{"id":159127,"date":"2026-04-18T19:15:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T23:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=159127"},"modified":"2026-04-18T22:27:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T02:27:18","slug":"paige-makes-triumphant-return-to-smackdown-to-set-up-huge-wwe-wrestlemania-42-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/04\/18\/paige-makes-triumphant-return-to-smackdown-to-set-up-huge-wwe-wrestlemania-42-match\/","title":{"rendered":"Paige Returns to WrestleMania 42 After 4 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

That familiar screech blared through the arena, meaning only one thing. The reports were accurate<\/a>, and Paige, last seen in a WWE ring in 2018, was back to claim that this was her house. And more than that, she came with a huge announcement.<\/p>\n

Paige Makes Grand Return at WrestleMania 42<\/h2>\n

Over the last few weeks, WWE has given updates on Nikki Bella’s status, noting she has been rehabbing her injured ankle in hopes of returning in time for WrestleMania 42<\/a>. Bella was set to compete alongside her sister for a chance to win the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship.<\/p>\n

The Bella Twins’ return to competition has been a huge story leading into WrestleMania<\/a>, as it would have marked the first time the sisters would have competed together on a PLE in over a decade. There was certainly a real chance the two would have won the titles as well, as the women’s tags weren’t around when the Bellas wrestled on a consistent basis.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

As it turns out, though, fate had other plans. Nikki injured her ankle and, as was reported early Friday<\/a>, will be unable to compete at WrestleMania 42. It’s a devastating blow, but when one door closes, another one opens. Brie Bella needed a partner, so she turned to an old frenemy to fill the role.<\/p>\n

On WrestleMania 42 it self, Paige returned to aid Brie in winning the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship, marking her first time back in WWE as an active competitor in just under a decade. Her return mirrors Bella’s in a way, as Brie came back to WWE earlier this year, marking her return to WWE for the first time in four years.<\/p>\n

If you exclude a brief appearance in the 2022 Women’s Royal Rumble, this is her first return to the company since 2018, which aligns with the last time Paige was here. These two may seem like unlikely allies on the face given their history and notable WrestleMania feud years ago when the Bellas teamed against Paige and AJ Lee, but both share similar stories in terms of their return.<\/p>\n

These two will be quite the duo if they can win the titles<\/a>, but either way, Paige being back in WWE is quite the welcome sight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That familiar screech blared through the arena, meaning only one thing. The reports were accurate, and Paige, last seen in a WWE ring in 2018, was back to claim that this was her house. And more than that, she came with a huge announcement. Paige Makes Grand Return at WrestleMania 42 Over the last few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2418,"featured_media":142193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12,2192,26,317,4,3,320],"tags":[1636,254,194,7092,9655],"class_list":["post-159127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-wrestling","category-smackdown","category-women","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","category-wwe-women","tag-brie-bella","tag-nikki-bella","tag-paige","tag-wwe-womens-tag-team-championship","tag-wwe-wrestlemania-42"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159127"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159386,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159127\/revisions\/159386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}