AJ Lee made her triumphant return to WWE after a 10-year long hiatus in September 2025 to face alongside her husband, CM Punk, as he feuded with fellow married couple Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch. She wrestled her first match since March 30, 2015 at Wrestlepalooza where she and Punk were successful in toppling “The Man” and “The Visionary.”
Since returning to the ring, Lee has also returned to singles motion and won the Women’s Intercontinental Championship from Lynch on the 2026 Elimination Chamber, a match that deserves an honorable mention in Lee’s list of best matches. She has experience with singles titles already, nonetheless, as she was a beloved Divas Champion back in her first run with the corporate, where she held the gold thrice.
Lee first signed with WWE in May 2009 and commenced in FCW. After competing within the third season of “NXT,” back when it was still a reality show, she debuted on the essential roster alongside Kaitlyn in May 2011. Lee quickly became a fan favorite as a result of her nerdy nature and different look in comparison with the opposite Divas of her era. Lee was more relatable, grittier, and will work a mean match when given time, though women’s matches in those years were often not awarded the minutes they deserved on WWE programming. Lee departed WWE following WrestleMania 31 in 2015, but she didn’t leave without paving the best way for the feminine stars of the long run.
She inspired many ladies of the present era, resulting in her catchphrase “I’m your favorite wrestler’s favorite wrestler” upon her return. Before she was the icon she is today, Lee fought her option to the highest with feuds against the likes of Kaitlyn, fellow “Anti-Diva” Paige, the Bellas Twins and all the forged of “Total Divas,” and more.
Alongside Paige, Vs. The Bellas, WrestleMania 31
WrestleMania 31 was big for Lee, though it will be considered one of her last matches during her first run. The yr before, she defended her title within the “Vickie Guerrero Divas Championship Invitational,” where she took on all the Divas division in a single-fall match, but her ‘Mania 31 bout alongside Paige against Nikki and Brie, the Bella Twins, was rather a lot more focused and never nearly as gimmicky. The match was a couple of months after the “#GiveDivasAChance” movement gained momentum on social media following a 30-second women’s match on “WWE Raw,” and the ladies were allotted slightly below seven minutes on “The Grandest Stage of Them All.”
While two years faraway from Lee’s “pipe bomb” promo in regards to the “Total Divas” forged, which Paige was now a part of, commentary made note that the ladies were fighting to redefine what it meant to be a task model. Nikki and Paige began off the match, and the Bellas’ focus was to maintain Paige isolated and away from Lee. Each twins knocked Lee off the side of the ring as they beat down Paige.
Nikki hit the Rack Attack, but Paige kicked out. Paige was capable of rally after taking the move, flattening each Bellas, but Lee was still down on the skin. Paige hit the twins with a cannonball and eventually made it to Lee, who took it to Nikki within the ring. Brie broke up the Black Widow attempt, allowing for Nikki to get one other near fall, but in the long run, Nikki would finally undergo Lee’s signature hold.
Lee would go on to have her final match of her first run with WWE the next night on “Raw” in a six-woman tag team match. She scored the win alongside Paige and Naomi, and walked away from skilled wrestling for the subsequent 10 years.
Vs. Paige, Hell in a Cell 2014
Paige and Lee’s careers were interconnected from the moment the previous debuted on the essential roster the day after WrestleMania 30 and defeated Lee for the Divas Championship. Ahead of Hell in a Cell 2014, the ladies had been trading victories backwards and forwards, and Lee now once more held the Divas gold. On the pay-per-view, she scored an enormous win over Paige, cementing her status as top Diva of the time, despite the previous champion’s best efforts. Paige had Alicia Fox by her side, but she didn’t prove helpful by the top of the just about seven-minute match.
The match began off an excellent bout, with the ladies trading offense back-and-forth. Fox tried to get entangled within the match early when Lee and Paige took the fight to the skin, but Lee laid her out. Nevertheless, the distraction gave Paige the chance she needed, and she or he slammed Lee off the barricade and the ring post, getting the upper hand.
Paige continued to dominate until Lee was capable of counter her within the corner right into a burst of her own offense, until she ran right into an enormous kick from the challenger. Lee hit a tornado DDT from the second rope, but Paige kicked out. Paige rolled out of the ring to compose herself, and Lee followed, taking the fight back to the skin. They battled on the barricade until Lee tripped up her opponent, sending Paige crashing down across it, knocking the back of her head as she landed. Back within the ring, Lee got Paige within the Black Widow, and the “Anti-Diva” quickly submitted.
Hell in a Cell 2014 saw two women’s matches, with the Bella Twins infamously facing off earlier within the show, but Lee and Paige would not be outdone by the Twins’ dramatic storyline and showed off what they may do between the ropes.
Vs. Paige Vs. Nikki Bella, Night of Champions 2014
Night of Champions 2014 was one other historic match for Lee, as she captured her then record-tying third Divas Championship with a victory over Nikki Bella and Paige. The ladies wrestled within the penultimate match of the night, a high spot on the cardboard for ladies of the time. Lee, Paige, and Bella went to war for a complete of eight minutes and 45 seconds, with Lee pulling out the Black Widow to etch her name in history.
Bella was given the chance to challenge Paige by Stephanie McMahon, and Lee had a rematch on deck after losing the title to Paige at SummerSlam, making the bout a triple threat. Bella and Paige got in one another’s faces because the bell rang, until they realized Lee was also there and went after her. Lee dumped Paige out of the ring and focused on Bella to begin.
Paige got caught in an arm bar by Bella, then walked right into offense by Lee. Lee drove each her opponents into the barricade to face tall before targeting Paige back within the ring. The champion gained the upper hand over Lee until she was knocked out of the ring by Bella with a tough strike. Lee locked within the Black Widow briefly on Bella before Paige broke up the hold.
Bella hit a Tower of Doom spot with Paige and Lee on the ropes, wiping all three Divas out. Bella hit the Rack Attack on Paige, but Lee saved the match and took out Bella on the skin. She locked within the Black Widow on Paige, who tapped out.
The match was impressive and stayed exciting throughout. Lee would capture the Divas Championship for the ultimate time, not knowing a brand latest women’s championship can be in her future a decade later.
Vs. Natalya, TLC 2013
It might not come as a surprise that the “Low Key Legend” Natalya, a student of The Dungeon, was Lee’s opponent in top-of-the-line matches of her profession. Natalya was top-of-the-line women within the ring in the course of the era, and she or he took Lee to a implausible match for the Divas Championship at TLC 2013. The match was arrange after team “Total Divas” made Lee, of team “True Divas,” tap out during their Survivor Series match. After stacking some more victories over Lee on top of that, Natalya was named primary contender to the Divas title.
Natalya kicked off the match with a fast rollup, but was unsuccessful and only appeared to anger the champion. Lee used her bodyguard on the time, Tamina, as a distraction, and after Natayla threw Lee into the ring barricade, a stare from Tamina was enough to throw Natalya off her game and permit Lee to capitalize. Natalya attempted to overpower the champion, but Lee would not stay down.
The challenger rallied with a series of suplexes then locked within the sharpshooter on Lee in the midst of the ring, but Lee was capable of reverse the move. Tamina got on the apron to distract Natalya again, and Lee locked within the Black Widow for a transient moment before Natalya broke the hold.
The match was a rare victory for Lee without using her submission, nonetheless. Lee countered the second Sharpshooter attempt when she grabbed a handful of Natalya’s hair and rolled her up for the win. The match lasted just over six minutes and 30 seconds, and was akin to the ladies’s matches we see on WWE programming today.
Vs. Kaitlyn, Payback 2013
Lee got here up in WWE alongside Kaitlyn, and considered one of her best matches to this point was against her friend at Payback in 2013 where Lee won her first Divas Championship. The ladies got almost 10 minutes for his or her pay-per-view match, which led to one of the essential victories in Lee’s profession.
Lee earned the fitting to challenge Kaitlyn for the Divas title by winning a battle royal on an edition of “Raw.” While the match did not have much story behind it, initially, Kaitlyn began to receive gifts from a “secret admirer” following Lee’s win, which turned out to be Dolph Ziggler, who was alongside a heel Lee on the time, and Lee’s bodyguard, Big E Langston. All of it turned out to be a mind game planned by Lee, nonetheless, which helped her get contained in the champion’s head when Langston dropped Kaitlyn within the ring in the course of the reveal.
Kaitlyn wasn’t fooling around to begin off the match, and she or he threw Lee over the commentary desk to attempt to take her out early. Lee rallied quickly, nonetheless, and hit double neck breakers to the champion and locked in a sleeper. Kaitlyn looked to have the match won with an enormous shoulder off the ropes, but Lee popped as much as lock within the Black Widow, and Kaitlyn countered right into a pin attempt.
At one point within the match, Kaitlyn removed Lee’s belt, however it was Lee who clocked the champion with it behind the referee’s back. Kaitlyn caught Lee off a cross body, but Lee quickly moved into the Black Widow once more. Kaitlyn again escaped the hold and hit a spear to Lee. The champion attempted one other spear, but went head-first into the turnbuckle, allowing for Lee to regroup enough to lock within the Black Widow a 3rd time for the victory.