2016 has not really been Paige’s best year. In 2013, she became the inaugural NXT Women’s Champion(now held by Asuka), which she held for over 300 days. She was one of the pioneers of the women’s division in NXT and the subsequent revolution that took place. She was called up in 2014 on the Raw after Wrestlemania 30, and on her first night, she won the Divas Championship from AJ Lee, ending her then-record breaking 295-day reign as champion. Then, the title fluttered back and forth between her and AJ Lee until November, when Nikki Bella won the title and had a record-breaking 301-day title reign.Regardless of whether she was in the title picture or not, she became the top woman of the division after AJ Lee retired after Wrestlemania 31, and she was eagerly searching for a revolution to happen. The division centered around her fighting off The Bellas and Alicia Fox. This storyline saw it’s payoff as Becky Lynch, Charlotte and Sasha Banks were called up from NXT, thus starting what was called “The Divas Revolution”. Paige was an integral part of the early stages, forming an alliance with Charlotte and Becky in a team known as PCB, until she turned on them after Night of Champions, which saw Charlotte dethroning Nikki Bella.She was then involved in a 2-month program with Charlotte for the Divas Championship. After that, she went out of the picture and was in a creative limbo, and came out as face again out of the blue She was involved in a 10 diva tag team match, where she and her fellow Total Divas were victorious. After that, Paige has not been involved in any active storylines despite beating the inaugural WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte once on Raw and unsuccessfully challenging for the championship after. Her recent absence on television, however, has been due to an injury. It was speculated that she had backstage heat with WWE officials who were upset over her social media posts on her boyfriend Alberto Del Rio. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter noted her injury as follows:
”Regarding Paige, there may be some nerve damage regarding her back and shoulder issues. I was told her neck issue is similar to what a lot of the guys have had that had serious problems where the problem has led to weakness in the right arm which was the first stage for some major issues with a lot of the guys.”
It is indeed saddening as Paige is just 23 years old. But once she is back from injury, there is no doubt she still will have a long way to go, as she has much of her career left.
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