23-year-old Saraya-Jade Bevis is the longest-reigning NXT Women’s Champion in history. (WWE.com)
WWE superstar Paige is currently on a 30 day suspension due to a wellness policy violation, but it looks like she may no longer be returning to the company at all.
It was recently reported that the WWE told Paige that she must break up with her boyfriend, fellow WWE superstar Alberto Del Rio, or else she would be fired. Now, Dave Meltzer from Wrestling Observer Radio is chiming in on this, saying that the fact that this report is out there at all doesn’t bode well for Paige’s future with the WWE.
“But the fact that that story is out tells me that she is probably done with the company,” Meltzer said. “And if she is done with the company, well, I mean, that’s gonna be tough…they’re probably trying to maneuver to where she can be released and she can work elsewhere, because she is under contract for a long time, and WWE obviously would probably not want her working the entire term of the contract.”
He’s referring to the fact that Paige is currently contracted to work with World Wrestling Entertainment until 2019, unlike Alberto Del Rio, who is leaving the WWE this fall when his contract was set to expire anyway.
Meltzer says that although he is unsure whether the WWE would actually take the legal risk of directly telling Paige to break up with Del Rio, this was clearly the reason the company split them apart during the 2016 draft.
“They broke them up in the draft and that was absolutely a message, but that’s one of those things you can do and you’ve got your plausible deniability,” Meltzer said. “It’s like, ‘Well we needed him stronger here and her stronger there,’ and that’s just business. Now, you know there’s more to it than that, but that you can do.”
From Meltzer’s comments, it does not sound like Paige’s rumored departure from the company would be related to her recent injury. Before all this drama with Del Rio, there was already a lot of speculation about Paige’s future, as she recently was experiencing pain in her neck and back that Dave Meltzer reported earlier this summer could involve nerve damage. Paige also suffers from scoliosis, a curvature of the spine which she had before beginning her wrestling career.