The Future of Paige

leggo

I can see her being the female Dolph Ziggler: they'll give her programmes, but in the end she'll lose to set up the people they actually want to win. That's a very good point above about not wanting to make her an anti-hero. The best thing you can do with people you don't like is give them rope to hang themselves with. When they give her stuff and she doesn't get over again, the will of the people will wilt fast. Fans are fickle.

Looper007

Monokne wrote: »

Her natural place on the card is above the Alicia Fox's, Tamina's and Summer Rae's of the world, but below the Horsewomen, and I expect that's where she ends up.

I think she be in that Fox, Tamina and Rae place soon enough. I be hugely surprised if WWE ever give her a massive push again, I'm sure she be put into feuds with Champions and up and comers they want to be pushed, fully expect a burial at the hands of Nia Jax to come when she gets back to Raw. But I be shocked if they ever give her a run with the title or give her a feud when she's front and centre in it. I think this be a case of Paige just running out her contract and leaving as soon as it's up.

Looper007

leggo wrote: »

I can see her being the female Dolph Ziggler: they'll give her programmes, but in the end she'll lose to set up the people they actually want to win. That's a very good point above about not wanting to make her an anti-hero. The best thing you can do with people you don't like is give them rope to hang themselves with. When they give her stuff and she doesn't get over again, the will of the people will wilt fast. Fans are fickle.

To be fair fans have been very lukewarm to her since the time she joined Total Diva's and better talented women wrestler's from NXT have moved up. The moment she left behind the whole anti diva thing (which she totally undersold) and has been overshadowed by the likes of Becky, Sasha, Charlotte and now Bayley. She's been the biggest disappointment to me, she's hardly got better in the ring or on the mic and aside from been pale skinned and British what has she got going for her.

jaykhunter

leggo wrote: »

I can see her being the female Dolph Ziggler

A fate worse than death!

Monokne

Paige is at Raw. This is not a spoiler as it's possible, and probably likely, she won't be on the show.

http://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/luke-harper-paige-other-notable-names-backstage-raw-221186

JP Liz V1

J. Marston wrote: »

Nia Jax's next victim.

Yes that could happen tonight

Chain Smoker

Monokne wrote: »

I broadly agree with JayK. I'm not as high on her as most in the sense that I'm not one of these people who dismisses how someone has actually performed for years when evaluating them. She's pretty and she's ok in the ring and ok on the mic, plus she's English which scores her points as it's important to have diverse stars. But given all the exposure she's had on Total Divas and Tough Enough, she's still never connected with the people either as a face or a heel. Quite frankly this whole episode has probably exposed why. She plays this cool kid on TV but she's neurotic as hell so maybe cast her more like AJ Lee?

But I really don't see her being buried as overtly as ChainSmoker thinks. If you look at how AJ was treated when she was very clearly in the bad books with management, it tells you they have an awareness that burying talent like that in 2016 is too transparent and this smaller smarter audience will rebel against it. I doubt they want her to become an anti hero.

Her natural place on the card is above the Alicia Fox's, Tamina's and Summer Rae's of the world, but below the Horsewomen, and I expect that's where she ends up.

There's a whole load of factors here though:
AJ was pretty well liked by most fans and had done plenty to warrant that, Paige came in with an absolute ton of fanfare but her matches have been meh and her promo work has been at times insufferable (your hypothesis of her being miscast seems pretty bang on, but I've doubts as to whether she has much inherent charisma regardless).

AJ was the fiance of an extremely popular guy who left the company over a lot of grievances, many of which most fans could easily relate with. Paige and Del Rio don't have anything close to the same level of goodwill, Del Rio's close to running on empty outside of a certain begrudging respect over his general fearlessness towards the company. Seeing as the story that has mostly been painted is of Paige and her boyfriend that's nearly old enough to be her dad
going on coke binges... she hasnt anywhere near the level of respect required to become an anti-hero for the fans. Even though they'd be entirely in the wrong to tell her to dump ADR, is there really that many people who aren't like "well, they're not wrong, there's no f*cking way that relationship will end well for her"

Was AJ ever anything other than professional during her time left with the company? It seemed to kill her enjoyment of the industry as a whole but I can't remember hearing a single bad thing to be said about her.

Tamina's terrible, Alicia Fox isn't much better but on the main roster they've gotten more out of Summer's heel antics than they have out of Paige at all so far. I didn't see much of her in NXT, but she's been absolutely terrible for the whole duration of her run on the main roster.




I think she's given them plenty of ammunition to not trust her with anything of significance for the near future and I think she'll be much more likely to walk the first chance she gets than stick it out.
...unless Alberto dumps her, that is. Lord only knows what kind of crazy way she'd react to that if she's getting tattoo's of his name to broadcast on twitter and all sorts.

Monokne

This is mostly reasonable but I can't be having the idea Summer Rae has been of more value to WWE than Paige. She was one of the focal points of the womens division from April 2014 to July 2015, working with AJ & the Bellas. To be clear, I'm not high on her at all. But Summer has never had a match above ** nor been involved in an angle of any significance, nor ever cut an in ring promo longer than a sentence or two - I believe fighting over Fandango was about the only prolonged exposure she's ever had. For all I know she could be a great promo and she could be a much better wrestler than I know, but she hasn't been put in position to show that and as such she's spent the majority of her career as a non entity.

I still think her saving grace is how shallow the rosters are and the fact she's a key character on Total Divas. If she's there for another 3 years and they maintain the split roster thing, at some point they are going to use her for something of significance, and when you have so much equity built into a performer it only makes sense to exploit it. I think people are looking in the wrong direction in terms of expecting her to be losing matches non stop. A much more WWE 2016 way of doing things would be to book her in a relationship angle where she comes off as a crazy b***h. They love those inside jabs. Story goes that is how AJ Lee got her gimmick (and didn't she go and expose that with the whole Michelle Beadle incident!)

bobby_says_hi

I'll be hugely surprised if she's still in the company this time next year. But if she is going to stay long term, she needs a massive overhaul. Despite being an indie girl, her character still belongs to the 'Diva Era'. The era that drew the models vs wrestlers line. Her character was basically "boys, cheer for me, I'm just like you". She was a fetish object just like the other Divas, WWE were just hipsterfying it as they did with AJ Lee when she was on NXT. The remaining women from that era - Naomi, Alicia Fox, Nikki Bella - have at least evolved their characters into something besides eye candy (when Alicia gets the chance to anyway)

Ringwise, she's average. She was never anything special, but a combination of opponents who could bring out the best in her and fans overrating her because she was from the indies caused people to hype her up as the second coming of women's wrestling. But she got put over too quickly on the main roster and her feud with AJ was a flop. Her pushes from 2014-2015 exposed all her flaws in the ring - or at least showed that she wasn't someone with the same drive as Sasha/Bayley/Becky to really fight for the division and elevate the wrestling. Part of the problem is with her own performance. When she's a face, she comes across as an arrogant bitch. When she's a heel, she comes across as too cool and badass - so she can't play either role. She has a small group of dedicated fans, plus the misogynists who eat up the "boo girliness" schtick, but the Four Horsewomen and eventually the NXT call-ups have outshone her completely. The Paige character has run her course and she'll need to be repackaged if she's going to stay in the division long term.

Chain Smoker

Monokne wrote: »

This is mostly reasonable but I can't be having the idea Summer Rae has been of more value to WWE than Paige. She was one of the focal points of the womens division from April 2014 to July 2015, working with AJ & the Bellas. To be clear, I'm not high on her at all. But Summer has never had a match above ** nor been involved in an angle of any significance, nor ever cut an in ring promo longer than a sentence or two - I believe fighting over Fandango was about the only prolonged exposure she's ever had. For all I know she could be a great promo and she could be a much better wrestler than I know, but she hasn't been put in position to show that and as such she's spent the majority of her career as a non entity.

I still think her saving grace is how shallow the rosters are and the fact she's a key character on Total Divas. If she's there for another 3 years and they maintain the split roster thing, at some point they are going to use her for something of significance, and when you have so much equity built into a performer it only makes sense to exploit it. I think people are looking in the wrong direction in terms of expecting her to be losing matches non stop. A much more WWE 2016 way of doing things would be to book her in a relationship angle where she comes off as a crazy b***h. They love those inside jabs. Story goes that is how AJ Lee got her gimmick (and didn't she go and expose that with the whole Michelle Beadle incident!)

Whoops, no doubt they've made more $$$ from Paige than Summer. What I meant was that Summer Rae has at least shown some chops at being a heel when it comes to filling up TV time.

Paige has utterly failed as both heel and face, bobby_says_hi covered it all there. When she's on the mic I feel uneasy in a way that I just want it to end, I don't think I've seen a single remotely entertaining segment featuring her (although I'd love to be proven wrong here). I feel like her in ring work has been pretty awkward too.


You could chuck Summer Rae into an angle and at worst it'll continue on fine with her on the side. Putting Paige in has the potential to ruin the whole program with her promos and character.

J. Marston

Summer as American Lana was good fun.



^ That > Anything Paige has done.

leggo

Yet when that storyline was happening people were treating it as if it was the apocalypse.

Wrestling is strange.

ERG89

leggo wrote: »

Yet when that storyline was happening people were treating it as if it was the apocalypse.

Wrestling is strange.

That storyline was terrible. Nobody gained anything from it & damaged Rusev the most as he was made look like a fool weekly whole Ziggler looked like the heel.
Find it funny people are praising Summer Rae, she is the equivalent of a female hornswoggle for me. In that everyone she is near regressed. Miz, Rusev & hell she didn't even add anything to Fandango.

Chain Smoker

I'm not praising summer rae, I'm using her to bash paige

Looper007

She's gone and done it all over again lol.


http://www.wwe.com/article/paige-suspended-60-days?sf38483821=1


She doing a good job at burning bridges with the company.

hufpc8w3adnk65

Looper007 wrote: »

She's gone and done it all over again lol.


http://www.wwe.com/article/paige-suspended-60-days?sf38483821=1


She doing a good job at burning bridges with the company.

Surely this is the end... do we know what either suspension was for?

martyos121

I really don't see this ending well for her.

https://twitter.com/realpaigewwe/status/785511161341046784

J. Marston

https://twitter.com/RealPaigeWWE/status/785511591353679873

Names and details, Paige. Go down swinging!

Agent Coulson

Are we sure this really isn't just a work for Total Diva's


She want's out and they won't let her out easily I wouldn't be surprised if they brought her back after the 60 days only for her to get a 3rd strike.

Lord TSC

If I got suspended for a genuine mistake with perscriptions, I'd be damn sure making sure everything was correct going forward.

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

sky88

she has to be trying to get released at this stage.

Lithium93_

WWE should cut their losses and let her go at this stage.

Looper007

Lithium93_ wrote: »

WWE should cut their losses and let her go at this stage.

Pretty much, it seems she's doing everything to get out of WWE. She's going down both fists swinging. She's like a spoilt brat. She's not been smart that's for sure, I can't see them welcoming her back in years to come. Her video shoot interview could be very interesting.

I don't think it's down to Del Rio been her fella, I don't think she loves been a wrestler anymore even in her last or so she seemed more interested in photo shoots and partying then been a wrestler. She just seems like one day she said she's bored with it and it doesn't matter what anyone tells her, she won't stop until she gets her way.

Looper007

sky88 wrote: »

she has to be trying to get released at this stage.

I think WWE will just sit back and let her behave like a spoilt brat and let her contract play out. Just to screw with her.

Lithium93_

Looper007 wrote: »

Pretty much, it seems she's doing everything to get out of WWE. She's going down both fists swinging. She's like a spoilt brat. She's not been smart that's for sure, I can't see them welcoming her back in years to come. Her video shoot interview could be very interesting.

I don't think it's down to Del Rio been her fella, I don't think she loves been a wrestler anymore even in her last or so she seemed more interested in photo shoots and partying then been a wrestler. She just seems like one day she said she's bored with it and it doesn't matter what anyone tells her, she won't stop until she gets her way.

Yeah, when was the last time anyone went HOLY ****, IT'S PAIGE, answers on a postcard, I'll wait, the sad thing is she's now 24, quiet possibly set for life money wise, and she's doing her damn best to literally burn bridges with WWE.. Not really a smart move..

She's been wrestling since 13, I'd say this is her showing two fingers to the industry/maybe a case of burnout and she's using the photo shoots/partying as an outlet to let off some steam.

hufpc8w3adnk65

What's the link/source to all the partying don't most 24 year olds love partying?

Chain Smoker

Looper007 wrote: »

I don't think it's down to Del Rio been her fella, I don't think she loves been a wrestler anymore even in her last or so she seemed more interested in photo shoots and partying then been a wrestler. She just seems like one day she said she's bored with it and it doesn't matter what anyone tells her, she won't stop until she gets her way.

Yep, I think she's gone a bit nuts with him but she hasn't seemed into it in ages anyway.

Her context might explain a lot of it too. She's from a family of lower lever wrestlers, none of which ever really came close to being on the main WWE roster. For her, to some degree she might have literally viewed winning that women's title on her debut as the endpoint of whatever work she's put in. It's a far higher level presumably earning faaaaar more than her parents ever did and she was 21 at the time.
Kinda hard to see why one would remain motivated in that context.

Itssoeasy

Chain Smoker wrote: »

Yep, I think she's gone a bit nuts with him but she hasn't seemed into it in ages anyway.

Her context might explain a lot of it too. She's from a family of lower lever wrestlers, none of which ever really came close to being on the main WWE roster. For her, to some degree she might have literally viewed winning that women's title on her debut as the endpoint of whatever work she's put in. It's a far higher level presumably earning faaaaar more than her parents ever did and she was 21 at the time.
Kinda hard to see why one would remain motivated in that context.

A case of too much too soon basically ? And when she was in fcw and nxt but fcw she seemed enthusiastic and hungry but yeah I think she's not enjoying it now.
I mean she's been doing this for 11 years which considering she is only 24 means she's been doing it for nearly half her life.

Monokne

Lithium93_ wrote: »

Yeah, when was the last time anyone went HOLY ****, IT'S PAIGE, answers on a postcard, I'll wait, the sad thing is she's now 24, quiet possibly set for life money wise, and she's doing her damn best to literally burn bridges with WWE.. Not really a smart move..

She's been wrestling since 13, I'd say this is her showing two fingers to the industry/maybe a case of burnout and she's using the photo shoots/partying as an outlet to let off some steam.

She's not earning in the league of money where this is even remotely possible.

ricero

Paige is very annoying and seems like a horrible bitch. Her podcast with stone cold pretty much made my mind up about her.

Overratted by the iwc and hopefully gone from Wwe for good now