Serena Deeb Praises AEW For Letting Her Wrestle and Coach

In an interview with Busted Open Radio (via Wrestling Inc), Serena Deeb praised AEW for allowing her to still wrestle while working as a coach, something WWE didn’t do. Here are highlights:

On embracing coaching and wrestling: “To be honest with you, I’m embracing both [being a wrestler and trainer]. I love both. As far as in-ring goes, I’m nowhere near [being finished]. I’ve got years left in me, years. I’m not planning on hanging up the boots anytime soon. So, of course, I’m very focused on myself but I do really enjoy helping others as well. The coaching is definitely inside me still, and AEW is great in the sense that they allow me to do both, you know? I didn’t have that before, that privilege before in my other job [with WWE], so it’s great that Tony trusts me a lot to help the women, do both roles. But now, I feel like I’m at, honestly, the top of my game in the ring.”

On her advice to younger talent: “Everybody has to make their choices, right? I think the women that do, it shows in their work, it shows in their growth and how quickly they improve, and all of that. I mean, like you said, [Mark Henry], you’re at the monitor, guess who else is front row at the monitor for every match? Bryan Danielson, the best in the world, [CM] Punk, MJF. That’s the difference, right? Nobody’s too big to watch everybody’s work. I think that’s what makes for a great workplace is everybody helping everybody. I think we have that at AEW. It’s great that these guys are here now and just have so much experience. It’s a detriment if you are not finding Arn Anderson, Dean Malenko, Jerry Lynn, Punk, Bryan, William Regal — gosh, we’re so lucky to have him. If you’re not finding these guys after your match or – I bring my laptop, I’ll sit down with Dean and I’ll watch my match. Or I’ll sit down with Arn if they have the time. If you’re not doing that, what are we doing here? You’ve got to.”