Paige Opens Up About Role That The Rock’s Agent & Jelly Roll Played In Her WWE Return

A detailed account of Paige’s comeback.

With Nikki Bella being unable to compete at WrestleMania 42 due to an ankle injury, a replacement was needed to team with Brie Bella in the Fatal 4-Way WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship match on night two of the event.

Making her return to the company was Paige (Saraya). Paige and Brie went on to capture the titles. She opened up about her comeback and how it came to be while guest appearing on What’s Your Story? with Steph McMahon.

Paige said it all started when she was at a show for Bunnie Xo’s book tour. Bunnie is the wife of WWE celebrity wrestler and Grammy-award-winning music artist Jelly Roll. Also in attendance at the show was Brad Slater, who is the agent for TKO Board member Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. While they were all together, Jelly asked when Paige was going to be brought back to WWE.

Slater proceeded to ask Paige if she wanted to return, and she said she would like to. Slater then called WWE President Nick Khan, and they set up a meeting. Come time for the meeting, Khan said Paige needed to pass a drug test and get her neck cleared to move forward. Paige shared that while she was in Birmingham, Alabama, getting her neck checked out, Nikki Bella was there for her ankle surgery.

“She (Bunnie Xo) was doing her book tour and she was doing her live podcast and she was in L.A. so she texted me being like, ‘Can you come on?’ I was like, ‘Absolutely,’ and so I get there and then her manager comes and gets me, and she’s like, ‘Hey, you got a friend in there’ and I was like, ‘Who!?’ And I go down there and it’s Brad Slater. So that’s Dwayne’s agent, and I’ve known him for over 10 years because of ‘Fighting with My Family’ and stuff. Great guy. Always checks in on me. Every six months, I get a text from him, and so he was in there and he’s like, ‘It’s so great to see you –’ gives me a big hug and then Jelly (Roll) was just like, ‘What the f*ck! When are you gonna bring her back? Give a call to your guy and stuff’ and Brad looks at me, he’s like, ‘Do you want to come back?’ And I was just like, ‘Yeah, I would love to come back…’ And then he’s like, ‘Alright, let me make a call.’ So he calls Nick (Khan), and within 30 minutes, Nick had said, ‘Sure. Let’s get a meeting with her.’ So, a week later, he flies to L.A. to the WWE offices out there. I went and met him for about 10 minutes. Great guy. Love him. Big fan of him. Super smart. Oh my gosh… He goes, ‘Two things: Your neck has to be okay, and we have to do a drug test.’ I was like, ‘Fair enough. 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 but last time I got it checked, it was perfect so I’m not really concerned about it…’ The next week, I fly to Birmingham. Nikki (Bella) was there getting her ankle done. Same time. That’s super weird. I was like, ‘What the heck?’ It was perfect timing, and so, I was at the doctor there from like 5:45 AM until 3 or 4 in the afternoon doing all these tests, because you guys have to be thorough, right? Make sure my neck is perfect, and at one point, I thought something was wrong because all the doctors around the screen just being like, ‘Hmm.’ Calling other doctors… And I’m exhausted just sitting there, you know? Waiting for the answer and then he comes in and he was like, ‘Are you ready to go home, kid?…’ I balled my eyes out. We actually have clips of it. My friend was recording it. I cried my eyes out. It was a couple things. The fact that my neck was good… 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 and all these things… I was completely cleared and then it kind of went into negotiations and then ‘Mania… we were getting all that done, and then this weekend was obviously ‘Mania…”

Speaking about the comeback match itself, Paige joked about being blown up in the ring. She added that she had been training on the lead-up to it.

“I was still blown up. I was like, oh my God, I’m blown up my ass, dude. All those lights that are at ‘Mania, you forget how hot they are, and all the heat in the room and stuff like that… I completely forgot that feeling, and then walking out, we were just talking about how I was shaking, I was just so excited and then once I got in the ring, I was just like, oh my God, I have to try and keep up with these girls. I did (keep up with them), for that short stint I was in the ring… I did do a lot of training. The week leading up though, I only went to the gym once and I regretted that so much but I had all these other signings to do. That’s no excuse.”

The new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Paige and Brie Bella, in addition to Nikki, were shown in the front row during the Raw after WrestleMania.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit What’s Your Story? with Steph McMahon with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.