Time To Turn The Page, On Paige
Daniel Leon shares why he feels wrestling fans should move on from their love of Paige.

For some people, this is an article that will not be easy to read. For others, they will understand the logic in it. It is one of the most talked about situations in the wrestling world today, and no it isn’t the lawsuit of the Broken Hardy’s gimmick. I am in fact referring to current WWE superstar Paige. The once proud former WWE Divas champion, has been reduced to her only claim to fame being a dysfunctional relationship with former talent Alberto Del Rio. Poor life choices have caused irreparable damage to her career, and as much as it may be hard to understand, its time Paige received WWE’s best of luck in her future endeavors, because she is going to need it. So let’s take a look into this situation and see just why the time has come to turn the page, on Paige….

Injury
The sad truth of the wrestling industry is that injuries CAN and WILL be held against you. Injuries have ended as many or more careers as bad attitudes, backstage politics, and personal demons. What a lot of people don’t realize is that when you return from injury, whether it was your fault or not, you are looked at with extreme caution, almost as if you were untouchable. In only VERY rare instances, someone will come back from injury, and eventually regain the spot they once had before leaving. Triple H and Steve Austin are a few examples of guys fortunate enough to regain that top spot. However, these men are the exceptions to the rule. When Dolph Ziggler was injured as the World Champion, he returned, dropped the title to Alberto Del Rio, and see ya bye! His main event days were OVER, as quickly as they had begun. When Daniel Bryan had to give up the WWE title due to injury, he came back the next year, but would never be in the WWE title picture again, and although he would go on to win the Intercontinental title as a consolation prize, injury again forced him to relinquish that championship, and he would never return to the heights he had once been.
The truth is, WWE will default to doubting your body can continue the daily grind of being a WWE Superstar after injury. You are guilty until proven innocent in their eyes. If you need evidence, look no further than the returning Finn Balor. Has not returned to the Universal Title scene and it doesn’t look like he will be anytime soon. And in the meantime, nice and safe mid card matches with no promotion behind them, because hey, if he gets hurt again WWE hasn’t lost much.
Nagging injuries have followed Paige her entire career which is just the nature of the business. Her recent health problems have kept her sidelined for an extended period of time with no end in sight. If guys like Balor and Bryan are treated as untouchable after returning from injury, then why should Paige be any different? She has done nothing to prove she has returned to 100% or is even ready to return to action. At this point we can have a reasonable amount of doubt that she ever will be.

Wellness Policy Failures
Hey there, hate your career in WWE? Wish you could spend your time at home on the couch again? Nothing ends a career faster than a drug habit! At this point Paige has failed 2 wellness policy exams, which is going to look fantastic on her resume. This would have been bad enough on it’s own, and reasons for suspension/termination on its OWN, but what made matters worse was that Paige and her team of public relations (also known as her entire family) went to the internet to put in their two cents worth, calling out WWE for the unfair and unjust suspension of Paige. Even going so far as to say WWE suspended her for testing positive for a substance she had been given a prescription for. Ultimately forcing WWE’s hand, coming outright and saying she had tested positive for “an illegal substance.” If you want to help your career, start by not having your family jump online every time you take a sh**t to describe the color, texture, and smell to the world. You aren’t doing your baby girl any favors, on the contrary, it looks as if Paige can’t handle her big girl problems on her own, or at least without getting the world involved.
We have all known special talents from time to time to get the special “look the other way” treatment from WWE when it benefits them. Randy Orton, Triple H, etc. But chances are Paige isn’t one of these special few, and even if she was, the way she handled the situation isn’t doing her any favors.
So just to be clear, first fail a drug test, then lie to your family about why it happened to save face with them, then get them all involved online to talk trash about your employer, then when you’re outed for being a liar act like nothing happened? Got it Paige! Thanks for the stellar career advice!

Relationship with Alberto Del Rio
Life isn’t fair everyone, i’m sure most of you know that. SHOULD a talent’s relationship affect their employment with WWE? No. WILL it? Of course. Just ask Renee Young and Dean Ambrose. WWE is a privately owned company, they hire a handful of select talent to be a part of their organization, and if a talent is going to have backlash attached to them they have every right to distance themselves. They aren’t the only ones either. With the recent news of allegations against ADR for domestic abuse, he has been suspended by Global Force Wrestling until an investigation could be completed. It is not uncommon for a company to create separation from a talent, temporarily or otherwise, to protect themselves from a public relations nightmare.
Paige has put herself in this terrible position with every bad decision her and Del Rio making getting her all the negative attention she doesn’t want. Do you think when/if she were to ever return to the WWE that Vince McMahon wants a microphone in his face asking about the allegations of domestic abuse? Or her drug habit? Or her sex tape? Give me a HELL NO!
WWE prides itself on hiring people that will represent their company and their brand image to people all around the world. The last thing they want is someone straight out of a Jerry Springer episode going around causing a scene every other week. And like it or not, history says Paige is incapable of keeping her name out of the headlines….in a bad way.
She’s Technically “Not Touching You”
Remember when you were a kid, and at some point you knew another kid who would get in your face and put their hands in your face and mockingly chant “i’m not touching you!” I’m sure we know some adults like this today in fact…
THIS is how Paige has been treating her career. She can do everything wrong and yet nothing wrong at the same time due to technicalities, loop holes, and shitty circumstances. She can’t be released for a sex tape because she didn’t leak the footage, and because of that she can’t be released for anything else (ie. Wellness Policy Exams, Injury, being at TNA events, etc) because everyone will PERCEIVE it to be that she was released because of the media leak. Get over it, there’s plenty of reasons to release Paige, and need we all be reminded, WWE doesn’t NEED any more of a reason to release you other than they just don’t like you. So when you have a mountain of motive slapping them in the face every week, I would keep a look out for that future endeavors letter in the mail.

It’s Not HER House Anymore!
The world has moved on since Paige. She came in with promise and the look of being the “Anti-Diva” who would lead the women into a new age of wrestling. Turns out she was just a light skinned chick who liked to wear black and be on Total Divas with the rest of them anyway.

People remember Paige as this great talent, but how much did WWE really have invested in her? Paige is a former 2 time Divas champion (a belt that doesn’t even exist anymore). Who cares? Sasha Banks is a 3 times Women’s champion, Charlotte is a 4 time Women’s champion, Alexa Bliss is the first woman to ever hold both the RAW and Smackdown Women’s championships. We have seen women main event RAW and even pay per views, we’ve seen them have the first ever Hell in a Cell Match and Women’s Money in the Bank match. The women of the current roster are miles ahead of Paige. They have moved on without her, they did not sit around waiting for Paige to come and “make the divas great again.” At this point WWE already has so many established talent, and so many females on the horizon waiting to tear it up on the main roster like Asuka. WWE doesn’t need Paige any more now than they ever did, and when it’s all said and done she will be eventually forgotten about like an episode of Sunday Night Heat. But have no fear fans, there are extremely talented women on the roster ready willing and able to tear up the main roster and give us memories for years to come.

