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What's the story?
SmackDown Live got off to an incredible start when Commissioner Shane McMahon took to the ring to not only announce that Daniel Bryan was now a full-time active wrestler.
This meany Bryan had resigned as General Manager, but that an incredibly surprising name would be taking up the position and it was the recently retired Paige.
In case you didn't know...
On Raw this week, following a match between Mandy Rose and Sasha Banks, Paige took to the ring and announced that she would be retiring from in-ring action due to neck injuries.
She delivered a moving retirement speech and we thought that would be the last we'd see of her on WWE television.
The heart of the matter
SmackDown Live started with Shane O'Mac announcing that Bryan was back to being a full-time wrestler so he'd accepted his resignation as General Manager, so who would be the new General Manager?
It seemed the WWE had other plans however as they just swerved everyone in the WWE Universe by making Paige the new SmackDown Live General Manager less than 24 hours after she said her goodbye as a wrestler.
Paige gets a huge reaction from the crowd who tell her this is her house and shout 'thank you Paige'.
Paige reveals that Shane was the first person she saw after she walked to the back after retiring on Raw and he made her General Manager.
She says she wants to make tonight special and her first act as General Manager is to make a match between Bryan and AJ Styles.
What's next?
This is a huge shock, but one that should pay-off massively. Paige's onscreen role as General Manager can yield fantastic results especially when it comes to the women's division and the women's revolution.
Author's take
I am incredibly happy for Paige and her new role with the company. What a way for her to bounce back from the incredibly emotional thing of coming to terms with no longer being able to wrestle.
