10 Wrestlers Who Changed WWE’s In-Ring Style
2. Paige
There was acclaim lurking in WWE's women's scene prior to Paige's work in NXT - but, quietly, the unrecognised Fifth Horsewoman was primarily responsible for doing away with the 'Diva' designation.
Not to damn Paige with faint praise, but she, and foremost rival Emma, weren't doing anything particularly novel throughout 2013 and 2014. They just quietly disproved, with a series of quality and believable matches fought for the recently-introduced NXT Women's Championship, that women in wrestling weren't there to be gawped over. Their main roster equivalents, with the notable exception of AJ Lee, were booked to lose to one another, invariably by roll-up, in two-minute matches that were as poorly-worked as they were inconsequential. There was no time to craft a story, much less develop their characters.
Conversely, in the more relaxed and progressive developmental environment, Paige and Emma worked a series of minor classics, in which the comedic Emma was cast as the deceptively-skilled upstart to Paige's lethal, submission-savvy queen bee. Paige's ability to continually dominate her rapidly-improving opponent proved that women were capable of long-form storytelling.
Charlotte has since credited Paige with prising open the door she, Bayley, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch smashed through.