NWA Women’s Champion Serena Deeb did an interview with Steel Chair Wrestling Magazine. Here are the highlights:
Her current working relationship with NWA:
“It’s a great question, and I know a lot of people are trying to understand it. I am the NWA champion, so obviously, I expect in the new year when NWA starts running again, that I will be competing on their roster, on their show, hopefully getting some more successful title defenses under my belt. I’m looking forward to that because it’s a whole other roster of women over there, and I love the product that NWA puts out. I’m very old-school in how I came up in wrestling, so I love that they kind of honor that feel, so looking to the future, I’m definitely very proud to be a representative of that company, and I’m looking forward to doing work with them in the new year, but I am also under contract to AEW. One of the most amazing things about Tony Khan is that he’s open to talent trading, and he was very open to bringing people in from other companies and having these working relationships that really haven’t been around in wrestling for a very long time. I really admire that in him, and I think he’s doing a lot for professional wrestling just in having that openness. My loyalty is obviously at AEW, where I’m a contracted wrestler, but I also expect to do a lot more with NWA in 2021.”
Being released from her coaching job with WWE:
“I’ve had a number of those moments over the years, whether, like you said, it was injuries, there was a time when I took about a year and a half off. I couldn’t compete, and that was really challenging when you’re in the middle of your growing career, and then you have to step aside for a little bit. That’s really hard mentally. Transitioning into the coaching position, I was trusting the process of my life, and I was embracing that position because I thought it was really amazing to be able to give back in that way and to take on the responsibility of helping others. I’m really grateful for it, but I definitely had a lot of varying emotions about it where, on one hand, I was really loving the job and enjoying the process of stepping into that role, but on the other hand, I believed that I still had more to give in the ring, and in my heart, I didn’t feel like I was done with wrestling, so I had very polarizing feelings about it. Like I said I was trusting the process. That was what was present in my life at the time, so I was embracing it, but I always hoped and dreamed about having another run in the ring.
“When I lost my coaching job at the beginning of the pandemic, it was an interesting time because, when you lose your job, it’s a traumatic experience, it’s stressful, there’s a lot of things going on there mentally, but it was also such a blessing. I think I could recognize that I think this is going to be the biggest blessing I’ve ever had. I just have to wait and be patient so that I can see that transpire, and so everything with AEW and getting back in the ring has really been for me what I really wanted to happen. I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen, and it was those initial preliminary feelings of I know that this is happening for a reason, but I have to wait and see it, well, I’m seeing it now.”
