Paige On Her Issues With Triple H's Joke, Impact On Boyfriend
Recently on Chasing Glory With Lilian Garcia, former WWE Ring Announcer Lilian Garcia welcomed FS1's WWE Backstage Analyst Paige to the podcast. Among many other things, Paige opened up about WWE Legend and NXT boss Triple H's flippant joke about her sexual history and how the remark has negatively impacted her and her loved ones by opening up old wounds.
According to Paige, she is quite happy in her relationship with boyfriend Ronnie Radke of Falling In Reverse fame, especially in light of her poor past suitors.
"He [has] just been there for me, which is really, really cool. It's nice to have a guy that's really nice to me. Oh yeah, I've had terrible exes, of course. Like, I feel like I don't even want to talk about them at this point, but all I know is that at this point, I have a wonderful man now. He really and truly takes care of me and has my best interests at heart. And it's nice to be trusted."
During the podcast, Paige shared that Radke and her family have been affected by Triple H's inappropriate joke. The inaugural NXT [Women's] Champion divulged that 'The Game”s off-color comment resulted in a groundswell of online bullying.
"[Radke] so brave, as well, to really deal with, especially recently. And I hate to bring this up about [Triple H], but he's so brave to deal with the impact that the joke or those videos had on my life and now his and my family, obviously." Paige continued, "but recently after [Triple H] made that joke, which, I respect Hunter – he [has] always been respectful to me and he has always just been a gentleman, so when he made that joke, it kind of just ignited this thing where it opened the door for all these fans to attack me and take pictures, and screenshots, and videos. And then, all-of-a-sudden, it's being sent to Ronnie and to my family and stuff like that all over again and it took me a couple of years to really get over it.
"Like I said earlier, I had to talk to four different therapists. Like, I was thinking about suicide back then. I was in a really dark place. And then, knowing that I couldn't have kids too, so that whole joke was just bad! I was like, 'I can't have kids!' And then, all-of-a-sudden, these videos are being brought up, so it was just all of this stuff, kind of like an influx of hatred just thrown at me by all these fans. And I'm just like, 'damn, I was just getting over this, and now it all just came back again, and now I have poor Ronnie who has to be involved in all of this, and my family, again, has to be involved in this.'"
Additionally, during the podcast, Paige acknowledged that Triple H apologized for his faux pas and that it was big of him to admit fault.
"Oh yeah, it definitely takes someone, a real man or a woman, to admit a mistake that they've made," Paige claimed. "And to publicly go out there, and, obviously, apologize, it takes a lot because sometimes, like, you truly don't mean to offend someone, obviously, and in today's age, like, people can get offended a lot."
Paige stated that it meant a lot to her that many of her powerful female friends in the professional wrestling industry publicly supported her.
"Now, actually, [Garcia], Renee [Young], The Bellas, Lita, Nia Jax, yeah, you all openly spoke out about it and that gives me chills. It just makes me feel so? it's just good to have a support system and to have women in [Garcia's] position – you're all very powerful women, businesswomen, entrepreneurs – do you know what I mean? Like, really built your career outside of WWE too to really just join in and have someone's back, it's just wonderful that you know you have friends because in this business, it's really hard to know who your real friends are and you wait for situations like this, like any other situation, to see who your real friends are. And so, like, it made me feel really good. It made me smile, and it made me happy, and it made me not dwell on it so much because I could have been like, 'I feel bad for myself.'" Paige said, "but I kind of brushed myself back off and said, 'whatever, this is fine.'"
Apparently, Paige would have been fine with Triple H's improper joke if it was made behind closed doors.
"I don't mind jokes. Honestly, I really don't. Like, backstage, I'll joke all the time. I was like, 'you can throw these jokes at me.' I would joke about myself. I don't care, but if it's in the media, then it just opens doors to strangers to do it and that's not okay because then I feel like these people on the internet are bullying me again. Like, 'here comes the cyberbullying that I just got over too.'" Paige later reiterated, "[Triple H] was just joking. Like, I know it was a throwaway joke. And honestly, I wouldn't be offended by it if it was just us [with] no cameras around, just backstage with everyone joking around. I would probably find it funny! Like, the joke itself didn't offend me as much as it just opened doors for people to start attacking me again. And I'm just like, 'I wanted that door to be closed.'
"It's time for people to sort of forget about it, but now it just ignited it again. And I was like, 'and people won't remember me for the other stuff – they'll remember me now because of this joke that came out and how these videos came about, and I wish people would just let it go.' If my family can do, if my partner can do it, I wish strangers would!"
Listen to the podcast here or via the embedded player below. If you use any of the quotations from this article, please credit Chasing Glory With Lilian Garcia with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Listen to "Saraya (aka: Paige) Taking Control Of Your Life – Part 1" on Spreaker.