Interviews Executive
In an exclusive interview with Poker Scout, ex-WWE superstar Saraya tells all about her recent experience at the Celebrity Poker Tour. She also opened up on all things wrestling including what it was like to win the AEW World Championship at Wembley Stadium and much more.
Here are the key headlines from the interview:
– I felt pressure as the youngest female WWE Champion
– Tony Khan left me in tears when he told me I’d win AEW title at Wembley
– Triple H helped women’s wrestling more than people realise
– I’d love to face Rhea Ripley in an Extreme Rules match!
– Women steal the show, I can’t wait for War Games at Survivor Series!
– Natalya has to be on my Mount Rushmore, she’s one of the best to do it
– There is SO MUCH opportunity in wrestling right now
– NXT star Tatum Paxley is the future of WWE’s women’s division
Poker Scout: I saw you were on the Celebrity Poker Tour recently, was it fun getting involved in a bit of poker?
Saraya: Oh my gosh! No, I don’t know how to do poker. I got asked to be a part of it. It was fun meeting with everybody, seeing old friends, like Nev Schulman. I did an episode of Catfish. I don’t know when that’s ever gonna frigging air. It got canceled now, so who knows if it will ever. But it was good to see old friends again. I don’t think I would do it again. It was a little too intense for me. I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know what these cards mean, you know? It was fun to be a part of, but I think that was my first and last.
Poker Scout: If your wrestling persona was playing poker, how do you think they’d approach it?
Saraya: Oh, big bets for sure. I think my character doesn’t give a f**k. Me, I was nauseous. My ass was sweating.
Poker Scout: Have you seen the lineup for the Women’s War Games match, what do you make of it?
Saraya: Yeah, it’s massive. You have all the top ladies in there. The girls always steal the show, in my opinion. Maybe I’m biased because that’s my gender. I just think they do incredible things. No, I’m not being biased. They’re just f**king good. They’re great f**king wrestlers!
Poker Scout: Being the youngest female champion in WWE history – did you feel pressure?
Saraya: I was so honoured and stressed out that I was getting that opportunity straight out the gate. Obviously they trusted me with it, but at the same time I am really young. With the championship comes a lot of pressure and a lot of things that you have to get done. As soon as I was out of the ring, they’re like, go take pictures, go talk to the media, go do this, go do that. And I’m like, this is my first day on the job, you know? So it was very intense. But I loved it and I’m so proud that I made history that day. One of the first double champs, may I say, NXT and Diva’s Champion. Never lost it. But I loved it. I don’t think it hindered me in any way. The only thing that hindered me was myself, with the drinking and stuff like that. I wish I was a lot smarter when it comes to things like that. I’m seven years sober now. I would never be drinking and be in a mess ever again in that way. I’m sure I’ll be a mess in other ways though. We were just so busy. It was a lot of fun. I was enjoying my life for sure. I just made some silly decisions.
Poker Scout: What was your greatest fear in those early years when you were rapidly rising through the ranks?
Saraya: There was no holding back. I was still very insecure because again, back then I did look very different to everybody else. The only one that was kind of similar to me was AJ. I was definitely insecure. I was young. I wanted to make everyone proud. I felt the pressure. It was an intense time of my life, but there wasn’t anything that I was severely worried about.
Poker Scout: Being British in America, that must have given you a unique angle.
Saraya: Well, I had to grow up very quickly, that’s for sure. I got signed at 18, came over here at 19. I was in a very big country with a very different culture and different food and different ways of living and stuff like that. So it was very intense to adapt. But I did myself proud,.
Poker Scout: You held the WWE Divas Championship twice. Which of those reigns do you view as more significant to yourself?
Saraya: I think the first one because it made such an impact. I loved the second one. I won it on my birthday at Summer Slam and it was incredible. But I think the first one was my favorite because it was just such a big moment for me. And obviously it didn’t hold it for too long. Because it was a couple months before AJ came back and won it the way I won it, which I thought was cool. But I think that one. It was just such a memorable time.
Poker Scout: In AEW, you won the Women’s World Championship at Wembley, a Big Homecoming. How did that moment compare emotionally to your biggest achievements in WWE?
Saraya: When Tony told me the night before, I cried my eyes out because I never thought that I would ever be back in the ring again, first and foremost. I never thought I’d win a championship again, I never thought that moment was ever gonna come for me ever again. I got told I would never wrestle again in my lifetime and then for some reason my neck miraculously recovered. I don’t know what happened. Maybe I’d like to say my sobriety and healthy living kind of helped, but having my family be a part of it and in my home country in front of my home people, it was just such a wild emotional experience, I was crying my eyes out. As soon as I came back, everybody was there, my buddies, everyone was surrounding me and giving me hugs and stuff, and it was just such a powerful moment and that’s something I’ll never forget and I’m so grateful for Tony for giving me the opportunity.
Poker Scout: You mention Tony Khan. How was it working with him in general? Did you prefer working with him to Vince creatively and the input he has?
Saraya: I wouldn’t say I liked one over the other, it was just very different, it was just a different work environment. That’s like saying “what are you from McDonald’s or like Burger King?” They’re both food places, they just run a little bit differently. I did like working over there, I had a lot of fun, the backstage was really, really great. It made me a little nervous when there was no writing sometimes, because we’re used to getting at least bullet points of what they want us to say in WWE. So I kind of love the structure over in WWE but I also like the freedom that you had in AEW so it’s really hard to figure out. I’m grateful that I got the opportunity to work in both places. Like whoever leaves WWE, I tell them to go to AEW and enjoy your time there and if someone leaves AEW, I say go to WWE, and you’ll enjoy your time there. I know it feels like a political answer, but I just love that there’s like multiple places you can go, like even Impact now, they did such a good job on their pay-per-view and they sold out an arena and you haven’t seen Impact do that in a very long time, so like they’re really doing something special over there as well. So the three companies, there are opportunities for people now, there was only one company years ago.
Poker Scout: What do you think about Triple H and the job he’s doing with WWE right now? Do you think it’s going in the right direction?
Saraya: With Hunter, I will always hold a soft spot because he helped the women more than people realise, when he took over NXT, he trusted us to have these long matches. He gave us time, he gave us the opportunities, he let us do moves that women weren’t doing before or hadn’t done in a very long time or what Vince didn’t allow us to do. So I’m very grateful for him. I’m sure everyone has an opinion on the way he runs it, no one’s ever gonna be fully happy and there’s gonna be people that are really happy with the way it’s going. I think he’s doing a great job, I feel there’s not much I can say because it’s not just him, there’s a room full of writers that are on the road and at home and there’s so many people that are writing this show. So if something’s not great, a lot of people go on the attack with Hunter and people don’t realise it’s not just him. He’s just trying to put on the best show that he possibly can. He’s the face and the lightning conductor. Exactly, he’s the one who gets the brunt of it, and people just don’t realise there’s more people in just one person running the show.
Poker Scout: Quick word about your film about you and your siblings ‘fighting with my family’ it was a hit, it blew up and stuff. Would you be open to being involved in any similar productions in the future, or is that one done for you?
Saraya: No, ‘Fighting with my family’ was so special. I’m sure there’s gonna be another thing that we can do with it and if there was and the opportunity presented itself, I would absolutely do it again because people loved it. In the UK it was the number one movie, it was crazy and over here in America, it was like in the top four. But we were going against a Marvel movie, so it just did wonderful things and the ratings were really good, the audience score was really good. Like Stephen Merchant, the way he wrote and directed it was fantastic. So it was great. So if there was an opportunity to do something else then hell yeah!
Poker Scout: Who would be in your Mount Rushmore of all time women’s wrestlers?
Saraya: Bull Nakano, Lita, just because I was so obsessed with her when I was younger and she was just so edgy and so cool, Nattie Neidhart 100% would be on my Mount Rushmore, she is one of the best wrestlers you’ll ever come across, I love her. It’s hard to only pick four, it’s really hard because I love Toni Storm so much and I think what she’s doing is so incredible, it’s really hard because I love Rhea Ripley too. I feel like what she’s doing is incredible for the world of wrestling. So there’s a lot of women, I can’t pick just four, but at least three because I don’t know who to put in that last spot, Nattie, Bull Nakano and Lita. It’s such a hard question, I get asked that numerous times, a lot of the women are just fantastic and just doing such wonderful things for the business. I don’t know, because I could even put AJ in there and I could put anybody in that spot and it would be accurate.
Poker Scout: We spoke to Ric Flair recently, the legend and he said that Charlotte Flair is not only the greatest women’s wrestler of all time, but the greatest wrestler of all time. Obviously a huge claim. What do you make of that?
Saraya: I love Charlotte and I think she’s the f***ing coolest person ever and I think from when she began in FCW with me, she’s just developed into this most confident well put together Wrestling phenomenon, she really is, people haven’t seen her from the very beginning and obviously Ric Flair, that’s his daughter, he’s going to say that, right? But if he thinks that, hell yeah because everyone’s entitled to their own opinion and I think she is incredible. I forgot about her, she might have been on my Mount Rushmore, because I think she’s just the coolest person in the world. But I don’t know. Everyone’s entitled to pick whoever they want to be their favourite wrestler in the world, so I don’t really have anything negative to say about it, do your thing Ric Flair. A father’s always gonna big up his daughter as he should. If he said something else, I’d be giving him the side eye.
Poker Scout: Priscilla Kelly recently claimed that some WWE contracts pay as low as 30K a year. Which doesn’t sound like much, but obviously there’s the potential in the future to earn more. Do you think that youngsters on development contracts are underpaid?
Saraya: So that’s a hard question because when you first come into the business, especially WWE you’ll take anything just to be there and I don’t know about the contracts these days. I don’t know if it’s 30,000. I don’t know what everybody’s getting paid, so I can’t really say if they’re getting underpaid or not because I haven’t been in NXT for a very long time, so if she says it’s that amount, okay. I don’t really have an opinion on it, because I don’t know if it’s accurate or not. I have no idea. I think what she’s doing is incredible though and I saw she earns more money outside of WWE and I think that’s awesome. I think that’s awesome, you want to be able to do that and it gives people hope that if they do get released from WWE or AEW, in the outside world, you can still earn the same amount of money or more. You always have to have a few streams of income, that’s really important, at least three streams of income. WWE gives you a huge platform to put your name or brand out there. Yes, you get a massive opportunity to potentially be the next Roman Reigns, John Cena, Rhea Ripley, you have the opportunity to be something very, very special and so WWE is giving you that platform.
Poker Scout: If you could fight any wrestler in the whole world right now, who would it be and what stipulation would you choose for the match?
Saraya: It has to be Rhea Ripley. When I was in WWE, we had just started getting the ball rolling with the Divas Revolution. So the matches like the Elimination Chamber and the Royal Rumble and stuff like that was only just starting to happen. So I didn’t get the opportunity to do those, at least in WWE anyway. So I feel like it would be fitting for me and Rhea to do an Extreme Rules match or something like that. Something edgy for us!
Poker Scout: Is there anyone in NXT you see as the future of the Women’s Division in WWE?
Saraya: I really enjoy watching Sol Ruca, so she’s one of them. And Tatum Paxley is really special too. I think maybe I’m biased to my gothic girls, but I do genuinely think that she’s incredible and her wrestling is great. Her mic work is great and she’s doing really wonderful things, so I think she’s going to be a big star soon. I have to throw Blake Monroe in there too.
Poker Scout: I wanted to ask you about social media as we’ve seen a few veteran wrestlers criticize younger talent for oversharing and breaking kayfabe online. What’s your take on that and how things are moving with social media in wrestling?
Saraya: I used to be someone who would go in there and say what’s right and wrong but I haven’t done that for at least the last couple of years unless I have a troll and I tell them to go f**k themselves. That’s the only time you’ll see me talking any sh*t. I just feel like times have changed and it’s very different. It’s like it’s harder to keep kayfabe these days compared to back in the day when there were no cameras or social media or anything like that where you could keep that mystery there. But it’s harder to do these days. It really is harder to do. Like you never know when there’s a camera on you, you never know when someone’s gonna pop up. And WWE did that whole show where they’re kind of pulling the curtain back anyway, so if they didn’t want it to be exposed then they wouldn’t have done it. My opinion is you’re entitled to your own opinion. I don’t care what you think. You can break kayfabe if you want to or not, it doesn’t matter to me.
Poker Scout: When Undertaker talks about it, it was a lot easier back in his day wasn’t it?
Saraya: For sure. And I respect The Undertaker because he’s just one of those people that obviously was like a locker room leader back in the day, but also one of the biggest superstars of all time. But again in that era it was important to keep kayfabe, but especially with his character too. And I always watch videos of Kurt Angle and Stone Cold and others trying to break his character in backstage promos. And I think it’s really cool. I think it’s really funny to look back and watch and he’s absolutely entitled to his opinion. But obviously people that wanna break kayfabe, you can’t really force them not to.
Poker Scout: Chris Jericho reckons that TNA has overtaken AEW as the second promotion behind WWE, did you see that and what do you think?
Saraya: I did see it. And again, everyone’s entitled to their opinion. I saw their recent show and what they’re doing is absolutely incredible. I don’t know how the rest of the shows are going. I don’t even know how AEW shows are going. I’ve actually only been really watching RAW and SmackDown, because I want to watch AJ Lee whenever she shows up. So I don’t really know how that’s going. But if he thinks that then he thinks that.
