When Saraya joined AEW almost a year ago, fans heralded it as one of the most shocking things to happen in the world of professional wrestling.
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After all, this was a woman who had been loyal to WWE through thick and thin ever since the world's leading wrestling promotion took her in from the English independent circuit and turned her into the first female star of modern NXT (I.e., the post-reality show version). However, like many of her peers, she has had quite the journey from childhood to the ring. Filled with derailments and resurgences, this is a photographic story of Saraya's life and career...
10 Childhood
Every wrestler has to start somewhere, and for Saraya-Jade Bevis, her wrestling story began from the womb - literally. Her mother, the legendary Sweet Saraya, was in fact seven months pregnant with her at one point.
Describing herself as a "tomboy", the young Saraya was ironically afraid of wrestling at first, not wanting to get hurt. But that did not stop her from occasionally taking and giving bumps with her father and older brother. Three years later something occurred which would change her life forever...
9 Teenage Wrestling Prospect
In 2005, when Saraya was 13 years old, she was attending a wrestling show in Britain when one of the performers failed to appear. Her father Ricky Knight, himself a wrestler and promoter, asked her to step in, and she proved a natural, displaying a ferocity and passion that hitherto been unseen.
Then called Britani Knight, she would wrestle all over Europe, winning multiple titles, but arguably her best matches were with her own mother. Think about it as Cassie Cage fighting Sonya Blade to prove her worth as a warrior, but somewhat more hateful, given the grungy nature of British (and by extension) wrestling.
8 Breaking Out In Shimmer
In 2011, looking for a bigger audience, the Knights flew to America to compete in SHIMMER, the premier all-women's wrestling promotion at the time. Under the management of a certain Irelander, they became one of the top tag teams in the promotion, but whenever they fought for titles, they always lost.
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As a result, Mommy Saraya decided that her daughter was no longer worth having, disowning Britani. The young girl would triumph in a no-DQ grudge match, and decide that it was now time to forge her own path.
7 FCW: Rough WWE Beginnings
When one thinks of FCW, one thing come to mind: proto-NXT. After WWE ended ties with Ohio Valley Wrestling (the initial promotion of Randy Orton, Batista, Brock Lesnar, and John Cena), it turned to Florida Champion Wrestling (which is what the initials mean).
Perhaps the greatest graduates of that promotion are a certain trio of wrestlers who would later become The Shield. But for the woman now known as Paige, this was her first exposure to how demeaning WWE could be at the time: bikini contests, playing the referee, and not much actual in-ring action.
6 NXT: Becoming The Ruler
In 2012, WWE turned FCW into the new NXT. It was a landmark moment for professional wrestling as a whole, as Triple H would begin cultivating his prowess as a booker here. And when it came to its women, it promised and delivered one thing: actual storylines and matches.
As the most experienced worker of what was a small bunch at the time, Paige was the obvious no-brainer to lead the way. She became the promotion's inaugural NXT Women's Champion and carried it all the way to her main roster debut on the night after WrestleMania 30, defeating AJ Lee for the Divas Championship in her debut match.
5 Into WWE's Main Roster
Now finally wrestling before big crowds. Paige took a while to truly find a footing. After she dethroned AJ Lee, WWE tried to cast her as a fighting Divas Champion, but when that went badly, they had her turn heel and begin a feud with AJ that carried sensual overtones.
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Soon, Paige joined Total Divas and became less prominent as a wrestler. She would not arguably regain her footing until mid-2015, when she revealed a stable with Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch (yes, that old SHIMMER buddy of hers).
4 2017 Return
By the second half of 2016, Paige was a shell of her former self: sidelined by a neck injury and two Wellness Policy violations and surpassed in the ring and on the mic by the Four Horsewomen. She was also involved in a very destructive relationship with Alberto Del Rio that would soon escalate into domestic violence.
Fans would become uneasy about where she would end up... and then in November 2017, "Stars in the Night" blared around the arena. It was indeed Paige, but she was not alone. Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville appeared, and they destroyed their peers. But Paige would have just one televised match before another neck injury ended her career, seemingly for good...
3 WWE Manager
Paige did not take long before getting herself another wrestling role, though. A day after she announced her (then-first) retirement, she was named SmackDown's new general manager by Shane McMahon. She would last eight and a half months in that role.
After a short hiatus, she became the manager of the Kabuki Warriors, Asuka and Kairi Sane. Under her tutelage, they would win the Women's Tag Team Championships, though they would betray her with mist as she congratulated them on the achievement. She would still make sporadic TV appearances afterward, but something was missing...
2 All Elite
In June 2022, Paige shocked wrestling fans by leaving WWE. Fans were dumbfounded. Why would she leave the promotion that she had called home for a decade? And where would she end up next?
Three months later, the answer came - at AEW Grand Slam. Paige was no more; Saraya had risen from her ashes, and she was here not to merely be a valet - she was here to fight. And at Full Gear, she achieved the one thing that many had thought would never happen: wrestle again. Against Britt Baker, she persevered against the limits of her body and ultimately prevailed.
1 Champion... Again
Saraya would not be seen again until 2023, when she and Toni Storm fought Baker and then-AEW Women's World Champion Jamie Hayter. A week after that, the two ex-Feds surprised everyone by turning heel, giving themselves a much-needed new coat of paint (pun accidental) after admittedly dull face runs. That would soon morph into The Outcasts with Ruby Soho.
While that stable was mostly a dud, save for Storm's second title reign, it did give unheralded workers like Willow Nightingale and Skye Blue a chance to shine. But its newest silver lining may be its most poignant: at All In, the stable imploded when Saraya pinned Storm to become the new champion, opening up new narrative possibilities.
