Paige (along with her adorable pitbull Lobster) was the most recent guest on Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia and the two started off their very candid conversation talking about when she realized she needed to get another surgery on her neck. It was right when she was busy managing Asuka and Kairi Sane as the newly formed Kabuki Warriors and Paige was really dealing with a lot of pain and arm weakness.
“I found out because I was back on the road doing stuff with the Kabuki Warriors and I was really excited about it but I was in so much pain. Like it was really hard for me to concentrate on my promos and then be there for the girls and it made me feel so bad because they’re so good and they’re doing better without me which is wonderful, but I had like weak arm again and I was getting sharp pains because I couldn’t sleep and I was like, ‘Oh, here we go. Like I know this feeling. I know I’m gonna have to have another surgery.’
Paige decided that it was best to speak to Vince about it, who was understanding of her situation and wanted her to put her health first.
“So it was coming up to SummerSlam and I went to Vince and I just said, ‘Hey, I think I need to go back to my doctor, like I’m really worried about my neck,’ and Vince is always wonderful. He was like, ‘Of course, we’ll take away that signing,’ (cause I did a signing at SummerSlam with the girls). We didn’t have a match or anything so he was just like, ‘It’s okay, you’re not needed really. Go take good care of yourself, go take good care of your health.'”
Paige has been dating long-time friend and musical artist Ronnie Radke and she talks about how immensely supportive he is of her, particularly through her recent tough times.
“I have a wonderful man now. Now he really truly takes care of me and has my best interest at heart and it’s nice to be trusted and he’s so brave as well to really deal with especially recently and I hate to bring this up about Hunter, but he’s so brave to deal with the impact that that joke or those videos had of my life and now on his and my family’s obviously.”
From the videos a few years back to Triple H’s joke, Paige said how much she appreciates how much Radke has shouldered in the process and how all the blowback of cyber-bullying opened up some wounds that were still being healed for her.
“We’ve been best friends for about five years, but we’ve been dating for over a year now, but he knew what happened and what came out and stuff like that but he was so supportive of it, but I know that somedays probably it gets to him a little bit more but he doesn’t show it to me, but I can imagine it does as a man like it must be really hard to see, but recently after Hunter made that joke which I respect Hunter. This isn’t my way of talking crap, like I think he’s always been respectful to me and he’s always just been a gentleman so like when he made that joke, it kind of like ignited this thing like where it opened the door for all these fans to attack me and then take pictures and screenshots and videos and then all of sudden it’s being sent to Ronnie and it’s being sent to my family and stuff like that all over again. It took me a couple years to really get over it, you know, like we said earlier. I had to speak to like four different therapists, like I was thinking about suicide back then, I was in a really dark place. And then obviously knowing that I couldn’t have kids too so like that whole joke was just bad. I was just like ‘I can’t have kids!’ and all of a sudden these videos of me are up and it was just all this stuff kind of like, an influx of just hatred thrown at me by all these fans. I’m just like, ‘Damn, like, I thought I was getting over this,’ and now it all just came back again and now I have poor Ronnie that has to be involved in this and my family again has to be involved in this.”
Paige and Lilian also share how much they appreciated Triple H’s apology and how she’s all for joking when it comes to backstage, but once it hits the media, it can be a whole different animal that’s tougher to control.
“Oh, yeah. It definitely takes like a real man or woman to admit a mistake and to publicly go out there and obviously apologize and it takes a lot, you know cause sometimes like you truly don’t mean to offend someone, obviously and in today’s age like people can get offended like a lot. And I don’t mind jokes, honestly I really don’t. Like backstage, I’ll joke all the time. I’m like, ‘You can throw these jokes at me,’ I’ll joke about myself, I don’t care, but it’s just if it’s in the media then it just opens the door to complete strangers to do it and that’s not okay, you know? Cause then I just feel like these people on the Internet are now bullying me again, like here comes the cyber-bullying that I just got over too.”
(Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone)
Plenty more of this part one of two interview is available to watch below on Lilian’s YouTube Channel:
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