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WWE's handling of its stars, especially the Divas, has notoriously been criticized online. Former Divas Champion Saraya (Paige) recently spoke about how difficult the final few years of her run were with the promotion.
Despite having her career tragically cut short due to her neck injury in 2017, Saraya was still signed to the promotion and had a few on-screen appearances before parting ways last year.
During her appearance on The Mark Hoke Show, The Anti-Diva claimed that the Stamford-based promotion didn't want her on-screen in any capacity.
"I was doing Twitch but I was also being held back so much when I was in the WWE because they just didn’t give me the freedom to do what I wanted to do. They didn’t want me doing media, they didn’t want me to do anything so I was sitting on my a** for a couple years and people thought I enjoyed that."
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Saraya continued:
“No, I hated that. I was miserable, it made me very depressed. Not to the point where I started doing drugs and drinking again because I was a lot smarter by that point but it would make me so miserable, like not being able to do anything.” (H/T: POST Wrestling).
Her issues in WWE sadly didn't begin there, and recently the star recalled when she, along with The Bella Twins, stood up to the poor booking and creative direction.
Missed out on last week's AEW Dynamite? Catch up with the results before tonight's show right here.
The former WWE Divas Champion initially wanted to debut in AEW as a heel
The stark difference in creative freedom between AEW and WWE is something that's often brought up by fans online. Notably, some wrestlers in AEW are allowed more creative freedom than others, and while Saraya seems to be amongst them, Khan shot down her first pitch.
During her appearance on The Corner Podcast, The Anti-Diva recalled how she tried to convince Tony Khan to allow her to debut as a heel.
"I wanted to do it straight out of the gate but Tony [Khan] and everyone was saying, 'You can’t because you’re now coming back. Career-ending injury, you’re finally back in the ring again so people are gonna cheer you.'" [H/T: POST Wrestling]
Saraya also noted that her promo battles with Britt Baker ended up making her look more like a heel in the end, which seems to be one of the reasons why she's embraced her heel nature today.
