After suffering a career-ending injury in January, SmackDown Live general manager Paige has had to deal with accepting that she could never perform in the ring again. She finally announced her retirement four months later in an emotional speech on Monday Night RAW the night after WrestleMania 34.
Paige recently opened up to Edge and Christian on E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness about how she was able to get some closure after her retirement speech.
"I had to actually go home back to England for like 8 or 9 days to get my Visa fixed, so I literally didn't do any work, I was just with my family. It was definitely the best for me. It gave me a minute to figure out what just happened and allow it to sink in, but I feel good about it surprisingly," Paige said. "I remember you [Edge] telling me that after I were to finish with my promo I would have this huge weight lifted off of my shoulders, and that it would be great closure, and then to be announced as the [SmackDown Live] general manager the next day, it's kind of like winning the lottery for me. It's a different role and I love it. I absolutely love it. I get to be a boss. I'm a woman that gets to be a boss."
Paige was named general manager of SmackDown Live the night after her retirement. Paige said she was caught off-guard by the news because the WWE kept it a complete secret. She said she enjoyed the reception she received from fans because it showed her that they still want her to be a part of the WWE.
"It's all secrecy. They didn't want it to spoil it. They didn't even tell me. They told me that I was going to SmackDown Live the next night. I had asked why, but they didn't tell me. At that point, I had been touring a lot. Did a lot for WrestleMania week, so I was exhausted physically and mentally where I just wanted to go home so I was curious as to what was going on. I got to SmackDown the next day, Road Dogg, along with my writing team surround me and I was thinking, 'Oh my God, am I about to be beat up. Do I owe you money?' It was then they told me I was going to be the SmackDown general manager, but don't tell anyone. We don't even have the script yet," she said. "I go through this thing where when I do something big I tend to lose my voice. When I re-debuted I lost my voice. When I did commentary at WrestleMania I lost my voice, it's like, oh my God. What is wrong with me? Fix your voice! They told me that they had to check my voice because today was a very big day. By then I had already drank a bunch of tea and cough drops. Once I got out there the crowd was great, and received a bigger reception than my retirement speech the night previous. I was like, 'Wow, this is super cool. You still want me around.'"