In one of the most stunning and emotional moments of WrestleMania week, Nikki Bella announced ahead of the Women’s Tag Team Championship Fatal Four-Way that she would not be competing due to her ankle injury — and that she had personally called in her replacement: Paige. The announcement immediately became one of the defining stories of WrestleMania 42 Night One at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
The return is almost incomprehensible given the history. Paige was just 25 years old when WWE ruled her medically disqualified from in-ring competition in January 2018, following a December 2017 injury at Nassau Coliseum where Sasha Banks kicked both legs into her back from the turnbuckles. Paige lost feeling in her extremities, fell twice trying to get up, and was eventually stretchered from the ring. Further testing, combined with her previous neck surgery history, led WWE to permanently remove her from competition. Seven years later, she is walking into Allegiant Stadium for the biggest show in professional wrestling.
When her WWE contract expired in June 2022, Paige signed with AEW and returned to the ring, winning the AEW Women’s Championship from Hikaru Shida and competing for the promotion through March 2025. Now 33, she returns to WWE under TKO ownership to team with Brie Bella in pursuit of the Women’s Tag Team Championships — a match and a moment that nobody could have scripted more perfectly.
Paige’s WrestleMania 42 Return Comes Seven Years After WWE Told Her In-Ring Career Was Permanently Over
PWInsider had previously reported that WWE secretly brought Paige to Las Vegas earlier in the week, hiding her from public view while she participated in a run-through for the match. The report confirmed she had signed a new WWE deal — a signing that represents a full circle moment for a performer who was instrumental in building the foundation of the modern WWE women’s division. As the first NXT Women’s Champion and the performer who arrived on the main roster the night after WrestleMania 30 to shock the world by defeating AJ Lee for the Divas Championship at 21 years old, Paige’s presence at WrestleMania 42 carries the full weight of that legacy alongside the extraordinary personal journey that has brought her back to this moment.
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