Paige has revealed the full story behind how her WWE return came together, tracing it back to a chance encounter involving Jelly Roll and Dwayne Johnson’s agent Brad Slater that set the wheels in motion within 30 minutes.
Speaking on What’s Your Story with Stephanie McMahon, Paige explained that she appeared on a live episode of Jelly Roll’s wife Bunnie’s podcast when Slater was also in attendance. Jelly Roll asked Slater why WWE had not brought Paige back yet, which prompted Slater to call Nick Khan on the spot.
“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. 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.
Paige, who is now eight years sober, acknowledged that her first WWE stint was a different story entirely, admitting she failed two drug tests and described herself as a mess during that period. Stephanie McMahon confirmed that there was significant concern within the company at the time, telling Paige in 2017 upon her return that she was glad she was still alive.
Paige underwent a 10-hour medical appointment in Birmingham to confirm her neck was cleared for competition. When the news came back positive, she broke down.
“It was a couple of things. The fact that my neck was good. 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 said.
Paige went on to enter contract negotiations and was brought back in time for WrestleMania 42, where she replaced an injured Nikki Bella to team with Brie Bella and win the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit What’s Your Story with Stephanie McMahon with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
