If you watched wrestling in the 2010s, you probably noticed Paige, the gothic bombshell. Paige won herself many accolades and successfully transitioned from the obsolete (and pretty sexist) era of “WWE Divas” to the current era where women in the WWE are… well… just Superstars like everyone else.
But if you’ve tuned in lately, you might’ve noticed an absence of Paige WWE. You might be asking yourself the question — where is Paige the wrestler? WWE wrestling experiences a lot of ins and outs, but, strangely, they gave up on such a bright and young star.
If you’ve found yourself asking — where is Paige now? You’ve come to the right place. This article will walk you through Paige’s shocking, blisteringly inspiring, and soberly depressing story.
Who Is Paige?
Paige was born on August 17, 1992, in Norwich, England, just northeast of London. Her real name is Saraya-Jade Bevis. Both of her parents are retired wrestlers, and her older brothers are wrestlers as well. Her parents own the WAW wrestling company in Norfolk, so Paige comes from a distant wrestling royalty.
Paige was scared of wrestling growing up. It was an eerie portent that she would overcome, but it would come back to haunt her. Paige started wrestling when she was 13—that’s right, 13. While most kids were off learning the ropes of football or cricket, she was getting slammed into the mat.
At first, she used the name Britani Knight, wrestling for her parent’s promotion when someone had to miss a show. She sent resumes to various wrestling promotions around Europe and spent her early teen years traveling around and doing matches. She paid her dues young so she could succeed, but Paige didn’t consider the damage she was doing to her young body.
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She bounced around Europe, winning various titles in all-women wrestling leaves. A small break for her came when she competed in a tag team with her mother in Shimmer Women Athletes. In her later teen years, she started to show her rising star.
Also Read: WWE’s Paige Goes Viral Over Rocking Steamy Bright Red One-Piece Bathing Suit (PIC)
A Look At Paige’s Career In WWE
Paige began transforming from wrestler to WWE star in 2010 when she heard that a WWE talent scout was swinging by to hold tryouts. She didn’t make it in 2010, but in 2011, she signed a contract with WWE to be part of their development promo FCW (now known as NXT).
From here, as FCW turned into NXT, Paige had a fairly normal rise. She participated in several rivalries and won and lost the NXT championship a few times. People enjoyed her work for its technical precision—something she developed due to her long teenage career.
Paige’s WWE Main Roster Rise
In 2014, WWE recognized Paige’s potential and put her on their main show, Monday Night Raw. In a shocking decision, they had her appear the night after Wrestlemania 30 to congratulate the current Diva’s Champion on her successful title defense at the show.
AJ — playing the typical heal — took this as an opportunity to attack Paige and sarcastically challenge her at a chance for the title. Paige unexpectedly accepted the challenge and quickly defeated AJ to become the new Divas champion — the youngest Divas champion ever at age 21.
This event quickly elevated Paige to main event status. This is a case of WWE pushing a wrestler directly to the top of the card. While sometimes the show can be cheesy, the audience ate it up and loved their new champion.
Paige worked her way through stardom the typical WWE way: feuds, pay-per-views, main events, title losses, re-wins, etc. However, it wasn’t until 2016 that she went from a star of the day to a woman who will go down in history.
WWE’s Diva Revolution/Women’s Evolution
In a 2015 episode of Raw, Paige participated with Emma and The Bella Twins in an extremely controversial match that only lasted thirty seconds. The world knows at this point that wrestling is scripted, so it became clear that WWE wasn’t giving the women (still known as “Divas” in the WWE) a chance to shine.
Twitter exploded about this incident. They recognized Paige’s talent and called for WWE to give her more. Ironically enough, Paige’s former enemy, AJ Lee, in real life, criticized Stephanie McMahon, a higher-up in WWE, for not allowing the women more of a chance. Soon after, Paige was a judge on the WWE developmental reality show Tough Enough.
These events prompted Stephanie McMahon to devote more time to women’s matches and declare a “Divas Revolution.” She introduced popular NXT stars like Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch to the main roster. These two competed against Ronda Rousey in the first-ever WWE Wrestlemania main event featuring women.
After this, the WWE got the message and abolished the “divas” title, simply referring to women wrestlers women as… well… women! The diva’s championship was abolished, and legendary WWE wrestler Lita presented the first-ever WWE Women’s Championship belt. The aforementioned Charlotte Flair became the first WWE women’s champion.
Paige’s Retirement Saga
In one of the cruelest twists of irony to ever touch the wrestling world, Paige didn’t get to compete in the new women’s division she helped pioneer. Less than a month after the introduction of the women’s championship, Paige revealed that she was undergoing surgery for a serious neck injury.
She returned to wrestling, having been cleared to wrestle, in September of 2017. However, two months later, at a house show, she suffered a re-injury in her neck. As a result, Paige was forced to retire from in-ring competition. She was only 25.
Paige also served as an on-air authority figure. She was a noncombatant who played the general manager role and hosted various wrestling-related talk shows. While her image and language skills are just as strong as ever, her return to the WWE never happened.
Also Read: WWE’s Paige Sizzles As She Lets Her Assets Hang Out In Instagram Photo (PIC)
Why Was Paige Suspended From WWE?
In August 2016, WWE announced Paige’s suspension for 30 days after she violated the wellness policy. The former champion denied the accusations; however, she failed another drug test after a few months.
In October 2016, Saraya failed another drug test, and the wrestling entertainment promotion suspended her for 60 days. The former WWE diva claimed in a now-deleted tweet that it was just prescription drugs to alleviate her neck pain. However, the WWE revealed that she was suspended due to the use of illegal drugs.
In 2019, Paige admitted the use of drugs during her second suspension. In an interview with Fox Sports, the AEW star said, “Honestly, you surround yourself with toxic people, then that doesn’t really help either.”
She added, “So what I did because I remember walking through a supermarket and I was, I looked terrible because you know I was, I unfortunately did, I’m very open about this and I love to talk about it just because again it helps others — but I was, I unfortunately, popped the drug test in WWE because I was just going through a bad stage in my life and I was just so depressed that I just turned to something else you know?”
Is Paige Signed With AEW In 2024?
In September 2022, Saraya debuted in the All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and still fights under the Jacksonville-based wrestling promotion. In the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament, Saraya lost to Mariah May in June this year and lost the chance to compete for the world championship at All In.
After losing out early and failing to make it to All In, taking place in her home country, the 32-year-old anti-diva accused AEW of being “scared” of her. On July 20, Saraya said on Rampage, “You know why, though, it’s because AEW is scared of me. The girls’ locker room are terrified of me because I am the living legend in this business, I understand trust me.”
She added, “But last year at All In, I had the world at my feet, and right now, let’s be real here, they’re just trying to keep me off the show…They can’t keep me off the show because, you know what, I am the show. And all roads are leading to Wembley for me, baby, and I don’t care about who I have to step on to get there.”
What is Paige’s Net Worth?
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Saraya FKA Paige has a net worth of $3 million. A big chunk of Saraya’s net worth comes from Tony Khan’s promotion. According to various sources, her AEW salary is higher than the standard salary and is estimated at around $320,000 annually.
Apart from wrestling, Saraya has an online clothing store named TheSarayaStore.com, which she started in December 2017. Following the success of her business venture, she opened her store in Anaheim, California, in February 2018.
Apart from a clothing store, she has a cosmetic brand named Saraya Jade Cosmetics. She has also starred in various movies and series, including “Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon” (2016) and a short part in MTV’s Ridiculousness (2016).
While Paige’s WWE career ended far too young, she forever changed the wrestling world. If the audience hadn’t loved her so much, they never would have reacted to her match being only thirty seconds. If that had never happened, WWE would never have developed a women’s division. And today’s stars wouldn’t be flying as high.
It’s no wonder this former Divas and NXT Women’s Champion even had a biopic made about her in 2019 called “Fighting With My Family.” While she didn’t get to stick around very long, Paige WWE forever changed the wrestling world.
