♪ ♪
- Twitch is just a streaming platform.
It's not just for video games now,
it's pretty much like a YouTube,
but you're like live streaming on there constantly.
How are you guys?
It's been like a whole month.
All right.
You guys going absolutely-- crazy.
Everyone calm down.
Twitch was more to me than just a streaming platform.
It was really positive for my mental health.
It really helped me a lot just having all these people be nice
to me rather than just being on other platforms
and seeing all the negativity.
Today we are going to be watching some wrestling.
Michael Cole: Folks, there is another star from NXT.
She's from Norwich, England, and her name is Paige,
and she's here on Raw.
- Look at me.
Oh.
Who'd have thought at this moment,
everything was just going to change.
Everything.
Announcer: The youngest female
wrestler in British wrestling today.
- Saraya didn't take no weekends off.
She broke down barriers, every company she went to.
- I realized that's what I wanted to do,
and there was nothing that was going to stop me from doing it.
- She was a veteran already at 19 years old.
Commentator: A superplex, yes.
- She was ballsy.
- She has that hard-hitting Brit kind of style to her.
Michael: The 21-year-old from Norwich, England,
has just won the Divas Championship.
- I just think that they knew this is going to be our girl.
- This is my house.
- She is what every female wrestler wants to be.
- I feel like that's where everything
kind of spiraled for me.
Michael: I asked Paige how her life has changed
and she told me, "People know me now."
- It's crazy how much hate you can get.
I was surrounded by people that weren't out
for my best interests.
- My beautiful little princess was broken.
- I'm just going to kill myself.
That's what I wanted to do.
- Her heart was ripped out of her chest.
- She Just wanted to get back to where she was.
Michael: Paige is back.
- You can do anything you put your mind to,
and she's shown that that's the truth.
- To be 30 years old and to have had a movie made
about your life by The Rock, what a crazy journey,
what a crazy story.
- When I see what the women are doing today,
I know that Paige had such a massive part of that.
- This is my heart, this is my soul,
and this is my blood.
♪ ♪
- I grew up in Norwich, England.
I grew up with a family called the Bevises,
but most wrestling fans know us as the Knights.
Announcer: Just a warm welcome to the WAW Performance Center.
It's our Saturday night super show.
[crowd cheers]
- Dad's the one who got us into wrestling
in the first place.
He was a bouncer back in the day.
They used to call him Patty the Bat.
He went to prison and did time and did all like--
He was just one of those lunatics.
Then my Uncle Jimmy, he was like,
"You should try wrestling."
This was the 80s.
He was like, "Sure."
Commentator: The King of Hardcore, "Rowdy" Ricky Knight
and "The Gentleman" Jimmy Ocean.
- He met my mom, she was a chef at this holiday
camps in England, which was like
a glorified trailer park.
- Within six weeks he'd asked me to marry him
and then I'd move to Norwich.
That was 32 years ago.
I was his manager, and I was Sweet Saraya.
- WAW is World Association of Wrestling,
and my dad founded the company in 1994.
They started popping out babies, me and Zak.
There was also my brother Roy, my brother Asa,
my sister Nicky from my dad's previous marriage
that were all wrestlers.
It's definitely a family business.
My first bump was technically as a fetus.
I'm very proud of it.
I've been in wrestling my entire life,
even while inside my mother's womb.
- I didn't find out I was pregnant with Saraya
until I was 7 months pregnant.
I got thrown out the ring into the crowd.
- Not even just inside the ring.
No.
Like 12 feet in the air onto someone to the ground.
- Then I had her eight months and they tried from seven
until eight to stop her coming because she wanted to come out.
She was a lovely, lovely child.
She was the baby of the family and everybody doted on her.
- Very mischievous.
Would not take no-- off no one.
Not me, not her dad.
You're a star.
I remember getting called into her primary school
and they said to me, "We think there's something
wrong with your daughter.
She doesn't mix with other kids"
and?
she probably finds them stupid.
- Having wrestling parents growing up was definitely
very different in England.
I would get bullied for that in school for a while,
until they realized that I could kick their ass.
- Me and Saraya were very close growing up.
We were like twins.
She was my best friend.
When the rest of the family were on the road,
Saraya is someone that was always there.
- They were inseparable.
They argued like cat and dog.
- My mom and dad's house, the doors have still got
stab marks in the doors where we used to chase each
other around with knives.
- These marks that you see are knife marks and scissor marks.
This is where Zak, and this is a punch,
where Zak was trying to kill Raya.
Zak's door is fairly similar, probably bigger holes because
Raya got the bigger knife.
- Growing up was difficult.
Mom and dads were right at the top of the tree in the UK scene.
They were wrestling 28 days a month
because if they didn't work they wouldn't get paid.
- The entertainment business is a very tough business
to grow up in, and that's what we are.
We're entertainers.
They lived the traveler lifestyle on the road.
That's why we're classed as Travelers, Gypsies.
- Growing up in a wrestling family everyone assumed
I wanted to be in wrestling, but wrestling actually
terrified me because I grew up with it my whole life.
It scared me.
Seeing the injuries.
My mom was blinded for six months because
she got dropkicked in the eye.
It terrified me.
If she gets another knock to the head,
then she might lose her sight forever
and I don't want that to happen.
- I believe that because everything in our life
was about professional wrestling
it actually took her the other way.
She didn't care for it.
She weren't interested in it.
- These books, this was the first project
that we'd done it together, but this was all about
Siberian Huskies, because obviously Raya
didn't want to be a wrestler.
She wanted to be a vet.
- That lasted until I was about 13,
and then my dad was short on a girl one day.
♪ ♪
- Her playground really was the wrestling ring.
Even though she never got taught a move,
she knew the moves because she didn't
know anything else.
Announcer: The youngest female wrestler
in British Wrestling today,
will you welcome Britani?
[crowd cheers]
- She was terrified.
She was just like, "No, I can't do this.
I don't want to be in front of the audience.
I'm only used to getting in the ring with Zak
and I've only ever worked with him and him throwing me around."
Dad just looked at me and went, "We can sort that."
Announcer: Will you welcome the Pink Lady?
[crowd boos]
- At 14 I was under a pink Power Ranger outfit,
wrestling my sister on her debut match
just to make her feel comfortable.
[crowd cheers]
- The adrenaline that you get from the three people that were
in the crowd that night, they made me feel
a million bucks and I absolutely loved it.
[crowd cheers]
- That's the thing that she fell in love with instantly.
She come back and she was extremely overwhelmed.
She was very excited, and she was just saying like,
"This is what I was born to do."
♪ ♪
Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen,
the youngest member
of the Knight Dynasty, Britani Knight.
- We had a little bit of a chuckle about
she looks like Britney Spears,
also Britani is an anagram of Britain.
Commentator: Britani Knight is the next big thing here in WAW.
- She could hit as good as the rest of the guys.
She could fly as well as the rest of the guys.
- After I had my first match,
I realized that's what I wanted to do and there was nothing
that was going to stop from doing it.
I was just so focused on wrestling
that I just did not care about anything else.
We sent out resumes out to all these different independent
promotions all over Europe.
Commentator: She's broken away from the family
She's gone her own way.
It's the maturation process of the greatest women's wrestler
in this country today, Britani Knight.
Commentator: [foreign language] Britani Knight.
- France, Italy, Denmark, Belgium, Germany.
Commentator: [foreign language]
- I was in a lot of different countries.
- She was messaging promoters telling them that,
"Listen, I'm going to make it.
You've got to book me now to say that I've been on your shows.
If you don't moron on you type thing."
- Went in for more money than I was earning and got it.
Just letting you know that the --.
That's how clever she was.
She was 15 years old and got her own work
and done it all on her own.
- I realized at a certain point that I gave up my childhood.
I didn't really get to experience
what normal kids would experience.
I didn't even go to my prom.
I didn't do any of that.
I was just too focused on wrestling.
What?
- Check out the guns.
Go to your head.
Go to your forehead.
- A gentleman called Max Fisher came to see us
and he was a huge fan of my husband.
He wanted to do a documentary on Rick.
It just so happened that Ray and Zak got the call up
for WWE to go and do their trials and
old Max's ears pricked up.
It was like, "Okay. I really love you, Rick,
and I'll always be a fan of you,
but can I do this documentary on your family
and your kid's journey?
Because I think that's a really cool edge to it."
- We're about four miles from the O2 Arena.
- I'm nervous.
- Is your palms sweaty?
Oh, my God.
- These were the tryouts where all the
wrestlers on the show for
SmackDown were surrounding the ring.
- My sister, she knows how to work the room.
She's got that presence that when she talk people listens.
She smashed her promo, she smashed her in-ring trial,
she smashed her physical, absolutely everything.
My agent walked in and he put his arm around
Paige and was like, "You're signed."
Then he looked at me and was like,
''They're not taking you buddy."
- I remember just seeing how deflated my brother was, though,
and that just broke my heart.
I was just like, "What about my brother?
Why can't he come with me?"
- Her initial reaction was for me, which is something
I'll never forget because at that time she must have been
bursting at the seams with excitement,
knowing that she'd achieved it.
- I didn't want to be overly happy in front of him,
but inside, I was just like, "Oh my gosh, I made it."
This is my WWE contract.
Got a FedExed it a couple of days ago.
Didn't take very long.
I got a phone call the other day told me it only took a day
to get from America, but it was priority.
You see.
I'm super, super excited.
- She was 18 years old.
We got told that she had to leave on January the 3rd.
All we had was New Year's Day with her and the following day
she was leaving us for good.
It was a hard one.
- It broke my heart.
We were so close.
Everyone had planned to go to the airport with her.
I couldn't watch her go.
- I'll let you know when I've landed and stuff like that.
Thank you for everything because you've got me where I am.
- No.
You got yourself where you are.
Look at the other lazy--.
You've done it.
We knew from the day you were born
you were going to be a star.
That's all.
- You're amazing.
You're absolutely amazing.
- I'm so really scared now.
- Last thing I said to her was, "Put your hood up.
Don't look back, because if you see mom and dad crying,
you ain't going to want to go."
I said, "This is the next chapter of your life.
Don't look back, because nothing's going to change here.
- I was so young and I was so scared.
- My name is Saraya.
I come from England.
That makes me instantly more superior than all of you.
Just putting it out there.
I walk into FCW, which is before NXT,
and I look around
and I just thought, "I think I've made a mistake."
Norman Smiley: We had about approximately 60 students,
but she wasn't friends with a lot of them.
- I came in with previous wrestling experience
and some of the other girls were intimidated by that.
I'm not going to lie.
People were -- to me.
The only person who was nice to me was Summer Rae-
FCW is very cutthroat.
Everyone's trying to get to the main roster.
I didn't know that she was getting such -- from people.
- I remember they used to throw my --
out of the locker room and stuff
They would move my stuff.
They told me I had to put my stuff in the shower.
They were just awful.
- I would be like, "Screw them.
Who cares about them?
They may not even last that long.
You just have to keep going."
- I remember calling my mom and dad for three or four months
I was crying my eyes out.
- My dad said, "If you call me one more time crying,
I'm not going to answer the phone anymore."
He was like, "I promise you in six months,
you'll feel a lot better."
- I remember kicking the door down one day and I was like,
"I'll beat your -- if you touch my -- again.
Then they stopped.
Commentator: As we see Rollins celebrating a victory,
a well-deserved victory.
Hold on a second.
Rollins is looking at somebody.
- I know who that is.
That's the enchanting raven-haired lady.
- The typical diva look in WWE is the cookie cutter diva was
blond hair, and tan, and big boobs, just looking fantastic.
I come walking in, I'm just so like little emo.
I'm really pale.
Now, I'm what you call an anti-diva.
I don't care what people think of me.
They're like, "We need a name."
I came with a list and one of the names I chose was Paige.
That's because I grew up watching Charmed
and there was Rose McGowan on there who was
absolutely beautiful pale with a butt chin, which is me.
[Paige's music plays]
Ring Announcer: From Norwich, England, Paige.
Commentator: We finally figured out at least one thing,
the name of that raven-haired beauty,
the woman who is as pale as a full moon,
her name is Paige.
- People took to me when we were doing shows for FCW.
People like seeing something different, I think.
♪ ♪
- FCW just had this like cool ma-pa, low-level,
low-budget vibe to it.
As there was the rumblings of NXT beginning and understanding,
okay, there's this new show that's going to be happening
and the TV side of it that was being attached to it.
- This is a massive deal for us.
- It'll be fun to be
- It'll be fun.
- in 60 different countries and possibly be online.
We're looking forward to the opportunity.
We hope you like it.
- People will see me at home in England.
- That's true.
- Oh my gosh.
- Once we made the transition from FCW to NXT,
the administration was new, new people coming in,
who were working in the office, and they all acknowledged
that Paige had something.
- I know what a diva is supposed to be.
No.
Commentator: Oh, my.
Commentator: Look at Paige.
Look at the power right there.
- Once people in positions of power got to see Paige and
they got to see the way people I think she reacted to Paige,
she helped usher in this period where we just get to see
a lot more variety and the women that we see on TV.
[crowd chants "NXT"]
Commentator: We are about to crown
a brand-new women's champion.
- It was between me and Emma to win
the NXT Women's Championship.
Commentator: The opportunity to be immortalized here in NXT.
Paige in complete control right now over Emma.
- They let us do a double suplex off the top rope,
which was a very big deal back then for women.
Commentator: Wait a minute.
Commentator: No.
Commentator: A superplex, yes.
- They were just able to be great performers, not,
"Oh, this is a girl's match. That's really good."
It was, "Oh, this match is really, really good."
[crowd chants "This is awesome"]
Commentator: The Paige Turner.
The Paige Turner from out of nowhere.
She did it.
Commentator: First ever.
Ring Announcer: Here is your winner and new
NXT Women's Champion, Paige.
♪ ♪
- She signified change.
This girl was really, really good in the ring,
and it was almost like a turning of a new leaf in the company
that women's abilities in the ring,
that that was going to be celebrated.
She was the perfect woman to kick that off in NXT.
- They gave me my first-ever merch shirt, and it was--
It said, "Think again, " on it.
I was like, "What does that mean?"
Hunter told me, "What you think is
your typical diva, well, think again."
It sold out so quick, so they were just like,
"Maybe we can do something with her."
♪ ♪
- I was NXT Women's Champion for 301 days.
Commentator: She's only 21 years old.
She's very young, but the girl's got a bright future.
♪ ♪
- I get a random text on my phone, "Hey, Paige, this is DJ.
I would love to speak to you at some point today.
Let me know when you're available."
I'm like, "Who the hell is DJ?"
[crowd cheers]
[crowd chants "Paige"]
- Hello, fans, at home.
You missed an awesome, awesome axxess session.
Scream at the camera, guys.
[crowd cheers]
- Going into WrestleMania is very, very cool.
To be like, "Holy crap, this is it.
This is the grandest stage of them all.
This is WrestleMania.
I'm here."
Then I get a random text on my phone and it says,
"Hey, Paige, this is DJ.
I would love to speak to you at some point today.
Let me know when you're available."
I'm like, "Who the hell is DJ?"
It's Dwayne Johnson, you -- idiot.
I was like, "Oh, my God."
He was like, "Hey, so first of all I'm Dwayne"
I was like, "No --."
He was like, "I couldn't sleep one day
and I stumbled across your family's documentary
Fighting with My Family
and we're going to make a movie on it."
- I immediately connected with it
because I come from a family of wrestlers
too as well, and at one time my family were
small-time promoters, like Paige's family.
Yes, there was really something really special
about the documentary that I saw,
and I felt then when I saw it,
that this would be a really interesting movie.
- He was like, "Oh, and by the way,
I was in the writers' room,
which you have to keep between us,
you're going to be debuting
on Raw tomorrow," and it was just--
I just didn't know how to act.
I was a mess.
Then the next day comes around, doors were 15 minutes before,
and I just was so nervous, and I just couldn't stop crying.
I'm Raw after WrestleMania, this is one of the biggest
Raw's you'll ever be a part of.
Michael: 15,000 WWE fans sold out here in New Orleans.
- I am the savior of your diva's division.
I am the diva's division.
[Paige's music plays]
Michael: Folks, there is another star from NXT.
She's the current NXT Women's Champion, and her name is Paige,
and she's here on Raw.
- I remember when she'd come out and I'm like,
"Okay, the -- is going on?"
Michael: Oh, Paige, the cover.
Hooks the leg off the Paige Turner.
She did it.
Paige did it.
- She shocked the world, and became
the youngest ever diva champion.
That was unbelievable.
Michael: the 21-year-old from Norwich, England,
has just won The Divas championship.
- The moment that she won I think I levitated.
I don't think I've ever jumped that high ever.
- AJ can't believe it.
Paige can't believe it.
I can't believe it.
[applause]
- This is what I've been trying to get
to my whole wrestling career,
so this is the achievement, my dream come true.
- She's left me speechless on more than one occasion,
that little -- [laughs]
Michael: I asked Paige how her life has changed
over the past week since winning the diva's title,
and she told me, "People know me now."
- I just won this championship,
and then there was an influx of people just knowing who I was,
and that was really intimidating.
Then the next week that I wrestled it was like,
"Oh, I'm really here.
I'm really on the main roster now."
- Being called up means that you're getting the call
from NXT up to the main roster.
You're up to the big leagues, babe.
- This is my house now.
WWE really gave me this huge push.
They put me in commercials.
Who are you going to be?
Party City and partycity.com.
I'm featured on TV every week.
Conan O'Brien: Please welcome WWE Diva, Paige.
[applause]
- I'm back at it again with the Facebook live.
It was definitely a whirlwind, I was on all the live events.
I was very, very busy.
Then they asked me a couple of months in
if I wanted to be part of Total Divas.
♪ ♪
- Total Divas was a reality show that started in 2013.
It was the first-ever look at the lives of women in WWE.
There was never, ever, ever a shortage of drama on that show.
- As long as it doesn't affect my story lines in wrestling,
I would absolutely love to be part of Total Divas.
I felt cool.
I was young.
I was 21.
It was like I had not had a childhood at that point.
[foreign language]
Cheers, friend.
I have friends finally.
I didn't have any friends even up to that point.
You want to follow me?
- You're constantly showing emotions,
and when there's cameras around, you want to put your guard up,
but when you sign up for a reality show
you're not allowed to.
It's hard because you know you're going to be judged
for the way you think, the way you act,
the way you do anything.
- Because I have one weekend where I mess up everyone's
going to judge me for it?
- She's always loved the spotlight,
but I think finding her feet and making mistakes
made the internet harder for her
which made her self-esteem take a bit of a knock.
- I feel like any celebrity
is going to have just haters online.
Of course, I think it affects her negatively sometimes.
- I had that fight with myself all the time like,
"Will I ever feel like I'm good enough?"
Being in the ring and being at the show was perfect.
It was not being able to deal with the outside life of it.
There is the woman who spearheaded the diva revolution, Paige.
- Paige embodied that gritty different female performer.
It really showed the company
that they could put faith in the women.
Michael: Paige taking out everybody.
- If you don't like the world that you live in,
you have the power to change it.
- Diva's era is behind us now at this point.
All these amazing things are finally happening for the women.
- Diva's revolution is finally starting.
People are taking us more seriously.
We have all these wonderful women coming up,
and then I got hurt.
I had my first neck injury.
It was a lot of wear and tear because I loved to bump around.
I couldn't feel anything down my arm,
and then it started coming back,
but then it was like pins and needles,
and I couldn't even hold a cup.
- Let's say, it could be anywhere from a week
of physical therapy, to six weeks,
to possibly surgery.
We're going to lay it all out there.
Hopefully a surgery is a small percentage.
Probably talking anywhere between 8 to 10 months.
- You'd never get to reap the benefits of your sacrifices.
I feel like she sacrificed so much to help
the women's revolution.
I can't even imagine what that must be like
because if your heart and soul is in one thing,
and it's the one thing you can't touch,
I don't know how you deal with that.
- I've never not worked.
That was when everything just started going wrong.
I was in an awful relationship at the time,
and then I had awful friends around me.
Just people that weren't good for my mental health,
or just a good influence on me whatsoever.
I was just drinking, and then the pain never
fully went away on my neck.
Then I wanted to try and take the pain away, and then it was
like Percocets and I loved those.
Then I started doing a lot of cocaine too.
- In the beginning when you try and help where you get told
to back off very abruptly.
- I would always try to stay in touch with her as much as
I could, but honestly, it was really hard sometimes
to stay in touch with her,
whether she's not responding to texts,
did she change your phone number?
What is going on?
It was definitely a really scary time.
- There was a period of time
where I hadn't heard from her for months,
and I just remember, "I don't know if I'm ever going
to see her again."
- I was just in a very, very bad place mentally.
I was completely broken down, and then in the middle of that,
I had some sex tapes released of me from when I was 19 years old.
People were just so mean to me even in the street
and stuff like that, so then I started doing
more drugs and drinking more.
- She was getting night terrors, she was freaking out,
she couldn't sleep, she couldn't eat,
she was losing weight.
- I thought that my family hated me,
I thought WWE hated me.
I'm going to be open, I was cutting myself.
I never thought I'd be like that person to do that
and stuff like that, but once you're in that mindset
where you just can't feel anything else.
Absolutely convinced.
I was like, "This is it, I don't want to be around anymore.
I'm just going to kill myself."
That's what I wanted to do.
I felt like people have lost respect for everything
that I've done, and the thing that they're going
to remember me by is a freaking sex tape.
- My daughter was about five and a half stone, dripping wet.
You could see her ribcage.
She was a skeleton with skin on it
and that's how my little girl came to me.
Oh, I'm sorry, I'm getting angry.
My beautiful little princess
that was feisty and strong was broken.
- I called my dad and I said, "I'm so sorry,"
but the first thing my dad said, he was so supportive,
he was like, "You had sex. Everyone does it."
He was like, "Unfortunately, you're in the public eye
and you have a lot more spotlight on you,"
and he was like,
"You just have to be strong enough to get through it."
Being told by my dad that it's okay,
it made me feel a little bit better, which is good.
- It was just a whole whirlwind of just absolute craziness
in the space of a year.
Eventually, something just really snapped
and I was just like,
"I'm so tired of living like this."
I just wake up feeling awful.
I spend my days feeling awful.
I just got very tired of living the way I was living,
but WWE the whole time were constantly trying
to reach out to me and constantly trying to help me.
They brought me to Connecticut,
and they asked me if I needed help.
Eventually, I did ask for their help.
I was like, "I really want to go back to Florida now,"
and they booked my flight literally the same day.
They were like, "Get your stuff, get on this flight."
- Once she started reconnecting with the people
that she cared about,
I definitely noticed positive change in her.
- When I saw Paige at the performance center,
she looked great.
She seemed like she was in a better place.
I think she just really wanted to get back to where she was
and to regain what she had lost.
♪ ♪
- We are at here at Raw in Houston, Texas,
and this is, well, my official first week back.
- She got cleared to compete again in 2017,
and even though she was off the drink and the drugs,
I still believe that she was having a big fight
with mental health.
- My first day back on the road was the most intimidating
thing ever because I thought, "Okay, I'm back on the road.
What's everyone's reaction going to be?
Are they going to judge me because of these tapes?
Are they going to judge me because I was an addict?"
I was really scared.
- Hi.
Yay.
Walking in everyone was just so happy.
They all just said, "We thought you were going
to die, and we are just really happy that you're here."
When I come to walking out, that's when I started getting
the full body shakes again.
I was so scared about walking out there.
I was like they're going to boo me out of the building.
Stephanie gave me a big hug and she said, "This is your house."
[Paige's music plays]
Michael: Wait a minute.
She's back.
Corey: Oh, my God.
Michael: Paige is back.
[crowd chants "Paige"]
[crowd chants "Welcome back"]
- Did you miss me?
[crowd cheering]
Corey: Welcome back, Paige.
Michael: Paige with the Rampage.
- I was trying to hold back tears as well.
I'm just looking around.
It gives me chills now.
I'm like, "This is really cool. People like me."
- Ray wanted to perform more than anything and she was
willing to overlook so much.
When she got cleared, I just said to her,
"Just be careful, Ray."
We'd talk.
It's like, "How's your neck?
Is it tweaking?
Is it niggling?
Are you getting any pain?
Is there anything at all?"
"No, Mom, I'm good.
No, Mom, I'm good."
Well, at one stage, one of those bumps was going to fall foul.
- I remember going to a live event,
I get this kick in the back.
I had this lighting bolt shoot through my body
and then I fell down and then I can't fill my arms
and legs and I'm just like, "Am I paralyzed?"
- I remember seeing her hit the canvas the way she did
and knowing pretty immediately
there was something pretty wrong.
- They start bringing down these stretchers and I'm like,
"Please don't take me on the stretcher.
I don't want to go on a stretcher."
I was like, "Just give me a couple of minutes,
it will probably come back."
I sit up, everyone starts applauding,
then I walk out the ring.
They fly me to Pittsburgh to go see the doc
and he took a bunch of x-rays and then he was just like,
"First of all, you're lucky you're not
completely paralyzed."
My spinal cord took so much impact,
it's like I got in a really terrible car crash.
The spinal fluid around my spine,
it was nonexistent at a certain area,
so if I get tapped in there a little bit,
I could be fully paralyzed.
- A second time, you might not be as lucky.
- I know.
I already came back for three or four weeks
and already I had something.
I guess that would be it for me.
That's it?
- Well, there are other things you can do.
You're incredibly talented.
You're--
- Especially if it's not on your own terms,
it's the most heartbreaking thing ever that can happen
to a wrestler is to be taken out, and I'm just like,
"I don't know what to do."
- Yes, I'm listening what's up babe?
- No, I just got told, that is all.
- I'm just not wrestling anymore.
♪ ♪
- I love this ring.
I was born to be in this ring.
This is my heart, this is my soul,
and this is my blood.
Unfortunately, due to neck injuries,
I can no longer perform as an in-ring competitor.
This is one of the hardest things I'll ever have to say
in my entire career.
[crowd chants "Thank you, Paige"]
- New Orleans four years ago is where I debuted
and won the Divas Championship,
and four years later,
New Orleans is where I want to retire.
This always will be my house.
[crowd chants "Thank you, Paige"]
- Straight away you flashback to what you've just gone through.
For those couple of years you've seen her down and out
and at her worse, and you're sitting there thinking,
"Are we going to have to go through this again?
Is this going to be worse this time?"
But the saving grace is that she'd been through all of that.
- At this point in my life, I knew that I still wasn't going
to hit rock bottom, this was not going to be
an excuse for me to start drinking and doing drugs again.
Having someone there that actually supports you,
and wants you to be healthy, and has your best interests,
it helps motivate you.
- Ronnie and Raya had been friends
before they were in a relationship.
He brought the smile back to Raya.
- I don't like taking credit, I don't.
I think she genuinely just saved herself.
- We just completely stopped drinking together
and we both decided to go vegan and stuff like that.
- It's the way that she carries herself, she's just special.
- You never thought that when I was going to sign to WWE
that seven years later there was going to be
a freaking movie about my life.
What the?
The whole movie was done by the time that I got back
from my neck and got over drugs.
"What's up, you guys?"
I was just really, really happy that it just grew to what it was
because the insecurity kept peeking round
and I was just like, "A movie?
People are not going to be interested in my story."
- To have done all that she has,
by her mid-20s, is pretty incredible.
I think the beautiful thing is for her,
her story is definitely not over.
- My daughter's had mountains to climb and to tumble down
the other side of, but she's only 30,
and she's accomplished so much,
and I feel that my daughter's
got to live another seven lifetimes before she's finished.
- One thing Saraya has left us in her legacy
here is using your voice and not being afraid of who you are.
When I see what the women are doing today,
I know that Paige had such a massive part of that.
- At the end of the day, WWE can give you the platform
or they can give you the brass ring,
it's just what you do with it afterwards.
- She's still young, that's what I always tell her,
"You're still young, you're still gorgeous,
you're always going to be talented."
- She's just got that spark.
Put a camera in front of her and everything just lights up.
People love her, she's infectious.
At 30 years old, the world truly is her oyster.
- You can do anything when you put your mind to
and that's a very corny thing to say, I suppose,
but she's shown that that's the truth.
The sky's the limit, she has not reached her full potential yet.
- I've got Ronnie, my family, there's a movie about my life,
I can't complain because everything is still so wonderful
I'm proud of what I've done and I'm proud of what I can
potentially do in the future too.