WWE legend Paige has revealed how Jelly Roll and his wife Bunnie Xo got the ball rolling on her WrestleMania comeback.
Paige has revealed how Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo helped her return to WWE.
The 33-year-old wrestling icon, whose real name is Saraya Bevis, made her comeback at WrestleMania 42 last weekend almost four years after leaving the company, and a conversation with “best friend” Bunnie led to the shocking return.
Appearing on Stephanie McMahon’s What’s Your Story? podcast, she said: “[Bunnie] was doing her book tour and she was doing her live podcast and she was in LA, so she texted me being like, ‘Can you come on?’
“I was like, ‘Absolutely,’ and so I get there and then her manager comes and gets me. And she’s like, ‘Hey, you got a friend in there’ and I was like, ‘Who!?’
“And I go down there and it’s Brad Slater. So, that’s [Dwayne Johnson’s] agent, and I’ve known him for over 10 years because of Fighting with My Family and stuff.
“Great guy. Always checks in on me. Every six months, I get a text from him, and so he was in there and he’s like, ‘It’s so great to see you –’ gives me a big hug.
“And then Jelly [Roll] was just like, ‘What the f***! When are you gonna bring her back? Give a call to your guy and stuff’ and Brad looks at me, he’s like, ‘Do you want to come back?’ “
Paige told him she “would love to”, and he made a call to WWE president Nick Khan.
She explained: “Within 30 minutes, Nick had said, ‘Sure. Let’s get a meeting with her.’ So, a week later, he flies to LA to the WWE offices out there.”
They had a 10-minute meeting, where Nick told her that there were two conditions for her return.
She added: “He goes, ‘Two things: Your neck has to be okay, and we have to do a drug test.’
“I was like, ‘Fair enough. I can control the drug test. I’m clean as a whistle,’ and so, I was like, ‘I don’t know how my neck’s been. It’s been a few years since I got it checked but last time I got it checked, it was perfect so I’m not really concerned about it…’ “
A neck injury cut Paige’s in-ring career short as she was forced to announce her retirement in 2018, before returning as a wrestler in rival company AEW in 2022.
A week after her meeting with Nick, she flew to Birmingham, Alabama and spent about 10 hours undergoing tests to make sure everything was “perfect”.
She recalled, “I’m exhausted just sitting there, you know? Waiting for the answer and then he comes in and he was like, ‘Are you ready to go home, kid?…’
“I balled my eyes out. We actually have clips of it. My friend was recording it. I cried my eyes out.”
The emotional moment came days before WrestleMania, and they were able to get everything in place the week of the event.
Paige appeared as a surprise replacement for injured Nikki Bella alongside her twin Brie Bella, and the makeshift duo captured the Women’s Tag Team Championships.
She admitted: “I was just so excited and then once I got in the ring, I was just like, oh my God, I have to try and keep up with these girls.
“I did [keep up with them], for that short stint I was in the ring… I did do a lot of training.
“The week leading up though, I only went to the gym once and I regretted that so much but I had all these other signings to do. That’s no excuse.”
How Jelly Roll directly led to Paige’s epic WWE return at WrestleMania 42
