"She's not the star she was in WWE" - Wrestling legend shares blunt thoughts on Saraya's AEW career

AEW shocked the wrestling world when the company signed Saraya in September 2022. The former Paige of WWE had been retired due to a serious neck injury, but she remained one of the more popular wrestling stars. However, there has been significant criticism over how AEW has used Saraya, and now, one wrestling legend has chimed in on the discussion.

Saraya returned to the ring with a win over Britt Baker at AEW Full Gear 2022, her first match since December 2017. Since then, she has had 19 additional matches for the company, including a two-month reign with the Women's World Championship. The 31-year-old has only wrestled four matches in 2024 so far, and three of those were multi-woman bouts.

Wrestling legend Konnan discussed Saraya's status on his Keepin' It 100 podcast. The longtime booker declared AEW's Saraya less interesting than WWE's Paige, partially blaming creative. He also criticized her current storyline with her brother Zak Knight and friend Harley Cameron.

"She's not the star she was in WWE. She's been diluted, she's not as interesting. [If they had her in a good storyline], she knows how to do it because she was in WWE, she'd kill it, but she's not really in a good storyline. Like, 'Oh, my brother's here and he's angry all the time, and Harley Cameron for some reason that was never explained, is now my best friend!' And we don't even know what's going on," Konnan said. [From 1:51 to 2:16]

Saraya defeated Mariah May in nine minutes on this week's Dynamite. Before that, her last singles bout was a Dynamite loss to Riho on December 20, 2023.

AEW announces special Collision episode

All Elite Wrestling will celebrate the one-year anniversary of Collision on Saturday, June 15. The live episode will air from the Covelli Centre in Youngstown, Ohio, that night.

Next week's Collision will be the 49th episode. The current lineup reads like this:

• The return of The House of Black
• Christian Cage presents his Father's Day Special
• No DQ: Thunder Rosa vs. Deonna Purrazzo
• TNT Championship Ladder Match Qualifier: Lee Moriarty vs. Dante Martin (Everyone Banned from Ringside)

The Collision premiere aired on Saturday, June 17, from the United Center in Chicago, IL. The episode was headlined by CM Punk and FTR defeating Samoa Joe, Jay White, and Juice Robinson.