Paige and the Best WWE Mic Mastery for Week of September 21

With a saber-sharp tongue, Paige sliced apart her alliance with PCB, cut Charlotte down at the knees and in the process gave WWE's Diva Revolution a much-needed boost.

Paige lit Charlotte's title celebration afire. She disrespected just about every female on the roster. She growled her grievances in an emphatic, career-highlight statement.

And by the time she dropped her mic at her feet in the ring, she had injected a heavy dose of adrenaline into the women's division.

On Monday's Raw, Charlotte stood in the ring with her Hall of Fame father holding her newly won Divas Championship. WWE made it look as if we were going to get a straight-forward love fest, a daddy-daughter moment that left a lump in one's throat.

That's how things began. Ric Flair and Charlotte teared up. Charlotte thanked her PCB teammates in a speech that was part sappy, part heartfelt.

Then came Paige, charging into the party.

She didn't want to sit through what her friend had to say. The Anti-Diva instead took credit for Charlotte's accomplishment. 

Her demeanor transformed. She left behind the rah-rah act and righteous rebel shtick she had shown fans over the past few months. She suddenly bore fangs.

Paige mocked Charlotte's celebration. "You sound like you've just been inducted into the bloody Hall of Fame," she said.

She then talked about how Nikki Bella would beat Charlotte to regain the title anyway, how the Divas division would just go back to the way it was. "There is no revolution, Charlotte. You are just a placeholder," she told her supposed friend.

A huge flaw with this revolution angle has been that it's been too feel-good. The women's focus has been too much on being a part of a movement. Individual goals got lost in the shuffle.

Not on Monday night.

Just one day into Charlotte's reign, Paige was already annoyed with the sight of her ally holding the gold she wanted. Her jealousy felt real. The ferocity of her anger at the division as a whole forced the audience to pay attention.

Paige started calling everyone out. She said that Alicia Fox was a "third wheel," called Becky Lynch the "least relevant of all of us" and dissed Lana and Summer Rae for worrying about their love interests rather than competing.

She said that Charlotte earned her spot thanks to her father.

All of it had enough truth in it to feel like Paige was breaking the fourth wall here.

That was especially true when she implied that Nikki and Brie Bella hadn't really earned their success, telling them, "You know the real reason they got to where they are." She mocked the long-absent Natalya. "Where are you? Do you even work here anymore?" she said.

Her rant saw her exhibit more fire than she has shown in months. It was her best performance on the mic to date.

Critics saluted her. Jim Ross wrote of it on his blog, "Good stuff...organic and real. Show stealer." PWMania's Jason Solomon tweeted, "That was good. Real good. Paige is such a natural brat."

Former WWE Creative member Alex Greenfield had a number of compliments to throw her way:

Beyond just producing a big moment, the promo served to better the division moving forward. Paige now gets to leave a group WWE forced to come together that had little chemistry.

The focus can shift toward Charlotte and Paige as individuals rather than teammates who ultimately blurred together.

WWE can now move ahead with a Paige-Charlotte feud or follow up on the tension that Paige and Natalya had after the British bruiser's diatribe. 

The company has already begun the latter option. Paige continued her viciousness on SmackDown. What was supposed to be an apology turned into further confirmation that Paige is the women's division resident agitator.

She slapped Natalya to drive that point home.

Paige told her, "You let the revolution just pass you by, and now you're desperately trying to cling onto us youthful Divas in a desperate attempt to be relevant again."

And with that, Natalya has a ready-made story to welcome her back. She and Paige can deliver a stirring feud outside the title picture while Charlotte fends off Nikki or Sasha Banks. Paige and Charlotte have ample issues to explore down the road, as well.

In addition to those added narrative options, one of the best things to come out of Paige's promo is that she has now morphed into what she should have been all along—a take-no-prisoners, fiery heel.

She was lost as a babyface alongside Lynch and Charlotte.

That version of her was too vanilla. She's not built to smile and applaud for her friends. As nasty as she is in the ring and as tough as she is, ass-kicking villain is a no-brainer role for her. 

While ruining Charlotte's celebration, she showed off just how good she is at being bad. 

WWE must follow up on this. Paige needs substantial opportunity to leave wreckage behind her. This speech can't be a blip that is soon forgotten; rather, it needs to serve as the first strikes in an ongoing rampage.