Saraya/Paige from WWE recently appeared on the Oral Sessions podcast with Renee Paquette. They discussed her positive and negative interactions with fans and her early days in WWE. They also discussed how she nearly missed winning her first championship, her current status as a wrestler and much more! The notable quotes can be found below.

On getting clean:

“Honestly, the drugs thing [getting clean] just kind of happened when I got the call to go back to WWE, because that kind of lifted my spirits a lot. I was like ‘Damn, I don’t want to f*ck up anymore.’ Then seeing this little girl randomly at a grocery store too, and I look like doo doo right. I wasn’t taking care of myself, I was really skinny, it was a really bad time. But the kid looked at me like I was a superhero, like Wonder Woman or something. Obviously she doesn’t read social media so she doesn’t see me in the dirt sheets or the headlines or whatever. And so so she was so happy to see me, she was like ‘I want to be like you one day.’ It really is like an awakening moment, you’re just like there are so many boys and girls out there that are looking up to you, to be guided, to be a role model. I’m not saying I’m the perfect role model, because I’m not. But I feel like people look up to me because I’ve messed up so many times, and fought back afterwards.”

On online trolls:

“There are still people out there who like to go out of their way to say the meanest stuff to me. Like even on Twitch I opened up my chat to follower only instead of subscriber only. There’s always one that comes in and mentions a video. I would be lying if I said it didn’t hurt my feelings. But I’ve got to a stage in my life where it doesn’t destroy me anymore. I’m like whatever, it is what it is, but there’s going to be less people doing it.”

On growing up in Norwich:

“Norwich is beautiful. It’s a city and a university town too. We say there is a pub for every day of the year and a church for every month. It’s good, you can get p*ssed up on every corner. I loved Norwich growing up it’s absolutely beautiful. It’s in the country as well, it’s that nice in-between. Growing up where everyone knew my family outside of wrestling too. My dad’s nickname was Paddy the black growing up. He worked on doors, he was a football hooligan, just everything. My brother Roy followed in his footsteps too. If I go back to Norwich I’m still known as Roy’s sister.”

On being seen as the next big thing in NXT:

“At first I wasn’t looked at like that [the next big thing in WWE], I mean they looked at me like oh she’s different she could be something really special. At the time there were ladies that Vince was going to love a lot more. Back then the aesthetic was tits and ass, even though there were a lot of women trying their best because they want to wrestle. When I first got there I have to do a bikini contest. Like what the f*ck that!? I was like what, I remember being so mad about it one day because we had to buy a cover and then unveil ourselves in the ring to 12 people in the crowd, there was like literally mostly children there. I was like this is horrifying, this is not what I signed up for. So it was like I landed, and then we have this wonderful woman that took care of us. I stayed with her for a couple of weeks, and she helped me with my bank account, my social security so I could get paid. I didn’t have any money. My family tried to give me as much as they had, they gave me £100. I needed to live, I needed more. So I asked my friend Steve from England, he gave me £2000 as well. I managed to get an apartment and stuff like that.”

On how she nearly didn’t win the NXT Women’s Championship

“First of all, I just want to talk about the day that I won the NXT Women’s Championship for the first time. I was actually cleared that day to wrestle, I nearly missed it, because I had a cyst on my ovary that I had to have surgery to remove. Hunter literally cleared me that day, he was like ‘listen if you can do this, this, this… and the doctor says it’s OK then you can wrestle.’ I was like oh my God I nearly missed that opportunity. If I wasn’t cleared it would have been Emma. I was so thankful that the doctor was like yeah she’s good to go.”

On how healthy her neck is and a potential in ring return:

“It feels really good to see Edge come back, because we have very similar injuries. Him and Beth Phoenix have both reached out to me, which I would love if I ever come back to face Phoenix. I feel like she would make me look like a million dollars but she would protect me at all costs. I’ve never been in the ring with her before and I feel like if anyone, even though I love The Bellas, I love the four Horsewomen, I love all these ladies, I’m just so in awe of what Beth can do. I feel like she can take me to the next level. Once I saw it, I got chills when I saw Bryan and Edge talking together backstage. I’m like damn it’s so inspiring, it makes me feel good. I haven’t had any issues with my neck right now, sometimes I will wake up and it’s like funny, but that will go away. I’m still going to get my neck checked soon, just to see the progress of it, and hopefully it looks good. I’m not saying in any way, shape or form that they will clear me to come back, it’s just a check up. I am intrigues to know how my neck had progressed. It honestly scares me to come back to wrestling, because I want to and I would come back tomorrow. But I’m always going to have that in the back of my head like, what if? What if something does happen and I do get paralysed. It does scare me. I know I’m not going to be fully ready mentally to come back, but watch out world. When I am ready to come back, everyone’s in trouble.”

On her positive attitude:

“I don’t like giving up on something easily. I feel like the first time I had that neck surgery and all that bad sh*t was happening, that was the first time that I’ve hit rock bottom and gave up. But that’s not me, I don’t give up. When I was wrestling in the UK, I would travel by myself all over Europe and America all by myself all the time. I was like I am going to get to WWE, I’ve always had that mindset. I didn’t get signed straight away, I changed a few things and I tried again. I want to continue to do stuff, I want to have a reality show like The Osbournes.”

Full podcast audio can be found here.

Paige can be found on Twitter here and Instagram here.