Paige claims popular WWE star didn't let anybody know about sudden retirement
In the bigger picture, Paige's WWE career didn't last all that long. Even her main roster run from 2014 to early 2018 was plagued with several injuries before her retirement. However, there was another retirement that happened early into her career that may have taken her by surprise.
That retirement, of course, is none other than that of AJ Lee. Former Divas Champion AJ Lee was considered one of the faces of the WWE Divas division and was the most highly-acclaimed female wrestler of her time. She would retire from wrestling not long after WrestleMania 31 in 2015 - just a little over a year after CM Punk's walk-out and also a year after Paige's debut.
Paige and AJ Lee developed a great friendship in the year that they spent together on the main roster. Speaking to various outlets at Starrcast V, the former Champion Paige revealed that AJ Lee only waited until later after WrestleMania 31 to admit that she was done with wrestling:
"We didn't really know it was going to be her last match. Afterward, she just told me 'I don't know if I'm going to continue after this', so she didn't let us know that which I think is really sweet because I love AJ [Lee] and we were such good friends - we still are good friends. I just mean that we were traveling together and we would always try to keep kayfabe. So she would be in the front seat of the car while I was driving through the arena where the fans are and she would just be ducking underneath my jacket. She was my fairy godmother. She got a pair of Doc Martins when I was going to wrestle in the UK. I would have been so bummed out." (5:30-6:18)
She even recalled her SummerSlam 2014 match against AJ Lee that required them to take zero bumps:
"We actually had a SummerSlam match, where I won the Divas Championship. And she couldn't take any bumps, so if you watch the whole match, we spent the whole match not taking one bump. There was one [spot] where I superkicked her, and it was like 'oh s**t' and she took a matrix-looking fall. And I apologized and she said 'it's okay'." (6:20-)
You can watch the full video below:
Paige's old rival AJ Lee is still partly in the wrestling business
Paige's old rival and best friend AJ Lee announced in 2021 that she was returning to the wrestling business after six years away. It wouldn't be in an in-ring capacity, but one where she serves as the executive producer of the promotion Women of Wrestling (WOW), where she is also expected to be a commentator for their program that will begin later this year.
It will be interesting to see what WOW can achieve with women's wrestling. The talent certainly exists, and some have speculated that they could end up being a feeder to bigger promotions like WWE and AEW.
But it's unlikely that their intention is for the promotion to be a feeder. Would you like to see AJ Lee return to the ring again?
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