WWE had two conditions Paige needed to meet for return
WWE had two conditions Paige needed to meet for her return — she had to get medically cleared and pass a drug test.
After making her WWE return, Paige joined Stephanie McMahon for a new episode of “What’s Your Story?” Paige revealed that Jelly Roll actually played a part in her WWE comeback. She appeared on a live episode of Jelly Roll’s wife Bunnie’s podcast. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s agent Brad Slater was also there, and Jelly Roll asked him why WWE hasn’t brought Paige back yet. That led to a meeting being set up between Paige and Nick Khan.
“So he calls Nick and within 30 minutes, Nick had said, ‘Sure, let’s get a meeting with her.’ A week later, he flies to LA to the WWE offices out there,” Paige said. “I went and met him for about 10 minutes, you know, great guy. Love him. Big fan of him. Super smart. He’s got a business brain on him.
“I thought I’d be intimidated by him. But going in there, he’s easygoing. He goes, ‘Two things — your neck has to be okay and we have to do a drug test.’ I was like, ‘Fair enough.’ I was like, ‘Hey, I can control the drug test.’ I’m clean as a whistle. And so I was like, ‘I don’t know how my neck’s been. It’s been a few years since I got it checked. The last time I got it checked, it was perfect. So I’m not really concerned about it.’ And so, the next week I fly to Birmingham.”
Paige said she is now eight years sober. Her first stint with WWE, she was “a bit of a mess” and failed two drug tests. Stephanie admitted that there was a lot of concern for Paige within the company during that time because they could see her going down a bad path. When Paige first returned back in 2017, Stephanie gave her a hug and told her she was glad she was still alive.
Neck issues led to Paige being medically disqualified from WWE after a December 2017 match. She departed the company before returning to the ring for AEW in 2022.
To get cleared for this WWE return, Paige had a 10-hour appointment in Birmingham. She cried her eyes out after receiving the good news that she was now medically cleared to wrestle in WWE again.
“It was a couple of things. The fact that my neck was good,” Paige said. “And the last time I was in WWE, my neck wasn’t, and I had to retire. And I had to miss out on all these massive things like the Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, all these things I didn’t get to be a part of, even though I was part of the group that helped kind of ignite that, right? And it’s just the fact that I’m going to be okay.”
Paige then entered into contract negotiations for her return. She was brought back in time for WrestleMania 42, where Paige teamed with Brie Bella to win the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles. Paige replaced Nikki Bella in the match after Nikki suffered an ankle injury on the road to WrestleMania.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.