Over the weekend, WWE Superstar Paige confirmed that the company has decided not to renew her contract. After being forced to retire due to a serious neck injury, she took on various roles within the company, including SmackDown General Manager for a time. She's been mostly sidelined since WWE Backstage ended, so in some ways, this news isn't a surprise.
While Paige, whose real name is Saraya Bevis, has made it clear she hopes to step back into the ring (including at the end of her initial statement on this release which you can read below), WWE clearly isn't concerned about her signing with AEW.
That is a little more unexpected, and during a recent Twitch stream, Paige elaborated on what happened. "It is what it is. I’m not leaving because I want to, they just don’t want to re-sign my contract," she revealed. "I completely understand. There are no hard feelings."
"If you don’t renew the contract then, I don’t think there’s any non-compete clause," Paige continued. "That’s not what I was told on the phone. We’re having a normal conversation and it’s like, ‘So, we’re not gonna renew your contract.’ I texted Vince [McMahon], and he texted back. Everyone was respectful about it. It’s a bummer. They are keeping the door open, both Vince and Johnny [John Laurinaitis] said they’ll keep the door open, but that’s usually what companies say."
As noted, Paige has been on the shelf since 2017, but now she's free from WWE (whether that's something the British pro wrestler is happy about or not), all eyes will be on she comes next.
Check out her original statement on being released by the company below:
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