10 Wrestlers Who Had Their Careers Stolen From Them
2. Paige
Paige started wrestling at the very young of 13 which meant that she already had a wealth of experience by the time that she got to perform try-outs in front of WWE.
Seeing her latent potential, Paige joined the company’s developmental program and was right at the top of the card as it began to look for its first ever NXT Women’s Champion. Debuting on Raw the night after Wrestlemania XXX, Paige square with Diva’s Champion AJ Lee and beat her to become the only woman to win the title in her debut.
It seemed as though Paige had it made and for the next few years was a big part of the Diva’s division which, based on the high performance of Paige and the women around her, was finally becoming something that the company took seriously.
After a neck injury in 2016, Paige lost over a year of her career. When she returned it was only for a couple of weeks before the injury struck back hard.
On the night after Wrestlemania 34, just four years after debuting, Paige retired from in-ring action.
WWE took good care of Paige for four more years (other than the disgraceful handling of her Twitch platform), giving her various backstage and on-screen presenting roles before she finally left the company in the summer of 2022. Even if she can be cleared to wrestle for another promotion, that’s five years of potential that were flushed away by this devastating injury.