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Saraya Loves That Sasha Banks Took Career Into Her Own Hands

saraya paige sasha banks

Saraya is praising Sasha Banks for choosing to take her career into her own hands now that 2023 is here.

The year 2023 means that the former WWE superstar Sasha Banks, whose real name is Mercedes Varnado, is officially a wrestling free agent after walking out of WWE in May 2022. Banks has not been seen on any pro wrestling since last May, but she is expected to be at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17 on January 4th in Tokyo to likely set up a future match.

Saraya used to wrestle with Banks in WWE when Saraya was known as Paige. The two women were also part of a six-woman tag team match at a live event in December 2017 when Saraya injured her neck so badly that she couldn’t wrestle for five years. Saraya had surgery, got healthy and made her wrestling return this past November at AEW Full Gear.

In an interview with Metro, Saraya made it clear that she supports Banks doing her own thing now.

“I love the fact that she took her career into her own hands, and she knows her worth and she knows she wants to be treated a certain way, and she deserves to be treated that way because she’s done a lot for the wrestling business. She’s one of the girls that puts butts in seats, and you want to see wrestle and you wanna see main event. She deserves all those things.”

“Wherever she ends up, I’m gonna be happy for her, and anyone that gets her is gonna be very, very lucky. I just selfishly hope that I get to wrestle her one day. I don’t know if she’d want to because she’d probably be scared to wrestle me again (laughs).”

The ending line about being “scared” to wrestle Saraya again is in reference to that December 2017 match where Saraya suffered a serious neck injury. It was not Sasha’s fault, but due to being in the same match, it was an emotional thing for everybody involved.

On the January 11th edition of AEW Dynamite in Los Angeles, Saraya is going to team with a mystery partner against Britt Baker and AEW Women’s Champion Jamie Hayter. There is speculation that the mystery partner could be Banks, but that is not known officially at this time.