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What’s the story?
Last night, on the RAW After Mania, Paige sadly announced her retirement from professional wrestling due to injury.
Rather poignantly, the venue for Paige's retirement was in the very same building that she debuted on WWE's main roster in just four years ago, also on the RAW After Mania, to defeat AJ Lee for the WWE Divas Championship.
Well, less than 24 hours removed from the situation, AJ Lee has commented on Paige's retirement.
In case you didn’t know…
Paige and AJ Lee's on-screen relationship was a whirlwind, to say the least.
AJ Lee played a huge role in Paige's debut. The Anti-Diva shocked the world when she made her main roster debut on April 7th, 2014, congratulating Divas Champion AJ Lee on her successful title defense at WrestleMania XXX.
Lee slapped Paige, however, and challenged her to an impromptu match for the championship, which Paige quickly won to become the youngest Divas Champion in history at the age of 21. She became the first female Superstar to win the title in her debut match and the only woman to hold both Divas and NXT Women's Championship simultaneously. WWE today posted a throwback to Paige's debut.
The pair had a mercurial rivalry where AJ Lee won back her title and the pair would pretend to be friends in a pretty facetious manner eventually culminating in unprovoked attacks.
The pair then teamed up against The Bella Twins after AJ Lee saved Paige from an attack from Nikki and Brie - a bout which the pair won at WrestleMania 31.
Just five days later, WWE announced that Lee, real name April Jeanette Mendez, had decided to retire from in-ring competition - later revealed to be due to damage to her cervical spine.
The heart of the matter
Paige took to the ring last night and addressed the WWE Universe about her current medical situation, stating that she can no longer compete in-ring due to injury.
The former Divas Champion thanked Daniel Bryan and spoke of his inspiring comeback before mentioning that she had spoken to Edge, a man who also was forced to retire due to injury, and discovered there's a life outside of wrestling.
Paige thanked the WWE Universe and told them she loved them all with tears streaming down her face, before placing her t-shirt on the canvas and taking her leave, doing her patented sidestep up the ramp.
Well, her long-term rival and WrestleMania XXX tag team partner took to Twitter to offer some inspiring words for her counterpart.
AJ Lee, now going by her birth name of Mendez, referred to Paige as her birth name, Saraya, after the inspiring quote.
Paige then shared the post and responded to her former rival, which you can see below.
What’s next?
Paige has her own clothing label named "Saraya" and there's also a movie coming out about the Norwich-born Superstar's life and career called Fighting With My Family. You can see the trailer below.
Author’s take
Well, it's incredibly heartbreaking that Paige has had to hang up her boots at the age of only 25, but it's been lovely to see how many fellow wrestlers have paid tribute to her - and AJ Lee sending kinds words to her former on-screen rival and partner is a touch of class, too.
We wish Paige all the best with whatever lies ahead, we're sure she'll continue to be a trail-blazer in whatever she does and the former Divas Champion leaves an incredible legacy behind in the ring.
