As I’m writing this, both Emma and Paige are still in NXT, and both have made a huge impact so far in WWE’s developmental territory. I love these two women; they have the talent, the look, and the wrestling skills. We will be remembering these two 10 years from now just like so many remember Lita and Trish today for what they did during their time in the business.
First, let’s take some time getting to know Tenille Dashwood “aka Emma” in NXT. How did she get to NXT?
Tenille has her older brother Jake to thank for introducing her to wrestling when she was about 8 years old. She spent her earliest years learning the craft in Australia from the ages of 13 to 15. In 2007, she moved to Calgary, Alberta, for a few months to train with Lance Storm at the Storm Wrestling Academy.
In May 2009, Tenille made her debut for all-female American promotion Shimmer Women Athletes, where she lost to Amber O’Neal. Soon after, she defeated Jetta (accompied by Lacey). After the match she was attacked by the Home-Wreckers (Rain, Jetta and Lacey). After back and forth wins and loses in the outfit’s “On the Shimmer” events (Volume 26 through 34), it was in her last event in March 2011 that Shimmer announced that she had signed a developmental contract with WWE.
Causing a slight delay to her WWE career, in July 2011, Tayla decided to undergo surgery for her shoulder, which had caused her problems throughout her career. In June of 2012, she relocated to Florida, and eventually reported to WWE’s developmental territory “Florida Championship Wrestling”. In August 2012, Tayla revealed “Emma” as her new ring name. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs in its developmental territory NXT Wrestling.
So what about Paige?
Her real name is Saraya-Jade Bevis, and she was born in August, 1992. She is an English professional wrestler, and is better known by her former ring name Britani Knight. She is signed to WWE, where she performs in its developmental territory NXT Wrestling as the current NXT Women’s Champion under her ring name “Paige”.
Paige is part of a professional wrestling family. Her parents, Sweet Saraya and Ricky Knight, are professional wrestlers, as are her older brothers, Roy and Zak. The family runs the World Association of Wrestling (WAW) promotion. Using the name Britani Knight, she teamed up with Melodi to form the Norfolk Dolls. She made her debut for the European all-female promotion, Pro-Wrestling Eve in May of 2010 using the ring name Britani Knight.
Appearing as Britani Knight, she made her US wrestling debut for Shimmer Women Athletes in March 2011, at the tapings of Volume 37. She appeared alongside her mother and tag team partner, Saraya Knight. With her mother, the two were called the Knight Dynasty.
Knight took her game to FCW and made her debut at a house show in January of 2012 using the name “Saraya”. Soon after, her ring name was then changed to “Paige”, and she was almost as quickly signed to WWE. She currently performs for developmental territory NXT.
I really, really can’t wait and am eagerly looking forward to seeing both Emma and Paige on Raw, Smackdown, as well as on PPV’s. I hope they work with WWE TV for years to come as they are two of my favorite divas WWE has right now, along with AJ Lee.
There is no doubt that Paige is a star and Emma is not far behind her. Hopefully in 2013 we will see them get called up to the main roster. You can follow both of them on Twitter – @REALPaigeWWE and @EmmaWWE.
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