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So, who had former AEW Women’s Champion Saraya taking down the Phoenix Suns “Gorilla” mascot with a textbook suplex on the court during a game on their bingo cards this year?
Because that’s exactly what happened Tuesday night at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
During a break in the NBA game between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns, Saraya somehow ended up on the court where she proceeded to kick “Go the Gorilla” in the stomach before locking him in for a signature snap suplex.
Surely, the “fight” had nothing to do with AEW appearing at Phoenix’s Footprint Arena for Wednesday’s episode of the wrestling company’s show Dynamite where many fans hope will reveal the arrival of Mercedes Mone, better known as Sasha Banks from her time with WWE.
Saraya took out the Suns mascot 💀 pic.twitter.com/lWDILDdX1O
— B/R Wrestling (@BRWrestling) February 7, 2024
Interestingly, the Phoenix Suns’ Gorilla mascot actually got his start in 1980 when Henry Rojas showed up to a game to do a singing telegram in a gorilla suit and security asked him to dance on the court during a time out.
He has since often been cited as one of the top mascots in pro sports.
Saraya, better known to some fans as Paige from WWE, was the first NXT Women’s Champion and the youngest female champion in WWE history. She is also the only one to hold the NXT and WWE Women’s Championship at the same time, and the only woman to have won the title in both WWE and AEW.
Thankfully for the Suns mascot, his interaction with Saraya ended much better for him than it did for Burnie, the Miami Heat mascot, when he encountered another “Champ-Champ,” Conor McGregor.
Last year, McGregor was brought on to the court during a stop in the action during Game 4 of the NBA Finals and absolutely leveled Burnie with a haymaker then some ground and pound which caused the person inside the costume to take a trip to the hospital.