Paige has embraced her new role as General Manager of Smackdown live after an ill-fated return to the ring ended in tragedy.
Paige, at just 25 years old, is retired from the ring after a December 27 house show match rendered her temporarily paralyzed. She'd returned from a year-plus long absence just three weeks prior, stemming from the neck issues that would soon retire her.
After months of silence, Paige officially retired on WWE TV last month, and recently spoke to Edge & Christian on the Pod of Awesomeness about the situation.
When it actually happened in the ring, I lost all feeling in my legs and my arms. It was literally the most terrifying experience in my life and I would never wish that upon anyone. It was so scary. I literally was like "Oh my gosh, I'm done, I'm going to be in a wheelchair now, this is it, I've pushed myself too much." Because I really did, every time I was in the match I was like "it's okay, I'll do the comeback, I'll take the bump, I'll do this, I'll do that" because I was just so eager to get back in the ring. I feel like I pushed myself too hard to the point of where my body was like "stop." You know I've been doing this since I was thirteen and my body was like "you need time to grow, woman."
I refused to believe I was hurt, I remember coming back to Orlando to go get my MRIs and stuff and I felt good, I could get back in the ring again even though I just experienced temporary paralysis. I was like "No I'm good, I can do this, please don't make me be out." I was begging them, "Please. I don't want to be out anymore, please don't let me be out." I was just crying to the doctors. So then Dr. Maroon was like "I'm sorry you cannot get back in the ring again." It was horrible, it really breaks your heart.
I remember being in the match and experiencing that and like "maybe it's just my arms right?" So I'm like "no I'm going to keep going." I remember trying to grab Sasha's legs and my arms felt like there was just no bones in them. I'm trying to grab her legs and then like "Wait! Let me try to stand up, and then I'll be good to do the comeback" and Sasha is like "no, absolutely not." Then I tried to stand up and I just look drunk, I just start stumbling and falling back. I feel like the girls were more terrified than what I was at the time. I was petrified, but the girls were crying at ringside and then they see the stretcher coming out and I was like "please, please," and it's just horrible. I don't know how you (Edge) did it for so many years beforehand because it's terrifying."
Paige's return match with Sasha Banks, which went 16 minutes on Raw, was the only singles match of her return. She'd go on to wrestle in six tag team matches on Raw and live events before the injury.
When using any of this transcript, please h/t and link to this story.
