The Birthday GirlIt’s been quite a journey since Paige made her debut in WWE’s developmental territory. It was still known an ‘FCW’ instead of the now popular ‘NXT’. She stood out since Day 1 and 4 years on, she’s one of the leading faces of the Divas Division.It’s her 23rd birthday today and for someone that young, she’s already in her 10th year of wrestling (she started training and wrestled her first match at the age of 13). She has achieved a lot for someone as young as she is.Here are the five biggest moments in the WWE career of the ‘Anti- Diva’ so far-
#1 The First NXT Women\'s Champion
Paige’s career in developmental began with obvious losses and an altogether different theme music. She used to team up with Sofia Cortez and compete against her. But her tremendous screen presence steadily made her one of the most recognized talents from developmental. There were instant questions about when the management planned to promote her to the main roster which already had a dwindling Divas division.
But that did not happen until 2014. So for 3 years, she performed in the Full Sail arena and became one of the most over performers there.
That led to some of the best matches of her career and WWE. She won a stellar match against Emma to become the inaugural NXT Women’s Champion. And nobody really defeated her to win the title.
#2 Freaks and geeks
They might be majorly selling ‘The Divas Revolution’, but the real revolution began after fans started ‘#GiveDivasAChance’.
This hashtag came before the Oscars this year where Patricia Arquette got rave reviews for her speech. Stephanie McMahon and AJ Lee had quite a Twitter exchange that really led to Raw having a substantial title match between Paige and Nikki Bella.
This signaled one of the best build-ups towards Wrestlemania for any Divas match. AJ and Paige formed the Freaks and Geeks team. Albeit it was short lived because of AJ’s retirement, but it was still quite memorable and impactful.
#3 Charlotte feud tease
Sure, they are in the same team right now but there was this one time when rumors were rampant that Charlotte’s going to be the next diva to be called up to the main roster.
Paige is a very vocal supporter of Sasha Banks. Till date, in interviews she states how great she thinks Banks is. So, Paige always said that even though Charlotte is good, she needs more time but Banks is completely ready for the main roster.
This was followed by Charlotte retweeting a few tweets which said that Paige is threatened by Charlotte and that Charlotte deserves to be in the main roster sooner than later. This led Paige to tweet, “Some ppl need to be humbled.. Keep favoriting those tweets sweetie. Took me nearly 10 yrs to get here, blood, sweat and tears. #SelfMade”.
These two can actually have quite an entertaining feud if written well.
#4 Heel turn
The rivalry between Paige and AJ Lee never really reached the greatness many expected it. But one thing that was great about this feud was the way Paige turned heel. It was one of the best heel turns of the year and one of the most shining moments of this feud.
For week’s, Paige acted all too goody two shoes and stood next to AJ and wrestled in tag matches. All of that boiled down to a major beatdown on Raw in July. It was executed really well
#5 Youngest Divas Champion
Not many people can boast about winning a championship on their debut, but Paige can.
She debuted unannounced on the Raw after Wrestlemania, congratulated AJ only to get slapped by the longest reigning Divas Champion. That led to a short yet significant match for the Divas title. The crowd was really into this moment. And when she finally won, it led to one of the biggest pops of the night.
It still remains the greatest moment of her WWE career.
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