AJ Lee is simply 5 days away from lighting up the ‘Grandest Stage of Them All’ for the first time in over a decade.
The reigning Women’s Intercontinental Champion will defend her title in opposition to Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 42 this coming Saturday evening inside Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium. It’s a match that feels like the search results of somebody typing “fantasy booking” into ChatGPT only a yr in the past, however it is a very actual and heated rivalry between leaders of their respective eras in ladies’s wrestling that’s certain for a conclusive end.
When AJ Lee returned to WWE this previous September, she did so with completely zero expectations. She had no grand imaginative and prescient of participating in a months-long program with the biggest feminine wrestler in WWE historical past, profitable singles gold or wrestling her first ever singles match at WrestleMania. She simply wished to do one thing particular for her loyal fanbase.
“I knew that coming back was the right decision because of my fans,” Lee informed The Takedown on SI.
At simply 28-years-old, AJ Lee retired from skilled wrestling shortly after Paige and herself earned a tag crew victory over The Bella Twins at WrestleMania 31.
She spent years very purposefully out of the highlight, working as a psychological well being advocate, a author and as a producer behind the scenes for WOW: Women of Wrestling from 2021 to 2023. It wasn’t till she began doing autograph signings and picture ops that she realized simply how a lot she was missed on WWE programming.
“I was getting these lines that were legitimately seven hours long and that’s when I realized, oh, they’re still here. There’s still this hunger here. This support that only comes with wrestling. It only comes with this really loyal fanbase who watched me from day one, were a part of the mission statement of underdogs for the win and stuck with me, and were waiting for me to come back. And… to be able to give them a title run and a Mania match, has been incredibly meaningful.”
Thanks to the WWE Universe, AJ Lee is attending to take pleasure in a brand new period in ladies’s wrestling
During her preliminary tenure with WWE, AJ Lee was an advocate for change. For years the Divas Division struggled to garner even a fraction of the display screen time that their male counterparts acquired, this regardless of the rising recognition of lots of the ladies in the locker room at the time.
Lee’s tweet directed at then WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon in early 2015 helped spark the #GiveDivasAChance motion that finally led to the begin of the Women’s Revolution, which fittingly noticed AJ’s WrestleMania 42 opponent Becky Lynch obtain her first alternative to shine on the essential roster.
Just a number of months after going viral on social media, Lee walked away from WWE, by no means believing that she’d get to expertise the new panorama that was constructed upon the basis she helped pour.
“Whatever you’re an advocate for, or you’re fighting for, it’s always for the next generation. You kind of never think it’s going to be for you, that change. You wanna start the change, and it makes the world better for people to come after you. You leave the world better than you found it. And so that was my idea with wrestling.”
Lee was very a lot at peace with passing the torch onto the subsequent technology in 2015, however now that she’s again working alongside them, she’s studying firsthand simply how huge of an impression she made with the stars of at present’s WWE.
“It’s kind of like being at your own funeral a little bit,” Lee mentioned with amusing. “Everyone has something really nice to say about how I helped them in their career, and it’s just meaningful and very surreal and cool.”
While ladies’s wrestling throughout the board is a vastly totally different scene than the one she left behind, AJ Lee has undergone a metamorphosis of her personal.
During her twenties, Lee likened herself to that of an aggressive chihuahua. Someone who was scratching and clawing for any probability to show herself to the world, and it labored out for her in the future. She’s all the time had a fighter’s mentality, particularly if she’s chasing a dream. Nowadays, Lee is spending extra time having fun with mentioned dream.
“I know who I am. I know what I’ve done. I can walk into this place with a new kind of confidence and a calmness of just being a grown-ass woman. And there is a different level to performing that way, with that mindset of, yeah, I know what I can do. And so it makes it a little bit more fun. I get to really just enjoy and soak up the moments versus feeling like you were scrapping every day back then.”
And Lee has extra time than she’s ever needed to soak in these moments. During her days ruling the Divas Era, AJ was fortunate if one among her televised matches was allotted greater than 5 minutes of airtime. Many of her Divas Championship defenses, on report, failed to succeed in even the two-minute mark.
Since she’s been again, the reigning Women’s Intercontinental Champion has but to have a match run beneath 10 minutes. The adjustment has been the actual sort of problem that she was begging for again in the day, and he or she’s actually been pushing herself to make each second she has in the ring depend.
“Thankfully, I am in the best shape of my life and part of that is because I’ve spent the past 10 years taking care of my mental health and finding that right balance of how to be a healthy, strong person just in real life. And so to be able to bring that into wrestling, I’ve come in as the best version of an athlete I can be. So, that’s been helpful.”
Read extra from our dialog with AJ Lee: AJ Lee Talks Running It Back With Paige & the Bella Twins in WWE (Exclusive)
Even after a decades-worth of developments in ladies’s wrestling, time is one side of the efficiency artwork that continues to be beneath a relentless microscope. There are whole X accounts which might be dedicated to maintaining monitor of the minutes that ladies spend in the ring all through a given week, throughout a number of promotions.
That microscope shall be superb tuned this weekend for WrestleMania 42, however Lee tells The Takedown on SI that there is no set candy spot for a given match.
“It’s all about telling the best story that keeps people captivated the entire time. And there’s a lot of it you cannot plan for. It has to feel organic, it has to feel like you are communicating with the audience in real time. And that [is] something I feel has always been something I’m in tune with and is probably a big part of my success.”
There’s a authentic probability that AJ Lee and Becky Lynch will spend extra time in the ring this Saturday evening than Lee’s earlier two WrestleMania matches mixed, however one among Lee’s essential targets for this bout has much less to do with a particular time than it does staying related with the WWE Universe.
“Making sure their hearts are with us. And so far, they’ve just been so into this rivalry with me and Becky, and to feel that passion, you can feel like heat when you’re in the ring. You feel it in your skin. So that’s exciting. I just want people to continue that sort of ravenous hunger for this match-up.”
Lee is an ideal 4-0 courting again to Wrestlepalooza this previous September, with three of these victories coming at The Man’s expense. If she will be able to pressure Lynch to faucet out to the Black Widow as soon as once more, she’ll be free to proceed her Women’s Intercontinental Title reign in opposition to a litany of contemporary opponents.
There’s no scarcity of girls that Lee would like to work with. Rhea Ripley, Liv Morgan, Roxanne Perez, Stephanie Vaquer and Lyra Valkyria have been amongst these talked about by identify to us, however the resolution to make these dream bouts a actuality will come from the next authority.
Again, AJ Lee exhibits as much as work every day with zero expectations. Other than to let the WWE artistic prepare carry her to her subsequent vacation spot.
“I’m so proud of everything I’ve done before, everything now feels like extra credit. It feels like sprinkles on the sundae,” Lee mentioned. “This era is about just enjoying it and being surprised and being able to soak it in and have fun every second. Did not expect a title, did not expect another Mania match. So as long as I’m just sort of here for the ride, I think fun things will come my way.”
If you employ any quotes from this piece, please H/T The Takedown on SI and credit score Rick Ucchino. You can watch our whole dialog with AJ Lee in the YouTube video posted above.
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