’ll do it.” It’s not that I’m scared of getting back in the ring. I’m 100% ready to go. I just want to take it slower this time so I don’t make the same mistake again.”
On the moves she will no longer take, IWC gossip about it: “People on the internet are like “how is she cleared, she’s gonna hurt herself!” And then on the other hand, they’re like: “Wait, you don’t want to take a piledriver and a German? Are you even cleared?” No, I don’t want to take a German suplex! You’ll see plenty of those in other matches. I’m good not taking a German suplex and a piledriver (laughs). I can tell stories, it’s fine. I’m still gonna be bumping around and doing my thing. There’s just some moves I’m just taking out of my repertoire.”
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(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
