Paige Pitched Managing Asuka Before Kairi Sane Joined; Considered Managing Rousey

Paige says she is aware it looks odd, but thinks it will all work out in the end.

Heading into the 2019 WWE Superstar Shake-Up, former multi-time WWE Women’s Champion Paige left the question hanging over viewers’ heads concerning what team she was going to be bringing to SmackDown Live to chase after the Women’s Tag Titles. That duo was soon revealed to be Asuka and former NXT Women’s Champion Kairi Sane. Paige hinted in the months prior to the revelation that she was hoping to return to WWE as a manager.

Paige is the mouthpiece for Kairi and Asuka and wants to convey their emotions to audiences in attendance and at home. While being interviewed by UPROXX, Paige explained that as much as some people may think talking on the microphone is not needed, it is and she continued by revealing that Paul Heyman informed her of her role and feels that people are going to all in love with the pairing of herself, Kairi and Asuka.

“It wasn’t going to be that specific tag team, but I was always pitching the idea of managing someone, even if it was Ronda Rousey, or Asuka by herself. You know, because the thing is with Asuka and Kairi, it’s just that their English isn’t too great right now. They’re incredible wrestlers, like the best wrestlers that I feel like we have, but sometimes you need to have the talking on the microphone, as much as people think we don’t need it, we do.” Paige said. “So I pitched the idea to Asuka, but then Paul Heyman called me and said that pretty much I was going to be the female version of him, but with these two instead, and I was super-excited about it. Slowly but surely we’re creating a really cool bond between the three of us. I know it looks kind of weird at first, you know, the dynamic of having this pale goth chick and then these beautiful Japanese wrestlers who are very colorful and vibrant like unicorns. So the dynamic is very strange, but I think as the weeks go on people are really going to fall in love with it.”

Kairi Sane and Asuka will be in action next Tuesday on SmackDown Live to go toe-to-toe with former ‘Absolution’ members Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville.