Paige Nearly Missed NXT Title Win Because She Wasn’t Cleared Until That Day, Still Considers Herself A Wrestler
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Paige says she’s not mentally ready to return as a competitor, but she is inspired by seeing the in-ring returns of Edge and Daniel Bryan.
Paige was a guest on Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette and talked about Edge and Daniel Bryan getting cleared to wrestle as well as her own aspirations to return to the ring. Before sharing her feelings on those returns and the potential that she ever wrestled again, Paige revealed she almost missed her first-ever NXT Women’s Championship win in 2013 due to not being cleared until that day.
“First of all, I want to talk about just for one second the day that I won the NXT Women’s Championship for the first time, I was actually cleared that day to wrestle. I nearly missed it because I had a dermoid cyst on my ovary that I had to have surgery to remove, [Triple H] literally cleared me that day, he was like, ‘If you can do ‘this, this, this and this’ the doctor says it’s OK and yes you can wrestle, but we can’t let you do ‘this’. I was like, ‘Oh my God I nearly missed that opportunity!’” Paige exclaimed. “Can you imagine if I wasn’t cleared?”
Paige noted that Emma (aka Tenille Dashwood) would’ve probably won the title if she didn’t compete, but noted that it was wild that she could’ve missed that moment.
Paige has commented on social media before in regards to Edge and Bryan’s respective returns, and now said that it feels good to see Edge come back since they have very similar injuries. She talked about having Beth Phoenix as a potential opponent before saying he got chills when she saw Bryan and Edge talking to each other backstage because it was an inspiring moment.
“I haven’t had any issues with my neck. Right now, like sometimes I’ll wake up and it’s funny, it feels weird, but it’ll go away. I’m going to get my neck checked very soon just to see the progress of it, and hopefully it looks good. I’m not saying in any way, shape or form that they are going to clear me to come back, it’s literally just a check-up, but I am intrigued to know how my neck has progressed for sure. It feels good, and honestly” Paige explained, “it probably scares me as well to maybe come back to wrestling because I want to and would come back tomorrow, but I’m always going to have in the back of my head ‘what if something happens and I do get paralyzed?’”
“So, it does scare me. I know I’m not going to be fully ready mentally to come back,” Paige said, “but watch out world, because when I am mentally ready to come back, everyone’s in trouble!” [laughs]
Paquette asked Paige if she still saw herself as a wrestler despite being retired for a few years, and Paige said that she does. She said that it’s a strange feeling, but explained why she still considers herself part of the business.
“It feels weird saying I don’t wrestle anymore, even to this day, and I haven’t wrestled in over two years, I think three years. Time flies, but I still call myself a wrestler even though I’m not. I was born into wrestling so I’m always going to have that. I always feel like—like the movie [Fighting With My Family] said, ‘like hepatitis’, we’re wrestlers. That can’t go away. You see old school wrestlers coming back, you just can’t get wrestling out of your mind, your body. Once you become a wrestler, that’s it,” Paige stated. “You sold your soul to the devil, my friend. You’re done, you’re finished.”
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