AJ Lee makes stunning WWE return after retiring 10 years ago
AJ Lee is finally back in WWE, a decade after a neck injury forced her to retire.
The company has teased the former Divas champion’s return since Becky Lynch’s low blow cost Lee’s husband, CM Punk, the World Heavyweight championship at Clash in Paris on Sunday.
Punk and Lee fittingly took on Lynch and husband Seth Rollins on Friday as the crowd went berserk.
Fans chanted “AJ Lee!” during a promo between Punk and Lynch on “Monday Night Raw” this week, and they finally got her in Punk’s hometown of Chicago during SmackDown.
Lee came to the defense of Punk after Lynch, the Women’s Intercontinental champion, and the “Best in the World” had a verbal joust on “Raw” for the last leg of WWE’s European tour. Punk had been looking for Rollins all night, but it was Lynch who appeared.
Rollins, who has a long history of animosity with Punk, eventually showed himself, but Lynch ended the segment by slapping Punk and continuing to hit him as the “Best in the World” restrained himself from doing anything back.
He warned Lynch she would “regret putting her hands on him” before sulking off as The Man continued to verbally berate him. Punk, who stopped to look at a fan’s sign asking for Lee’s return, would ask Raw GM Adam Pearce where SmackDown was this week and was gleeful when told it was in his hometown of Chicago.
It has raised speculation even more that WWE would deliver Lee, 38, and set up a tag match of Rollins and Lynch vs. Punk and Lee at Wrestlepalooza, their debut premium live event on ESPN’s new DTC streaming service, which is on the same day as AEW All Out on Sept. 20. It’s expected that this will happen.
Lee last wrestled for WWE in a six-woman tag match on the March 30, 2015 episode of Raw. She announced her retirement that April after dealing with a neck injury since SummerSlam 2014. Lee revealed during a 2022 interview with Renee Paquette that she wrestled the match against Paige that summer with three herniated disks in her cervical spine.
Lee’s career did not end without some controversy.
Her criticism of Stephanie McMahon and WWE’s handling of its women’s division in February 2015 is credited by some as the first spark for the “#GiveDivasAChance” movement, which turned into the company’s women’s evolution as the division was finally treated more equally to the men.
At the time, Lee called out WWE for the women getting “a fraction of the screentime & wages” compared to most of the men, despite having record merchandise sales and some of the company’s highest rated segments.
Punk has nearly completed two years back in WWE after his surprise return after a decade away at Survivor Series in November 2023.
Now he and his wife, who many thought would never return, are about to make reality the fans’ dreams of seeing them team together.
Credit to Nypost AND Peoples
