Thursday, July 7th, 2022 is the final day of Paige. No, not because anything has happened to the performer born Saraya-Jade Bevis, who at just 29 has plenty of life to live, but because Paige, the character trademarked and owned by the WWE, will officially go into storage indefinitely – unless they pull a Fake Diesel and Razor – as the woman behind the name's contract will officially expire.
That's right, after taking the then-Divas Title off of A.J. Lee in her first match on the main roster, a run as the GM of SmackDown, and even having a movie made about her life staring the ever charismatic Florence Pugh as a talented young grappler fighting with her family, Saraya will officially close one chapter of her professional life – a chapter filled with incredible highs and heartbreaking lows – and turn the page onto the next one, be that in a ring, as a social media personality, or just on her new favorite medium, Twitch, where she has picked up an incredible following.
Fortunately, Saraya still had one last page to write before putting Paige in the past – last Paige/page joke, promise – as she took to The Players' Tribune to say goodbye and say hello all at the same time, in a story you can and should read here.
Is there anything any writer can say about Saraya's run as Paige in WWE better than she said it herself? Nope, the definitive final chapter of Paige was written by the wrestler herself and that will serve as the benchmark text from all else is built upon but that doesn't mean we can't take a look back at her career in WWE and remember fondly three of the best moments of her run; if anything, this might be the perfect day to do just that.
https://twitter.com/RealPaigeWWE/status/1544707648678899713?s=20&t=CR4kktE60hy8q6d_1h73wg
Highlighting the three-best moments of Paige's career in WWE.
3. Forming The Kabuki Warriors
When Paige was forced to retire from in-ring work due to a neck injury suffered in her final match as a member of Absolution, it felt like the end of an era for one of the most popular performers in the promotion's history. Taking place in a house show at the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island in December of 2017, Paige suffered a neck fracture that forced her to retire from the ring and it looked like her run in WWE would be over too as a result.
But then, in April of 2018, Paige returned to television to help promote Fighting with my Family and soon after that debuted a new tag team to manage against the dastardly duo of Billie Kay and Peyton Royce of The IIconics.
Needless to say, the team in question, The Kabuki Warriors, were no joke.
Pairing up main roster mainstay Asuka with NXT standout Kairi Sane, the Warriors took care of the likes of The IIconics, and Fire And Desire, before finally winning the tag team belts away from Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross in October of 2019, while Paige was away recovering from surgery. Though their working relationship didn't last particularly long after Paige returned, the partnership was fun while it lasted.
2. Paige brings on the women's revolution
After being beaten down on consistently by the Bella Twins and Alicia Fox, Paige was in a rough spot on RAW. She needed help, needed backup, and against all odds found an unlikely ally in Stephanie McMahon, who delivered onto the WWE Universe not one but two new performers from the NXT ranks in Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair to help settle the score. While Paige alone wasn't the catalyst of the Women's revolution per se, her new newfound relationship with Lynch and Flair, forming the trio known as PCB, plus Sasha Banks, who debuted on the same segment of RAW by joining Naomi and Tamina, helped to transform the Divas Division into the WWE Women's Division and changed the face of female wrestling in the promotion forever.
1. Beating AJ Lee for the Divas Championship
Come on now, could any list of the most iconic moments of Paige's career be headlined by anything other than her RAW debut? I mean it was a star-making performance, a division-changing performance, and the emotional climax of Fighting With My Family, the WWE-produced movie based on a documentary on the Knight Family, which, funny enough, featured a great performance by Florence Pugh too.
Paige took the ring as a fresh-faced, unconventional athlete in a division defined more by appearance than in-ring ability and left the ring a champion, a trendsetter, and the guard-changing face of the Women's Revolution. For many a fan of WWE, that will be her lasting legacy.
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