Saraya's Career Sure Felt Worse Off In AEW Versus WWE

There's little doubt in most fan's minds that Saraya, or Paige as most WWE fans remember her by, had a Hall of Fame career within the WWE. There's of course the accolades, including her two reigns as WWE Divas Champion and her one reign as NXT Women's Champion, a notable reign given she was the first woman to ever hold that title. But even more important than championship wins is what Saraya represents, not just for women's wrestling but for women's wrestling in WWE. Arriving in the promotion during a time when the women's division was largely treated as an afterthought and a joke, Saraya's Paige is seen one of the first women to break down doors, forcing WWE to take women's wrestling seriously and leading to the present day, when women are main eventing "Raw," "SmackDown," and PLE's, including WrestleMania.

As such, when Saraya first stepped foot into an AEW ring at "AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam" in the fall of 2022, there were inevitably going to be comparisons between Saraya in AEW and Paige and WWE, especially after Saraya confirmed she would be returning to the ring after being forced to retire years earlier. Would she be able to have the same success in AEW that she had in WWE, and perhaps more importantly, would she be able to have the same impact? With Saraya's two and a half year run with AEW now over, the answers to that would seem to be no on both fronts. Not only that, but given the lack of title reigns compared to her WWE run, and the fact that she disappeared from AEW programming during her final months with the promotion, it would be very easy to suggest that Saraya's AEW run wasn't just inferior, but left her worse off.

Is that actually the case though? For one, Saraya's AEW run, by most standards, would largely be described as pretty good. While in AEW, she was featured frequently, with her return to the ring against Britt Baker at AEW Full Gear being billed as a big deal, and her stable, The Outcasts, pushed as the top heel women's act on the roster. Saraya also did win gold, defeating Hikaru Shida, Baker, and Toni Storm to become AEW Women's World Champion in her home country at AEW All In, and continued to be featured even after she lost the title back to Shida a few months later. Some fans even argued during this period that Saraya was overpushed, with many criticizing her in-ring work, the Outcasts frequent use of interference to win matches, and Saraya failing to adapt to AEW by portraying a character more in style with WWE.

Ultimately, one could argue that Saraya's AEW seems disappointing only because of expectations. In WWE, she was a trailblazer and pioneer for women's wrestling. That was not the case in AEW, despite what some, including Saraya herself, may have hoped. But how could she have been? Given her injury history and long-layoff, it was always going to be difficult for Saraya to replicate her past in-ring work. And while she was a star, she was not a star on the level of Mercedes Mone, another former WWE turned AEW star who has strengthened the AEW women's division. So in the end, it comes down to how one views things. If you expected Saraya to have a similar effect on AEW that she did in WWE, then yes, Saraya's AEW run was far worse. But if you didn't have those expectations, in the end, it doesn't appear Saraya's AEW tenure was all that bad.