Paige (Saraya-Jade Bevis), the 24-year-old stand-out from Norwich, England, may be moving on from WWE after five years under contract with the company. The situation has been a complete mess, filled with rumors and speculation, amid a 30-day suspension for both her and real-life boyfriend Alberto Del Rio, who has officially parted ways with WWE and returned to Mexico under his former ring name, Alberto El Patron.
Wrestling is in her blood. In an era where the majority of aspiring wrestlers won’t even get a look from legitimate trainers until they turn 18, Paige has already turned a corner into her second decade in the business at 24. She was trained by both her parents and two brothers before she was barely a teenager, and at a time when most are just entering high school, was already receiving bookings and traveling all over Europe. Her own mother, Sweet Saraya, a well-known name across England and beyond, may have been her greatest ally and rival. The two worked one of the best matches of their respective careers – a violent and deeply personal brawl – against one another for SHIMMER in what would be Paige’s goodbye match, prior to signing with WWE.
When you talk about today’s “Women’s Revolution”, while WWE may be working hard to stamp Stephanie McMahon’s name on the concept, the credit actually goes all the way back to Paige. Before there were decent women’s matches on WWE television, and even before names like Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks and Bayley meant anything to today’s fans, there was a young girl named Paige who became the first ever NXT Women’s Champion, a title that has since developed into the premiere championship for spotlighting women’s talent. And it was Paige that defended the title in the first ever NXT live special, making her one of the only two women (the other being Emma) first showcased on the WWE Network.
Paige made her WWE main roster debut the night after WrestleMania XXX, defeating AJ Lee to become the youngest Divas Champion – and the youngest woman to ever win a title – in company history, at 21. Despite the accolade, and a strong connection to the fans, she quickly lost momentum due to the same issue that had plagued every technically gifted female wrestler (see: Natalya) for years before her: a company that ultimately had very little interest in promoting women’s wrestling beyond the same basic storylines and too-short matches from month to month. Her character suffered from neglect and inconsistency, her match quality suffered from a lack of elite competition, and before long she was just another member of a stagnant Divas division.
As they do, WWE continued banking on the popularity of Paige by including her as a regular on Total Divas, beginning with season three. The show would feature several of her relationships, focusing on her personal life and exploring her open-minded sexuality over the course of several seasons.
When the “Divas Revolution” began in 2015 thanks to the overwhelming vision of Stephanie McMahon, Paige was packaged with NXT call-ups Charlotte and Becky Lynch in a move that was widely criticized, yet seen as an opportunity to turn the young star around. After months of awkward trios matches that made very little sense, Paige turned on her partners and cut a worked shoot promo, running down the entire Divas division in a segment that was at once one of the best women’s promos in company history, and the moment Paige fans had been hoping for since her debut.
While the promo was highly regarded, it took WWE two months to put Paige into the title picture. By the time their first match at the late November Survivor Series came around, the heat from their angle in September had all but vanished. One of the bigger mistakes made by the company during this period was continuing to use Charlotte, a natural heel with the added benefit of having perhaps the greatest heel of all time as her father and on-screen manager, as the babyface champion. And after three unsuccessful attempts at winning back the title, at just 23-years-old, the former Divas Champion and NXT Women’s Champion was once again roped in with the cast of Total Divas, effectively killing what little momentum remained, as the new era of women in WWE rose up around her.
What happens next is anyone’s guess. At 24 Paige has already accomplished more than many women in the industry in terms of making a name for herself around the world, and even if she completely disappeared she’ll be highly regarded by WWE in the future. More than likely you haven’t seen the last of her though. She is someone who has wrestling running through her veins and whose entire family is still involved in the business, not to mention her age virtually guarantees another decade of work if she can stay healthy and find the right opportunities.
The struggle will be finding consistent work that will pay anywhere near what she was making, working a combined WWE and Total Divas schedule. While the wrestling landscape outside WWE is perhaps more primed than it has been in 20 years, to the point where guys like the Young Bucks can make a top star living and afford to turn down offers from WWE, there still aren’t a lot of places for women to work at that level.
TNA will be an option. If they haven’t already made a move, there will be an offer on the table as soon as they are legally allowed to make one. In a lot of ways Paige could be the savior of the women’s division in TNA in much the same way that she should have been in WWE. There is serious talent on Impact Wrestling, but the division is nowhere near the level that it was at years ago, and has been largely eclipsed by the talent in NXT since the Takeover specials began airing. Unlike many of the more criticized names that end up in TNA, this isn’t someone who is well past their prime, or a developmental star that never made a name for themselves trying to ride the beyond tired “I’m here to do what WWE never let me do” bandwagon. This is a young star with a decade of experience, who has wrestled all over the world and was a star on a popular reality series for a totally different demographic, who made the decision to leave, that TNA could conceivably invest in as the long-term face of a division that needs help.
There’s also Lucha Underground. It’s not a full-time gig but between independent bookings and television tapings, for many it’s been enough to make a decent living. There’s also a small collective of extremely talented women already established there, and a precedent set for women fighting men and even winning the titles, so there’s no lack of opportunity in Lucha Underground for her, if the promotion opted to sign her. The “if” is the question, though. Her relationship with Alberto Del Rio could either help, or hurt her there, depending on his relationship with the company after leaving for a WWE return that ultimately didn’t pan out.
That relationship could also open the door for work in Mexico, and there’s always the old family business in England to return to, as well as several other British promotions that utilize women on their cards. There are places in Japan that use women, although with no family there and no obvious connections, that seems unlikely.
The big money would of course be in a future return to WWE. Time heals all wounds, as seen most clearly by Del Rio returning to the company not long after he was controversially let go.
Perhaps the best option for Paige at this stage in her career is to get some distance from WWE. Not just to escape the drama surrounding her situation currently, but for her character to escape the damage that has been done to it over the last two years. If she left now and spent two or three years working around the world, even doing television with TNA or Lucha Underground, she could continue to grow as a performer until the time was right for a WWE comeback. At which time she would be seen not as an underachieving Total Divas star lost in the mix, but as a big name return, still very much young enough to have a lengthy and successful run.
And if Paige does come back, I sincerely hope that it’s to a place where women don’t need a “revolution” to be taken seriously.
