AJ Lee ended her decade-long WWE hiatus Friday, appearing on WWE SmackDown to help her husband, CM Punk, in his rivalry with Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch.
Lee’s return set the stage for a potential mixed tag team match pitting her and Punk against Rollins and Lynch at Wrestlepalooza on Sept. 20.
From 2011 until her retirement in 2015, AJ was the face of what was then known as the WWE Divas division. She held the Divas Championship a record three times, including a 295-day reign, which was the second-longest in the history of the title.
Lee and Punk got married in June 2014, months after Punk walked out of WWE following the 2014 Royal Rumble.
AJ remained with the company for more than a year after Punk’s departure, successfully defending the Divas Championship in the Vickie Guerrero Invitational at WrestleMania 30, and then teaming with Paige in a win over the Bella Twins at WrestleMania 31.
Her final match took place on Raw the night after WrestleMania 31 when AJ, Paige and Naomi teamed up to beat the Bellas and Natalya in a six-woman tag team match.
Since retiring in 2015, AJ has had virtually no involvement with pro wrestling aside from spending some time with WOW Women of Wrestling as an executive producer from 2021 to 2023.
Meanwhile, Punk returned to wrestling with AEW in 2021, and following his release from AEW in 2023 due to backstage issues, he made a surprise return to WWE in November 2023.
Punk’s WWE return seemingly opened the door for AJ to return as well if she ever had the desire to end her retirement.
Until recently, there was no indication that it might happen, but things changed at Clash in Paris and during the aftermath. (Bleacher Report)
