While some may praise Paige’s promo from Raw, I am going to criticize it, even though I’m English and always completely biased towards English wrestlers. First of all, the emotion between Charlotte and Ric was so real .. you could tell it was genuine, as he lost his son two years ago. Reid was bound to follow in his footsteps .. so Charlotte didn’t just do it for Ric, she did it for her younger brother Reid. That was the best part of the segment by a long way; genuine emotion.
So yeah .. Paige has been losing lately. The second I saw Paige getting frustrated it told me “she’s turning heel soon, so Charlotte is going to beat Nikki”, and it happened; Charlotte won the title. It’s obvious to most that Paige wanted help to win the Divas Championship when she “tried” starting the divas revolution, so when Charlotte got the spotlight and ended up winning the title, it was a no-brainer that Paige would become jealous, her ego would kick in, and she would turn on Team PCB.
As I watched Raw tonight I was thinking .. how is Paige going to turn heel? Is she going to cost Charlotte a match? Is she going to ambush her backstage? Is she going to argue with Ric and give him a slap? Maybe she will take Becky out to send a message? Nope. None of that. What do we get? A lazy “oh, the Divas Revoluton needs a shoot!” promo, which was nothing more than a cheap AJ Lee knockoff; remember when AJ did her “pipebomb”, and it was praised?.
The insults were old, and unimaginative. Any typical internet hater is going to say things like “Charlotte’s only where she is because of her daddy”, and “NIkki and Brie are only where they are because of who they sleep with”. Have we not heard these insults so many times before? While it was absolutely right to turn Paige heel, the way it was done was lazy and unimaginative. Paige didn’t even get a cheap shot on Charlotte before leaving the ring. Ric didn’t get on the mic to tell Paige how it is. There were so many ways it could have gone down, but it ended up with Paige walking away.
What hurts my head even more .. is Paige (in storyline) brought Charlotte and Becky in to stop the Bellas. They stopped the Bellas, then she suddenly says The Bellas will just get the title back? I don’t get it. Why would Paige side with the Bellas and claim they would be dominant again? Nikki insulted Paige when they came out .. so it didn’t make any sense. Paige could have remained as a face and asked Charlotte for a title shot … then turned heel during the match itself. At least that way we get a competitive match which everyone would enjoy .. until Paige ruins it. It would have been the Divas title match when Paige suddenly turned on her PCB friends.
But what hurts this heel turn even more is .. how can Paige be the true heel (the one everyone boos the most) when you still have The Bellas in the picture? Everyone is going to hate The Bellas more than Paige no matter what they or Paige do .. as they have no talent. They have “GO AWAY!” heat, not heel heat.
When a wrestler suddenly turns heel, a bunch of “shoot” promo insults we have heard before isn’t going to cut the mustard. Paige needs to do something disgusting to get heat. They could have given her heat by having her DESTROY Natalya (which I initially assumed would happen) and get her in the PTO .. refusing to let go until Lynch and Charlotte arrive to make the save .. and THEN WALK OUT! With the evil smile she does so well.
What are you thoughts on it? Perhaps I am being overly critical, but I feel like WWE could have done so much more with this heel turn, and because they didn’t .. it will be as forgettable as a Big Show match. Let’s hope the feud can escalate in a manner which makes sense, and not be seen as an afterthought by creative. Good night everyone.
