Saraya Bevis (Paige)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Saraya Bevis (Paige)

• Saraya Bevis is a British professional wrestler, entrepreneur, and actress. She has fought in many wrestling promotions around the globe and is regarded as one of the most renowned WWE wrestlers.

• During her childhood, she wanted to become a zoologist and did not want to become a wrestler, mainly due to injuries suffered by her family members in wrestling matches. Her father later started training her along with her brother when she was ten years old.

  

• At the age of 15, Saraya took on the roles of a bouncer and bartender at her parents’ pub. Later, in her early twenties, she relocated to California from England to wrestle in American wrestling promotions.

  

• Saraya Bevis started her wrestling journey at the age of 13 in 2005 when her father asked her to fill in for a missing wrestler while organizing an event for the World Association of Women’s Wrestling (WAWW). Her first officially recorded match took place in April 2006, where she teamed up with her mother using the ring name Britani Knight.

  

• She later formed a tag team called the Norfolk Dolls alongside Melodi and competed in various English wrestling promotions. In June 2007, the Norfolk Dolls won the World Association of Women’s Wrestling (WAWW) Tag Team Championship by defeating the Legion of Womb.

• She lost the World Wide Wrestling League (W3L) Women’s Title match in Scotland against Sara in September 2007.

• She was defeated by Jetta in the first WAWW British Champion decider match in December 2007. She defeated Sweet Saraya and won the WAWW British Championship in August 2009.

  

• She defeated her mother, Sweet Saraya, in a two-out-of-three falls match and won the vacant Herts and Essex (HEW) Women’s Championship in August 2009; however, she lost the HEW Women’s Championship to her mother on 17 July 2010. She defeated her mother and regained the title on 11 March 2011. She vacated the HEW Women’s Championship on 12 November 2011.

• She defeated her mother (Sweet Saraya), Chelsey Love, and Stacey Baybie in an elimination match and won the Real Deal Wrestling (RDW) Women’s Championship in November 2009.

  

• She defeated Jetta in a champion vs. champion match, staking her HEW Women’s Championship and won the Real Quality Wrestling (RQW) Women’s Champion in December 2009. She vacated the RQW Women’s Championship on 19 November 2011.

• She and her mother defeated Amazon and Ananya and won the PWF Ladies Tag Team Championship in May 2010; however, their title reign came to an end on 2 August 2011 when they were defeated by Amazon and Destiny in a two-out-of-three fall match, losing the PWF Ladies Tag Team Championship.

  

• She won the German Stampede Wrestling Ladies’ Championship by defeating Blue Nikita on 22 January 2011.

• She lost the first TPW Ladies Crown title match after she was defeated by Shanna at the debut event of Turkish Power Wrestling in Ankara in January 2011.

  

• She defeated Nikki Storm (popularly known as Nikki Cross) and won the first Pro Wrestling: EVE Champion in April 2011. She was defeated by Jenny Sjödin and lost the Pro Wrestling: EVE Champion on 4 June 2011.

• She won the Swiss Championship Wrestling (SCW) Ladies Championship after she was defeated by Amy Cooper on 30 April 2011. Her mother defeated her, Amy Cooper, and Laura Wellings in a four-way match to win the SCW Ladies Championship on 26 June 2011.

  

• She won the WAWW Hardcore Championship in an elimination match in 2011. She lost the WAWW British Championship to Liberty on 19 November 2011.

• She made her debut in Shimmer Women Athletes under the ring name Britani Knight during the Volume 37 tapings held in Berwyn, Illinois on 26 March 2011. Teaming up with her mother, Saraya Knight, and accompanied by Rebecca Knox (Becky Lynch), they formed a tag team known as the Knight Dynasty.

  

• They won their debut match against Nikki Roxx and Ariel via disqualification when their opponents used brass knuckles. This led to a Shimmer Tag Team Championship match against the Seven Star Sisters (Hiroyo Matsumoto and Misaki Ohata) at Volume 38, where the Knight Dynasty suffered a defeat.

• During a match against the reigning Shimmer Tag Team Champions Ayako Hamada and Ayumi Kurihara at Volume 42 in October 2011, Saraya refused to assist Britani, resulting in another loss for the Knight Dynasty. At Volume 43, Britani faced her third consecutive loss, this time against Jessie McKay.

  

• These losses became a storyline conflict between Saraya and Britani following which Saraya disowned Britani and slapped her, leading to Britani challenging Saraya to a no-disqualification match at Volume 44. Britani won the match, which turned out to be her final appearance in Shimmer Women Athletes.

• After an unsuccessful attempt in WWE tryouts in November 2010, she tried again in April 2011 and succeeded. She signed a contract with WWE in September 2011 and was assigned to compete in Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW). Her debut in FCW took place on 5 January 2012, during a house show, and she initially used the ring name Saraya.

  

• Later, her ring name was changed to Paige as a tribute to the character Paige Matthews from the TV show Charmed, who also had a distinctive chin like hers. She made her televised debut on FCW TV on the 26 February 2012 episode.

• Paige formed a tag team with Sofia Cortez in March 2012 which was known as the ‘Anti-Diva Army,’ and on 19 March 2012, they had their first televised in-ring appearance. On 15 July 2012, she lost to Audrey Marie which was her final FCW match.

  

• On 4 July 2012, Paige lost her first televised NXT match against Sofia Cortez. Paige began to attract significant fan support in September 2012 by securing victories against opponents like Audrey Marie, Sasha Banks, Emma, Aksana, and Alicia Fox. She became the first NXT Women’s Champion by defeating Emma on 24 July 2013.

  

• She teamed up with Emma later, and the two of them feuded against Summer Rae and Sasha Banks. She vacated her NXT Women’s Championship on 24 April 2014 after 301 days of reign as she had already won the WWE Divas Championship.

  

• On 7 April 2014, Paige defeated AJ Lee in her WWE main roster debut match, setting several records. She experienced her first WWE loss against Alicia Fox in a non-title match on 19 May 2014. She lost the Divas Championship to AJ Lee on 30 June 2014. Despite this loss, she continued to act as if she and Lee were close friends during tag team matches; however, their friendship took a turn on 21 July 2014, when Paige turned heel by attacking Lee after a tag team match.

  

• She defeated AJ Lee and won her second Divas Championship at SummerSlam on 17 August 2014. Paige and AJ Lee teamed up again to defeat The Bella Twins in a tag team match at WrestleMania 31. Stephanie McMahon introduced a revolution in the Diva’s Division, bringing in Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, and Sasha Banks as Paige’s allies on 13 July 2015.

  

• Initially known as the Submission Sorority, they later became known as Team PCB, using the initials of each wrestler; however, she turned on her partners on 21 September 2015 and delivered a scripted promo criticizing Charlotte Flair’s success, which Paige attributed to Charlotte’s father, Ric Flair, and also criticized other Divas in the division.

  

• Paige made a comeback to Raw on 20 November 2017 following her initial neck injury. She initiated the formation of a faction known as Absolution, alongside Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville. Together, they launched an attack on Sasha Banks, Bayley, Mickie James, and Alexa Bliss.

  

• She received a neck injury from a kick from Sasha Banks during a six-woman tag team match in a house show on 27 December 2017. The referee had to stop the match, and the injury prevented her from participating in the Royal Rumble event. She officially declared her retirement from in-ring competition on 9 April 2018 due to these ongoing neck issues.

• Shane McMahon appointed Paige as the General Manager of SmackDown on 10 April 2018, during an episode of SmackDown Live; she held this position for the remainder of the year. The McMahon family later took control of the show on 17 December 2018 and quietly removed the General Manager position from the storyline.

  

• Paige made her return to WWE on 10 April 2019 and took on the role of managing the newly formed team known as the Kabuki Warriors, consisting of Asuka and Kairi Sane. On 6 October 2019, The Kabuki Warriors went on to win the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship title at Hell in a Cell; however, Asuka and Kairi Sane turned on Paige on 28 October 2019, ending their alliance.

  

• She later became a contributor on WWE’s studio show, WWE Backstage, which premiered on 5 November 2019 on FS1.

• She made a virtual Skype appearance on 20 March 2020 in which she confronted Bayley and Sasha Banks. During this appearance, she announced that Bayley would defend her title in a six-way elimination match at WrestleMania 36. On 10 June 2022, she announced on Twitter that she would be leaving WWE on 7 July 2022.

  

• Saraya made her debut in AEW (All Elite Wrestling) at Grand Slam in Queens, New York on 21 September 2022 where she wrestled under the ring name Saraya. On 5 October 2022, she had a physical conflict with Britt Baker, marking her first physical fight since her neck injury in December 2017.

  

• Saraya announced on 9 November 2022 that she had received full clearance to return to in-ring competition. She won her first AEW match on 20 November 2022 against Britt Baker at Full Gear.

• Saraya, along with Toni Storm and Ruby Soho (formerly known as Ruby Riott), formed a group known as The Outcasts in March 2023. At the All-In event on 27 August 2023, she won her first World title in nearly nine years after defeating Hikaru Shida, Britt Baker, and Toni Storm in a Four-Way Match.

• Saraya co-founded a coffee company called The Dark Gypsy in September 2015 with Bobby Schubenski and Jim Somers, the owners of the Blackcraft Cult clothing company; however, in October 2016, she ended her association with the company.

• She launched an online clothing store in December 2017 which can be found at TheSarayaStore.com; she expanded her brand by opening The Saraya Store in Anaheim, California, on 26 February 2018. She introduced a makeup line called Saraya Jade Cosmetics on 16 November 2018. In 2019, she partnered with Hot Topic Inc. to create an exclusive makeup collection. ^[7]Facebook – The Saraya Store

  

• She played the role of Eleanor in the USA TV film titled ‘Santa’s Little Helper’ in 2015. She lent her voice to the animated film ‘Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon’ in 2016. In 2017, She voiced a character named Paige in the film ‘Surf’s Up 2: WaveMania’ in 2017.

• Throughout her career, she has made many appearances on WWE TV shows, including serving as a judge on the sixth season of WWE Tough Enough in 2015. She was a main cast member on the reality show ‘Total Divas’ from seasons 3 to 6 and also made guest appearances in subsequent seasons. She appeared as a guest on ‘Total Bellas’ and ‘Miz & Mrs.’ in 2018 and 2019. In 2023, she joined AEW All Access as a main cast member.

  

• Besides WWE-related shows, Saraya has made appearances on various talk shows, including ‘Conan’ in 2015 and ‘Ridiculousness’ in 2016. She also appeared in the parody TV show ‘What Just Happened??! with Fred Savage’ in 2019.

• A documentary titled ‘The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family’ was made by The New York Times reporter Max Fisher in 2012, focusing on Saraya and her family’s journey in the world of professional wrestling. In 2019, a biographical sports comedy-drama film titled ‘Fighting with My Family’ was directed by British actor-director Stephen Merchant. This film was based on the 2012 documentary and depicted her career in professional wrestling; she was portrayed by British actress Florence Pugh in the film.

  

• Saraya’s mother, Sweet Saraya, wrestled in professional wrestling matches when she was seven months pregnant with Saraya, not realizing that she was pregnant at the time.

• During her teenage years, she considered herself a tomboy and had an emo look during her high school years.

  

• She has featured in six WWE video games. Her video game appearances began as a downloadable character in WWE 2K15, and she continued to be a playable character in WWE 2K16, WWE 2K17, WWE 2K18, WWE 2K19, and WWE 2K20.

  

• She revealed during an episode of Total Divas in 2015 that she had dated several girls during her teenage years.

• She underwent lip filler surgery in 2017 to enhance her appearance. ^[8]Twitter – Saraya

  

• She likes animals and owns several dogs and a parrot named Paulie. In her free time, she enjoys horseriding.