Ruby Soho calls AEW a ‘freeing’ experience, supports Sasha Banks and Naomi’s decision to walkout on WWE Raw

Ruby Soho knows how it feels to deal with uncertainty. Soho fights for a spot in the Owen Hart Cup tournament finals on Friday’s episode of AEW Rampage, but it wasn’t all that long ago that she felt directionless. Soho can emphasize with real-life friends Sasha Banks and Naomi after they walked out on WWE.

Soho, formerly known as Ruby Riott, was released from her WWE contract in June 2021 and reinvented herself as Ruby Soho. Based on a song from her favorite band Rancid, the moniker was gifted to her by the band’s lead vocalist Lars Frederiksen. Much like a created character in a video game, every element of the Ruby Soho character is plucked from her imagination.

“I was very nervous when I was released,” Soho told CBS Sports. “I had a few months to just kind of sit back and really reflect as to how I wanted to present myself. How I wanted the world to see me. That was honestly one of the most therapeutic and cathartic times in my career. To be able to just sit back and try and figure out who I want the world to know Ruby Soho is. I have been fortunate enough to work for a company that really just does let me off the leash and just be who you are. That was what Tony Khan said to me when he hired me. He said, ‘I want you to be yourself and I want you to work for me for a long time.’

“That was the most freeing thing that anyone has ever said to me. I am so unbelievably lucky. I think with that freedom and with that paintbrush in my hand, I think that has brought about a whole new level of confidence in me that I have not had in my career thus far.” 

Check out the full interview with Ruby Soho below.

Banks and Naomi, reportedly frustrated with their own creative direction, walked out of the arena during a live episode of WWE Raw. The company publicly suspended the duo and stripped them of their women’s tag team championships. Soho is not privy to the details of the walkout, but she very much supports anyone who feels shackled — especially her friends.

“I’m a very firm believer in everybody’s career and everybody’s experiences are different,” Soho said. “No matter what company you work for, no matter who you are or what level you feel like you’re on or what level people portray you to be on. I have for a long time considered Sasha and Naomi to be friends. If that in the moment and in their heart of hearts is what they felt like they needed to do, then I can only understand from an outside perspective because you never know with that kind of stuff. You never know what they’re experiencing, what their journey is like to that point and why they felt like they needed to do what they needed to do.

“But at the end of the day, you can only just try and see them for who they are as people. And I adore them. So whatever they felt like they needed to do, I understand. Everybody handles things differently. Everybody has different experiences. So until you’re in the shoes of that person, you can’t always say what you would do.”

Soho is seeing the fruits of her labor yield in unexpected ways. Soho will appear alongside fellow AEW stars MJF and Powerhouse Hobbs in an episode of the digital series “Carpool Karaoke” based on “The Late Late Show with James Corden.”

“It was an incredible experience. I’m very, very fortunate enough to have been a part of it,” Soho said. “And when the trailer came out and I’m in the same trailer as Matthew McConaughey and Zooey Deschanel and Snoop Dogg. That’s one of my ‘What is my life moments?’ that I had. This is happening. This is a show I’ve watched before that I’m a fan of and I’m on the trailer. That’s wild to me. But I’m so lucky.”

Soho will face Britt Baker in the finals of the Owen Hart Cup tournament at AEW Double or Nothing on Sunday, May 29, should she defeat Kris Stantlander on AEW Rampage.