Trivia / Paige

• Actor Allusion: When she joined the WWE main roster, the other Divas all ostracised her and it was claimed that she didn't fit in. Even on NXT she was presented as a loner. She revealed on the Talk Is Jericho podcast that most of the other Divas didn't like her when she first came to FCW. Ironically she said that the one Diva who was always nice to her was eventual Arch-Enemy Summer Rae. The true irony from that? The outsider falls right into the long-established tradition in wrestling of the best of friends often portraying the greatest of enemies.
• Contractual Purity: An ex-boyfriend of hers (see Romance on the Set below) leaked some nude selfies of hers, which is one of the few scandals of Paige's to not receive much backlash. That is until a second round of photos and videos were leaked, showing far far worse. This was ultimately subverted, as she returned to WWE within a few months of the scandal. A third set of videos released in mid 2018 and still had no effect on her position with the company, despite this coming well after her injury forced retirement from the ring.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: In the documentary, she says that she wants women's wrestling to be respected. And then says she wishes it could be like the Attitude Era…where the Women's Champion's contract said she couldn't take bumps, every other match was a bra and panties match, a man won the title in drag, women with literally no wrestling experience at all were champions and the title was defended in pools of mud and gravy. She clearly meant the days of Trish and Lita, but they only started in the Attitude Era—the period they came to prominence and led a thriving Divas division in is recognized as the Ruthless Aggression Era.
• Creator Backlash:
  • She actually hated the Britani Knight ring name she used pre-WWE, as her parents picked for her.
  • She took special time in an interview to criticise the Survivor Series match at the 2014 show - where the babyface team all survived and she was the lone heel to go out. As a result, the crowd took her side, as she had expected.
  • She wasn't a fan of her first Divas' Championship run either, where she played a bland babyface and got barely any mic time. Her heel turn and feud with AJ was something she saw as finding her feet on the main roster.
• Dye Hard: Despite having Raven Hair, Ivory Skin, she is actually a natural blonde.
• Funny Character, Boring Actor: Inverted when it came to her WWE persona. On NXT she was a serious Dark Action Girl, yet in out of character interviews was very much a Perky Goth.
• I Am Not Spock: She herself experiences this. After leaving WWE, she was so used to being called 'Paige' or 'Britani' that she assumed anyone on the street calling her 'Saraya' initially was someone she knew personally.
• Playing Against Type:
  • She was mainly a heel on the indies but has enjoyed most of her success in WWE as a face. In fact any attempts at making her a heel all failed, and she inevitably turned back face.
  • Although the Paige character started out as a heel, it was still very against type compared to Britani Knight. The latter was usually Evil Is Hammy and excessively cowardly - in heavy contrast to the humorless Dark Action Girl that Paige was.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: She was temporarily put out-of-action (in kayfabe) because of an injury from Naomi attacking her; in reality, Paige was written out of the storyline to film her part in Santa's Little Helper.
• Real Song Theme Tune:
  • Used Linkin Park's "Faint" in SHIMMER.
  • In AEW, she uses "Zombified" by Falling In Reverse.
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor: Subverted in the long run. Her nude photos, sex tape and indiscretion with the NXT Women's Championship were expected to get her fired from WWE - along with her scandalous romance with Alberto Del Rio. But she returned to work in late 2017.
• Romance on the Set:
  • From 2016-17 she was engaged to Alberto Del Rio, who is 15 years her senior. She's even gotten two tattoos pertaining to him.
  • She dated Dean Ambrose for a short time whilst they were both in FCW.
  • She also dated Brad Maddox whilst in developmental. Who leaked nudes she sent him during their relationship a few years later. It's also known due to these leaks that she was also casually seeing Xavier Woods and Seth Rollins at the same time, but they make it clear that she's far from the only one who was involved in that kind of thing in early NXT.
• Short-Lived, Big Impact: Though she'd been wrestling since 2005, Paige was a main roster wrestler in WWE effectively from April 2014 to April 2018, with 2 years in developmental before that, and yet in that time she helped women's wrestling be taken seriously again, and even got a feature film made about her.
• Star-Derailing Role: Her career and reputation started going downhill once she joined the cast of Total Divas, culminating with the Divas' Revolution. With Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks being called up simultaneously, Paige was overshadowed by all three women. She subsequently turned on her partners, which led to the infamous Speak Ill of the Dead promo aimed at Charlotte's brother Reid Flair. After the feud with Charlotte ended, Paige had to be taken off TV to heal from a concussion and when she returned she was Demoted to Extra. Then her spinal problems caught up with her and she was taken off TV again for neck surgery, which is when the shit really started hitting the fan. The relationship with Alberto, the two Wellness Policy suspensions and the sex scandal have all but turned the hardcore fans against her. Her return from neck surgery in late 2017 has repaired her fan reputation somewhat, but very soon her neck buckled again from a kick-down spot involving Sasha Banks at a house show and she was promptly retired, cutting her career short at 25 (and it may have been on borrowed time from the start). The buzz around the Fighting with My Family film however allowed her to stay on as an on-screen character for a while, and parlaying it into a new career as a Twitch streamer.
• Throw It In!: During her guest appearance on Ridiculousness, her signature scream was first done on accident, and the higher-ups said she should keep doing it, much to her embarrassment.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Describes going to her first tryout with lightened hair, a tan and no piercing - and not getting signed. She went to a second dark-haired, pale and with piercing in. She was signed immediately.
  • On NXT in 2014 she filmed a tag team match putting over Charlotte Flair, which was taped before her call-up to the main roster and Divas' Championship win. So when the episode aired, a backstage segment was tacked onto it where Paige was stripped of the NXT Women's Championship. The match that aired also edited out her entrance, so she wouldn't be seen with the belt and a new commentary track was used referencing the new continuity that had happened since.
  • The large gap in the Raw women's division in late 2016 shows that there were plans for Paige to be the secondary face that would have broken up the monotony of the Charlotte vs Sasha feud, if she hadn't needed neck surgery.
• Writer Revolt: She and Emma were in a tag team match against the Bella Twins, where they were given a two minute time slot. Fed up at all the times the women were given short matches, they ended things after thirty seconds. This gave birth to the infamous 'Give Divas a Chance' movement that led to the women getting better treatment in WWE.