Yesterday, Feb. 18, Fightful ran an article on Paige with quotes from her interview with Gulf News. In the interview, Paige stated, "It was never WWE holding the women back. It was the fans not taking them seriously."
Fightful's article caught the attention of many fans online, with one fan tagging Paige to alert her to the article and headline. Paige offered up the following responses to defend her position.
Ok if you read it. I said many years ago. Not now. Even up to a few years ago certain places we would wrestle in, the fans in big arenas would chant boring to the girls or start the wave or for years chanted “we want puppies.” So it was absolutely a mixture of both. https://t.co/QfdsbdzaI9
— PAIGE (@RealPaigeWWE) February 18, 2019
Absolutely yes. Fans back then would call us toilet breaks. It was only when the girls, the female superstars took it upon themselves to change the way anyone perceived us. Aj, the bellas, myself and the WWE four horsewomen all the superstars wanted to create that change https://t.co/h3h1Va4fXR
— PAIGE (@RealPaigeWWE) February 18, 2019
Absolutely you guys did. We loved that. But riddle me this, what about when the bra and panties matches were happening? Or when Michelle McCool, Gail Kim etc were busting their asses why wasn’t there an uproar then? All I’m saying is.. it’s a two way street. https://t.co/lJl8lvoNp0
— PAIGE (@RealPaigeWWE) February 18, 2019
I know but people are sensitive these days. In reality what I said was it’s not all on WWE. Up until a few years ago women didn’t have the support from a lot of people. https://t.co/R0qhEgodwF
— PAIGE (@RealPaigeWWE) February 18, 2019
While some appreciated Paige clarifying her comments, others weren't easily impressed. Twitter user @bvmbshelled posted a thread highlighting the struggles of WWE Divas before the Evolution began. Some examples are below.
Michelle McCool saying how she and Melina were yelled at backstage for being “better than the guys” pic.twitter.com/1s6CNtbKBx
— boris (@bvmbshelled) February 18, 2019
The Bella Twins and The Funkadactyls getting their WrestleMania match cut because The Undertaker and CM Punk match went overtime. pic.twitter.com/bV5PrlEmu8
— boris (@bvmbshelled) February 18, 2019
Trish Stratus losing her title because she wouldn’t kiss Torrie Wilson as she thought it didn’t fit her character. pic.twitter.com/opc0up2uNa
— boris (@bvmbshelled) February 18, 2019
And who can forget when they had 24 women, past and present, competing at WrestleMania, and decided to give a man the win just for because they thought it was funny. pic.twitter.com/4ndyLUokyB
— boris (@bvmbshelled) February 18, 2019
A storyline where Michael Cole was interrupting and telling the Divas they’re bathroom breaks and that they don’t matter. pic.twitter.com/1ObrCZyILs
— boris (@bvmbshelled) February 19, 2019
The thread currently has over 2,000 retweets and nearly 5,000 likes.
Paige did not offer a reply to the thread.
