JCW’s Paige Collette Explains How In-Ring Bump Left Her Disabled

Wrestling can be brutal — but for JCW performer Paige Collette, one botched moment in a student match turned her entire life into a living nightmare.

On a recent episode of LIVE JCW’s Ring Rat with Vince Russo, Paige told the full story of how a routine bump during training under WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi became the moment everything changed. The move itself? Something wrestlers do in nearly every match. But for her, it activated a rare and devastating neurological disease known as CRPS — Complex Regional Pain Syndrome — sometimes referred to as “the suicide disease.” Paige explained that the injury happened during her time at KnokX Pro, while working a student match:

“This gentleman threw me over the top rope and instead of catching myself, I thought, ‘Oh, Rikishi’s here, just sell.’ I took a bump on the concrete instead of landing on the apron. And when I slammed, you could just feel the vibration… it tore muscles in my feet.”

Despite the injury, Paige says her instinct kicked in — and she tried to finish the match. According to her, Rikishi was the one who called it off:

“I popped back up because I didn’t want to look weak… then I couldn’t feel my weight. I collapsed again. I ended up being the dramatic little [expletive] and army crawling in the ring trying to finish the student match.”

“Rikishi had to stand up and say, ‘Quit it. Get the hell out of the ring.’ He pulled me aside and said, ‘Listen baby, there’s a code to wrestling. Wrestling hurts. When you’re in pain, you continue. When you’re injured, you get the hell out.’”

What Paige didn’t realize at the time was that the fall activated a debilitating disease that would go undiagnosed for nearly seven years. She says she visited 15 doctors across the country before finally being told the truth: she had CRPS, a condition that causes unrelenting, excruciating pain with no known cure.

“I went nearly seven years undiagnosed. The medical community abandoned me. They gaslit me. They told me I was fat. They told me it was in my head. And the whole time I was carrying the most painful disease known to mankind.”

Despite being wheelchair-bound, alone, and rejected by her family, Paige taught herself to walk again and is now back in the wrestling world — still in pain, but refusing to give up. She says she’s never taken a single opioid for the condition and relies on medical marijuana and sheer determination to keep going.

Paige is now writing a book called Wrestling with CRPS, documenting everything from her injury to her recovery, homelessness, and even a near-death experience she claims brought her face-to-face with Jesus.

This is more than just a story about wrestling — it’s a story about survival. And Paige Collette is living proof that even when life takes everything from you, you can still get back up… even if it means crawling at first.

What do you think about Paige’s story? Do you believe wrestling promotions do enough to protect their talent from long-term injuries? Sound off in the comments — we want to hear your take. 👇