During Friday night's episode of SmackDown, AJ Lee made her long-awaited return to WWE, lending an assist to her husband, CM Punk, when she took out Becky Lynch.
Speculation has since run rampant about what we'll see from the former Divas Champion moving forward, and PWInsider.com is reporting that we won't have long to wait until seeing her again. According to the site, Lee will appear during tonight's episode of RAW.
This will be her first time on the show in a decade and is expected to "seal the deal" for her return match at Wrestlepalooza on September 20. There, she'll team with Punk to face Seth Rollins and Lynch in a mixed tag team match.
Since leaving WWE in 2015, Lee has built a successful career as a writer and mental health advocate, meaning her WWE return marks her first time competing in the ring since she walked away from the company over a decade ago.
Fightful Select has also shared details on her future, confirming that it "isn't planned to be a one-off." Her return was reportedly handled similarly to Brock Lesnar's, with her name kept off internal rundowns. However, most within the company expected her to return after Clash in Paris, as they "didn’t think WWE would be so heavy-handed about it without a plan."
The hugely viral moment also generated plenty of excitement backstage. It's said that "a few talent backstage at SmackDown who weren’t scheduled for the show [attended] in order to see AJ’s return."
"A number of women’s wrestlers specifically who grew up on AJ Lee who were very excited," the report states, with one veteran admitting that they were "shocked it happened," given Punk's repeated denials that his wife intended to wrestle again.
Lee's return was incredible, and we're not exactly shocked to learn that the plan from here is for her to stick around for at least the next few years. Over the weekend, it was reported that she's signed a multi-year, full-time contract, and we'll hopefully have more on that soon.