ROSEMONT, ILLINOIS – SEPTEMBER 5: AJ Lee makes he entrance during SmackDown at Allstate Arena on September 5, 2025 in Rosemont, Illinois. (Photo by Rich Freeda/WWE via Getty Images)
WWE via Getty Images
AJ Lee’s return to WWE is a once-in-a-generation comeback—10 years in the making. She came out of the Divas era without ever getting her roses, often stuck in short matches and thrown-together programs that limited her potential.
Now she’s back alongside her husband, CM Punk, who made his own WWE comeback in 2023 after nearly a decade away. A clash with Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins at Wrestlepalooza feels inevitable, with the show carrying the weight of WWE’s ESPN debut. The same card also features Brock Lesnar’s return to the ring against John Cena.
Lesnar’s appearance looks like a one-off, or maybe the start of a brief run. Lee’s return is different. Bodyslam reports that she signed a multi-year, full-time deal with WWE, ensuring fans will see plenty of her on Raw and SmackDown after Sept. 20.
To understand why the 38-year-old’s return matters so much today, you have to look back at the era she came from, and how she helped set the stage for the women’s revolution that followed.
Once upon a time, AJ Lee stood atop WWE’s Divas Division. She carried the division as its standard-bearer, booked at the center of storylines, and reigned as a three-time Divas Champion who became an icon of her era. The problem: that era belonged to a bygone time when WWE routinely placed women in awkward spots on the card, often as filler between men’s programs that carried more weight.
Even as champion featured on television and Premium Live Events, Lee couldn’t escape the limitations of the old regime. She excelled as an in-ring technician and played a pivotal role in storylines, but WWE simply didn’t value those traits until the Women’s Revolution—an evolution she inspired but never experienced firsthand.
That inspiration fueled the rise of Becky Lynch, Mercedes Moné, Charlotte Flair, and Bayley, who thrived in the new era. A fresh wave of fans-turned-wrestlers who grew up watching Lee are now stepping into the ring themselves.
Those very names now stand across from Lee. She begins with the WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion and has a wide-open path through a division stacked with new rivalries.
Potential matchups range from WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton to a dream program with Chelsea Green, each promising the kind of energetic, personality-driven clashes Lee thrives in. Add icons of the modern era like Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky, and you have the recipe for generational showdowns that feel bigger than any one storyline.
These are matchups no one thought possible. They lived only as fantasy booking scenarios, until now. Lee will step into those realities, starting with Lynch in what looks like an intergender bout, and likely a run at the WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship sooner rather than later.
Few believed such returns were possible, just as few believed CM Punk would come back in 2023 after the circumstances of his walkout. With Lee’s marriage to Punk, fans assumed she would follow his lead and stay away as long as he did.
Wrestlepalooza will be remembered as the night AJ Lee returned, but her comeback means far more than one event—it signals a new chapter for WWE. And if her return proves anything, it’s the timeless truth of pro wrestling: never say never.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robwolkenbrod/2025/09/09/aj-lees-wwe-return-is-bigger-than-wrestlepalooza/
