WWE WrestleMania 42 Results As Paige Returns And Replaces Nikki Bella (Video)

Paige returned to WWE at WrestleMania 42.

WWE

Paige Returns At WWE WrestleMania 42 | Key Points

• Paige returned to WWE at WrestleMania 42 amid rumors that she signed with the promotion and would be replacing Nikki Bella, who suffered an ankle injury a couple weeks ago on WWE Raw.

Paige returned to WWE at WrestleMania 42 as she replaced an injured Nikki Bella ahead of the Fatal 4-way tag team match. “I called an old friend,” announced Nikki Bella before Paige returned to a huge reaction.

As Nikki Bella’s status for WrestleMania became more murky, reports surfaced that the former NXT and Divas champion would be Nikki Bella’s fill-in. Paige last competed as part of AEW, where she made her debut in 2022 at AEW Grand Slam in New York using her real name Saraya. Considering her status as a top star in WWE, Saraya’s AEW run was underwhelming with limited matches and no title reigns.

During an interview with Chris Van Vliet in 2025, Paige acknowledged she wanted to return to WWE.

“Paige, 100%. I miss Paige so much. I tell people all the time," said Saraya. "So again, when I went to AEW, I didn’t want to be close to my character in WWE because of the comparisons. I was like, Okay. And then I ended up being like a chicken sh*t heel with AEW, which is all fun and good, but there’s a ceiling to that. Whereas Paige, I mean, she’s generational."

"I love her. She’s bad ass, tough as nails, just screaming all the time. I loved being her. She was a f*cking badass, and that felt more like an elevated version of myself, rather than doing what I was doing in AEW. But again, that was my decision to be like that. But then I was like, Damn I wish I leaned more into my original character, but it is what it is. You live, you learn.”

This article was originally published on Forbes.com