Paige returns at WrestleMania 42 and wins women’s tag titles

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Paige returned to a WWE ring for the first time in eight years at WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas, winning the Women’s Tag Team Championship in a surprise appearance at Allegiant Stadium. According to Newsweek, the former two-time Divas Champion entered after Nikki Bella—on crutches and without medical clearance—announced she had recruited an “old friend” so Brie Bella could still compete in the fatal four-way title match.

The finish was designed to make the comeback look both plausible and decisive. Newsweek reports Paige was briefly taken out by Charlotte, setting up Alexa Bliss for a top-rope move, before Nikki Bella pulled Charlotte off the apron and struck her with the crutch. Bliss then went for Twisted Bliss, but Paige caught the landing with raised knees, hit her signature finisher, and scored the pin to take the belts.

The return ends a long, carefully managed absence that began with a neck injury and years of the company insisting she could not be cleared for in-ring competition. During that period, Paige stayed visible through non-wrestling roles, including as SmackDown general manager and as a manager for the Kabuki Warriors, before leaving WWE and signing with All Elite Wrestling. In AEW she did wrestle, won the women’s title once, and then departed last year—clearing the path for a WWE deal timed to the company’s biggest annual event.

WrestleMania’s business model rewards moments that spread instantly, and Paige’s reappearance arrived pre-packaged for that economy. Newsweek notes that clips of the entrance and the title-winning sequence circulated rapidly online, with fans framing it as a “biggest pop of the weekend” moment and treating the result as a nostalgia-fuelled bridge back to an earlier era of the women’s division.

For WWE, the move is low-risk and highly monetisable: a single match can reset a performer’s status, generate social media reach, and create new merchandise and storyline options without committing to a full-time schedule. For Paige, it adds another championship line to a résumé that already includes the NXT Women’s Championship and Divas Championship—this time delivered in the one setting where the company’s spectacle reliably converts surprise into sales.

Paige walked into WrestleMania without a scheduled singles program and walked out with a title belt.