When The Decision Was Made For Paige To Become SmackDown GM

Paige is the new General Manager of SmackDown Live and it was a really great surprise because everyone was sure that it would be a very long time until we saw the Anit-Diva again.

But she was reportedly filming with Total Divas again so she would be around in some respect. Naturally, Paige probably won’t separate from WWE entirely at this point in time because they’re worth so much money to each other. But Bryan Alvarez revealed on Wrestling Observer Live that WWE’s intention going into Paige’s retirement might not have been to keep her this close.

“On Monday Paige did her retirement promo and in her promo, she pretty much said you’re not gonna see me again. Like I’m outa here. Then the next day she was the SmackDown GM. That decision was made on Tuesday. It was a very, very last minute decision.”

Then Alvarez compared Paige’s new role on SmackDown Live to the unpredictable nature of WWE as a whole, especially regarding the upcoming Superstar Shake-Up.

“They decided on Tuesday she was gonna be the SmackDown GM,” Alvarez continued. “So that should tell you everything you need to know about the Superstar Shake-Up. They will be switching people on Monday and then they’ll decide who they wanna switch on Tuesday. I’m sure they’ve got some ideas about who’s going where right now. But nothing is official until they’ve been drafted one way or the other.”

WWE is often changing their minds at the last minute because they can and until it’s out there and the WWE Universe actually sees it happen anything can be altered. Paige might have been a last-minute decision made by Vince McMahon himself and Alvarez also revealed McMahon wrote the SmackDown After WrestleMania.

One thing is for sure, if either Sonya Deville, Mandy Rose, or both remaining members of Absolution make their way over to SmackDown Live they could receive some preferential treatment from the new General Manager. While we’re talking about Rose and Deville, they also might want to pick a new theme song because it looks like Paige is still using hers on the Blue Brand now.

But everything still seems to be up in the air regarding WWE’s upcoming Superstar Shake-Up. There are some clues like upcoming house show advertisements and the fact certain people lost or weren’t featured this week on WWE television. But other than that anything can happen.

After all, we’ve seen WWE make a decision and then change their minds about it later that night just to bring someone like Triple H back to Raw. The same thing could happen to any number of people so only time will tell what WWE has in store for us this year. In all reality, they might not even entirely know themselves at this point.

If you use any portion of the quotes in this article please credit Wrestling Observer Live with a H/T to Still Real To Us for the transcription