WWE Rumors - Backstage news on Paige's in-ring status ahead of her SmackDown return
Paige will return to SmackDown this week to confront Bayley and the news has kickstarted a wide range of speculation regarding the role she will play upon her comeback.
Rumors are flying around about Paige possibly returning to the ring to challenge Bayley, however, that is not the case.
During the latest edition of Sportskeeda's Dropkick DiSKussions podcast with Tom Colohue and Korey Gunz, Tom revealed that Paige has not been cleared to wrestle and the company has no intention to give her the green signal to compete at this moment in time.
Paige will be on SmackDown this week to potentially help set up the SmackDown Women's title match for WrestleMania.
Here's what Tom had to share with regards to Paige's in-ring status:
To my knowledge, Paige has not been cleared and there is no intention to clear her at this time. I think people might be getting a little overexcited. With Daniel Bryan, it was a long-time thing for him to come back, it took him a long time to come back. It is not impossible that it may happen in the future and I know that a lot of people are excited by the idea, but at the moment, she is there to act in a General Manager capacity.
The former Divas Champion had to undergo emergency surgery last week to remove an ovarian cyst. The 27-year-old star has recovered from the surgery and is healthy enough to get back to WWE TV this week.
However, why is she coming back? As expected, many theories are doing the rounds on the internet. The in-ring return, as we now know, is out of the question.
Another intriguing option being talked about is the possibility of Paige getting Nia Jax back as Bayley's challenger. Jax has been cleared to return to the ring and she is rumored to be on this week's episode of SmackDown. Could Paige be Nia Jax's manager or has the WWE lined up another big surprise that we don't see coming?