As noted on her Awesome page, it is possible to read Britani Knight and Paige as being the same character. After being emotionally, verbally, and physically abused by her mother, culminating in Saraya disowning her and the two engaging in a brutal fight, Britaniwasbroken. Wanting to get away from SHIMMER (and thus Saraya), Britani joined FCW as Paige, distancing herself from her identity. (It may be worth noting that in medieval times, a page was an attendant to a knight- maybe indicating that Britani felt she was no longer anywhere near as good as she used to be/thought she was.) She refuses to talk about herpast. She is bitter, aggressive, and angry because she has not yet recovered from what happened in SHIMMER. Her disdain for Divas she sees as inferior and her drive to always be the best is because of her mother's insanely high standards, especially taking into account what happened when Britani lost a match. Reading Britani and Paige as being one and the same also offers up a bit of positive Character Development for her considering how she has mellowed out and taken a level in kindness, suggesting that Britani - erm, Paige - is finally resolving and growing past her issues.
Also, remember her initial "badass hackerfixated on helpingSeth Rollins" phase? She was applying an outside skill she'd kept hidden away into the wrestling world, and Seth was someone she found to be virtually the exact opposite of her mothernote a seemingly honorable, self-reliant American man with a love for heavy metal and a great success rate. This was her attempt to outright abandon her violent past while staying involved in the only industry she knows. Furthermore, her last act in aid of Rollins was to come out and attack Summer Rae for trying to help Brad Maddox against him. This taste of violence against someone who she likely would consider inferior due to above high standards may have given her an itch to get back into the action which she would find she couldn't resist.
If we take it as read that Paige is Britani Knight, then her extreme reactions to being slapped make much more sense- being slapped brings back the memory of her mother disowning her and the ensuing brawl.
"Paige is Britani Knight" would be confirmed in all but name when John "Bradshaw" Layfieldsummarized her history during her match against A.J. Lee at SummerSlam 2014, even explicitly stating that her mother is Saraya Knight. The fact that JBL even knows this information despite it never being stated before in on-air material, not to mention Paige's refusal to talk about her past at least while on NXT, hints that sources connecting the two names Paige and Britani Knight to the same person exist even in kayfabe. Perhaps Paige is actually the character's middle name?
If you disregard the Three Month Rule, Paige's feud with Summer Rae makes sense if you assume that Summer never truly forgot the raven-haired lady who shoved her to the ground like a piece of dirt. When Summer later became FCW General Manager and NXT ring announcer, she treated Paige cordially despite this in order to do her job, watching Paige's career blossom and eventually skyrocket all the while. Then came the night about 10½ months later when Paige bumped into her following a match and was seemingly nonchalant in her apology for it. Struck with bitterness and knowing on some level that Paige never really respected her, Summer finally snapped, becoming Paige's greatest developmental rival—equally intense in action, yetfar bitchier and louder, demanding attention the whole way through in direct contrast to Paige's dark and reserved dedication to excellence.
Paige has gotten much nicer on NXT since winning the Divas' Championship. Saving Bayley from an attack and hugging her wouldn't be something she'd have done before. But since winning the title, the main roster Divas have been very hostile to her—it makes sense that Paige would miss NXT and the likes of Bayley who was unambiguously friendly to her.
Why did Paige agree to a rematch with A.J. Lee? Because while she has a long history as a wrestler, she doesn't have much experience as a champion on the big stage. She's not that adroit in social situations, either. So after two months of challenges from people she could easily defeat, she's now confronted with the woman she overthrew, who happens to be very skilled, very over, and very good with a microphone. Paige is smart enough to know that AJ's trying to trap her, but she's not savvy enough to know how to get out of a sticky situation. With AJ right there and the crowd demanding a match, Paige probably thought that she didn't have any other options, especially since the Authority's been talking about what's 'best for business', and denying the entire crowd the match they want would not be best for business.
Paige's current theme seems to have been explicitly composed to support the AJ/Paige feud (despite the fact that Paige has had it for months before the AJ feud started). For example, AJ's theme talks about lighting up the night while Paige's talks about tearing the stars from the sky. Paige's theme also bluntly states 'I'm back to take what's yours', having since taken the Divas' title from AJ twice.
If we take into account that Paige turned heel shortly afterwards, her feud with Naomi could have been a hint as to her true colours. Despite Naomi treating Paige with nothing but respect, Paige still directed anger at Naomi for stuff her partner Cameron did. Perhaps Paige realised that she would have trouble beating Naomi on an even footing - she was the first challenger to really give Paige a run for her money. So she was hoping that Naomi would get mad at Cameron for her interference, thus distracting Naomi from the task at hand.
In one JBL and Cole show episode, it's established she hates the Freebirds. This makes sense for two reasons:
She was born in 1992, unless she's been watching the Network, she hasn't even seen a Freebirds match.
She's the daughter of an English wrestling promoter. They tended to despise how American wrestling has stolen the spotlight from British wrestling.
As Paige and Naomi each became more openly ambitious, their mutual respect gradually gave way to an animosity between the two for standing in one another's way, eventually becoming heated enemies as of spring to summer 2015. While the feud itself is in its early stages, these two may be the ladies most fit to hate each other in terms of current WWE characters. Paige is a rough and powerful Brit, Naomi is a flashy and athletic American. Paige was born into a wrestling family, Naomi married into one. Paige has been grabbing opportunities since NXT, Naomi has had to slowly work her way up only to get screwed by bad luck every time she neared the top. As far as skin color goes, Paige is the palest woman on the WWE roster while Naomi is the darkest. And both characters' "true surname" is Knight, making them literally the White Knight and the Black Knight—true polar opposites.
