Paige Reveals When She Was Told She’d Be Smackdown’s GM, Talks Retirement Speech & More

– Paige spoke during her appearance on Edge & Christian’s Pod of Awesomeness about her retirement speech, becoming the Smackdown GM and more. Audio from the interview is below, plus highlights per Wrestling Inc:

On getting 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. 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.”

On the reaction backstage to her speech: “I didn’t tell many people that I was going to retire, but when I saw you [Edge] I had to do the speech so it was perfect and asked if I could speak with you whenever you had a moment before I had to go out there. When people saw me afterwards–it was really hard afterwards because I was on the stage and I was thinking, ‘Oh my God. This is it–closure.’ Then I came back into the curtain and people were crying, and I was like, you guys are making this so much worse. I said to myself that I got this, and that I am good, but then I went to the back and Stephanie [McMahon] grabbed me and hugged me for the longest time, which was lovely, and then Vince [McMahon] and Hunter [Triple H]. I felt like I died or something, like, ‘Oh, she was such a good person.’ I was like, ‘Guys, I didn’t die! I’m still here!'”

On when she was told she would be Smackdown’s GM: “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. 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.'”