Paige violated the WWE wellness policy twice in her career. The first came after the 2016 WWE Draft where she was suspended 30 days for what she called a “procedural issue”. A few months later she was suspended for 60 days for a second violation. Paige tweeted: “Same sh*t different day. Kids..Please don’t get prescriptions or doctors notes. Not acceptable”. WWE responded by saying she: “tested positive for an illegal substance, not a prescription drug”.
Paige was recently a guest on the Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia podcast, where she opened up about the subject. Paige admitted that her Wellness Policy failure was due to illegal drugs:
“I literally had like a 2005 Britney Spears meltdown, I was so close to shaving my head. I just got wrapped up in drinking and like I wanted to drink some more, so I would do that kind of stuff. I just got so wrapped up in the party lifestyle and I just wanted to be cool. I finally had a bunch of friends that liked me, but they don’t really like you. They’re just like ‘Oh cool, you’re spending money on us.’ So that was pretty much it. I just felt good that I felt free, that I was reliving a childhood I never had. I was hanging with people I never thought I could never hang with before, with all these stars that I got to meet.”
She continued:
“Then I get in a relationship, and it was kind of an uphill battle when it came to social media. But also I had my neck, and I’d never had a day off in my life, so when my neck came along and I thought I would never be a wrestler again that put me in depression. I just felt so alone, and I was in so much pain from my neck. I was just like, ‘This is fine. One more will be absolutely fine. I can do this. I’m not addicted to this pill.’ Which I’m not because I completely stopped after I got humiliated online for that kind of stuff. But I made the dumb mistake, and it’s not even good. I didn’t even enjoy doing it.”
Paige also admitted that she tried to cover up her second wellness policy failure because she was embarrassed. She was seen as a role model and didn’t want to be viewed as the drug-using party girl. She says that she was never mad at WWE during the situation and the company has been great in helping her.
You should check out the full podcast as it was very revealing.
[h/t to StillRealToUs For the quotes]