Saraya on How Long She’s Wanted to be a Heel in Wrestling, Her Frustration After Signing With AEW

– During a recent interview with Metro UK’s Alistair McGeorge ahead of tonight’s AEW Dynamite Grand Slam, AEW Women’s World Champion Saraya discussed her heel turn earlier this year and more. Below are some highlights:

Saraya on turning heel: “I always wanted to be a heel, even before [AEW] knew I was gonna be wrestling again. I always wanted to be a bad guy. Because I already knew it wasn’t going to be long until they turned on me. I knew that. I said that – having conversations before I came to AEW, I was speaking to Jon Moxley, I was speaking to [Chris] Jericho, I was speaking to Tony Khan. They were all telling me, ‘You’re gonna be a babyface first because people are just gonna be happy to see you.’ It was really frustrating.”

On how she would throw heelish comments in her promos: “What I kept doing is I kept throwing in heelish things in promos or how I acted, things like that. I wanted that slow burn anyway and then eventually I was gonna get the opportunity to turn heel – I just had to wait a little bit. It worked out!”

Her thoughts on wrestling Twitter (now X): “Wrestling twitter is so soft. It’s because it’s a bunch of misogynistic neck beards or stan accounts who can’t tell a wrist lock from a pad lock. But they follow everything I do. Watch my tweets. Search my name. Keep me trending. That’s showbiz baby!”

Sarya defends her AEW Women’s World Title later tonight at AEW Dynamite Grand Slam. She is defending the title against her former Outcasts stablemate and former champion Toni Storm. The event is being held at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York. Tonight’s live broadcast begins on TBS at 8:00 pm EST.