• Saraya Reveals Why She Was Miserable In AEW
During an interview on Freddie Prinze Jr.’s Wrestling with Freddie podcast, Saraya revealed why she fell out of love with wrestling during her time in All Elite Wrestling:
“I’m taking wrestling so seriously; I lost my passion for it for a second; I kind of fell out of love with it and it was kind of making me miserable at one point.
I feel like the company I was in… I loved being in AEW; I had so much fun. But the character I was doing, I wasn’t too happy with and I wish I could have done certain matches and certain things and it didn’t come to be and it’s fine. It’s absolutely fine. That’s what was supposed to happen.
I just kind of fell out of love with it and so now, I’m just like, ‘I need to start training again; I need to get my a$$ back into shape; I need to be the Paige that I was in NXT but better.’
I can do it at 33 still; I still got it. So I started training in January and I had told people I was gonna start doing that months ago and everyone thought I was just posting it for the Rumble. I was like, ‘No! I’ve been telling you guys. I’m training in January. I’m doing this.’
I do wanna come back to wrestling, I do wanna start getting in the swing of things again and if I was to come back, I’ll be better than you’ve ever seen me. I can promise you that.”
• Original Plan For 2026 Men’s Royal Rumble Winner
The road to WrestleMania 42 was nearly a coronation for Bron Breakker, but a series of high-stakes creative gambles and a shock title change in Berlin have completely altered the landscape of WWE’s biggest season.
According to the Wrestling Observer, Breakker was the original choice to win the 2026 Men’s Royal Rumble. The plan followed a three-step strategy born out of necessity after Seth Rollins went down with a shoulder injury at Crown Jewel 2025.
To fill the void, WWE positioned CM Punk as the World Heavyweight Champion, with the intent of having Breakker challenge him on the RAW Netflix anniversary episode, fall short, and then rebound by winning the Rumble to set up a title-winning rematch at WrestleMania 42.
This massive push for The Badass was derailed by the WWE Championship picture on SmackDown. Before the 3 Stages of Hell match on January 9, Drew McIntyre reportedly advocated for a victory over Cody Rhodes to avoid a cycle of high-profile losses. With Rhodes’ support and Triple H’s blessing to freshen up the title scene, McIntyre walked out of Berlin as the new Undisputed WWE Champion.
This shift created a domino effect that reached all the way to Saudi Arabia. With McIntyre holding the gold and management eyeing a title rematch between McIntyre and Rhodes for WrestleMania 42, the decision was made to book Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk for the World Heavyweight Title at WrestleMania 42, which led to Breakker’s Rumble win being given to The OTC.
WrestleVotes confirmed this report as well: “Bron Breakker was absolutely the planned winner at one point. Plans got upended when creative shifted from Roman Reigns vs Cody Rhodes as the main event to Reigns vs CM Punk instead.”
However, Breakker is still going to have a big match at WrestleMania 42, as The Observer reported that Seth Rollins is going to be ready for WrestleMania and will return to face Breakker in a singles match.
