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Paige recently recalled the moment she was told to read a love letter to Roman Reigns in the early days of her WWE career.
WWE Superstars often spend several years in the company’s developmental system before appearing on RAW and SmackDown. In the early 2010s, WWE Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes paired Paige and Reigns together during a Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) promo class.
Speaking on Renee Paquette’s Oral Sessions podcast, Paige said Rhodes wanted her character to break up with Reigns after he stole her toaster. The two-time Divas Champion also revealed how she felt “embarrassed” after reading a love letter to Reigns, who was known as Leakee at the time.
“I was so embarrassed, and then I had to look at him and do this promo, and it was just so bad. The promo the next week, he [Dusty Rhodes] was just like, ‘Okay, baby, here he is again, Leakee, go up there, baby. You’re gonna do another one.’ He was like, ‘Pretend you’re reading a love letter. I wanna see all the emotion in your face, baby.’ So I had to pretend to read a love letter and I was like, ‘Urgh, this is so embarrassing.’ So yeah, that stuff would happen all the time.”
Although Paige and Roman Reigns worked together on promos behind the scenes, their characters were never associated with each other on WWE television. Reigns moved to WWE’s main roster in November 2012, while Paige received her call-up from NXT in April 2014.
Paige’s amusing Dusty Rhodes story
Paige famously called Dusty Rhodes a “motherf*****” after he referred to one of her promos as “chicken s***” instead of chicken dinner. She said the wrestling legend caught up with her and they immediately made amends.
“He was always literally my biggest supporter ever. He was just like, ‘Baby, you’re going to be the biggest star out of all these motherf*****s.’ I was like, ‘Thanks Dusty,’ and he just always made me feel good.”
Rhodes passed away in June 2015 at the age of 69. WWE’s NXT brand stages an annual tag team tournament – The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic – in his honor.
Please credit Oral Sessions and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.
