Saraya Recalls The Moment She Found Out She Was Cleared To Return To The Ring

Having made her return to the wrestling industry, Saraya has revealed her reaction to being told she could compete inside the squared circle once again.

Saraya made her shocking AEW debut on the Grand Slam edition of Dynamite in September 2022, although she didn’t get physically involved that night. This led many to wonder whether she was indeed cleared, or she would have a role which didn’t involved competing in matches.

However, she has now confirmed that she is medically cleared, and will have her first match back at Full Gear when she takes on Britt Baker.

In an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Saraya has detailed the moment she was told that her neck was healthy again.

So we get everything done. He brings me back upstairs, and then he just like, he looks at it. And okay, so I’ve seen a few of my MRIs now and I’m fully aware of like, I’m not saying I’m a doctor of any kind and I know how to perfectly read them, but I saw where I didn’t have any fluid. And this time around, I see that there’s nothing like it on my neck.

So I’m just like, am I like reading this right, or does that look like this fluid around my spinal cord? So then the doctor straightaway was just like your neck looks fantastic. And I’m like what? he’s like you got all your fluid back around just fine. I’m like, what? After five years? He’s like yes, you have all the fluid around your spine. Again, your fusions look fantastic. He said the top one is nearly like 100% fused, there’s just a tiny bit where like, you know where there’s a little bit of wiggle room, but he’s not worried about it.

Continuing on, Saraya noted that it was risk of paralysis which had been the biggest concern, however again she was told this was no longer an issue.

So I said to him like, well, what are the odds of me being paralysed now? Because that’s the thing that was holding me back. And so he was like, oh, it’s very rare. He was like, now you have all that cushion around your spinal cord. And he’s like, if something does happen, when someone does kick you, the most that will happen is what happened before or you’ll get like a little pain, and then you just take some time away. [With] your body, you know what to do, you know what not to do.

Naturally Saraya was emotional at receiving the news, and spoke of who she contacted as soon as she could.

I couldn’t believe it, I cried my eyes out. I called my family straightaway. I FaceTimed them, and they’re all crying and stuff because like wrestling is their life. You know, and for somebody to like, you know, have their career taken away from it at such a young age without an end in sight when it comes to it. It is just a miracle and absolutely fantastic.

And then one of the first people I texted was Mercedes, Sasha Banks. Because Sasha went through a lot too. She wasn’t the one that was hurt, but she was the one who accidentally ended someone’s career. And she went through a lot mentally, like, social media were cruel to her. And then it just messed her up in general, because she was just like, I can’t believe that happened. And it was a freak accident, you know, wrestling is wrestling, you’re gonna get hurt eventually.

I just wanted her to be one of the first people to know that I was like, I’m back. You don’t have to stress anymore, like I’m back, you didn’t end it, I’m good. And she was just over the moon, she was so happy. She was very pleased for me, she was very encouraging. And I just like the fact that it kind of took all that weight off her shoulders too.