Last year, AJ Lee made her long-awaited return to WWE. After teaming with CM Punk at Wrestlepalooza in September, she was absent from television until November, when she was added to—and eventually competed in—the women's WarGames match at Survivor Series.
For those of you wondering why Lee isn't appearing on television each week, she's explained that her priority is to make sure her schedule doesn't have a negative impact on her mental health. It's also been widely reported that Lee was never set to work a full-time schedule.
Much to the disappointment of many fans, there was no sign of the former Divas Champion at this month's Royal Rumble PLE. That's led to questions about what's planned for Lee at WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas this April.
Well, an update comes our way today from Dave Meltzer, who reveals, "[Becky] Lynch vs. AJ Lee for the [Intercontinental] title had been scheduled on the show and at last word was still scheduled. Lee wasn’t in the Rumble, but it would have served no purpose for her to be in it."
"With Ripley & Sky, the women’s tag title division is clearly ahead of both singles titles," he continued. "And the best known of the women’s stars, Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss, Nia Jax (with Lash Legend), Bayley (with Lyra Valkyria) and The Bella Twins are all in that direction leaving the ranks of singles challengers very thin."
Lee (who, after leaving WWE, became better known as AJ Mendez) will go down as one of the greatest female wrestlers of all time. While it's a shame her original WWE run didn't last a little longer, an eventual induction into the WWE Hall of Fame is a given.
For now, though, she has plenty left to give and will have one of the biggest matches on the WrestleMania card when she faces Lynch for the Women's Intercontinental Championship.
Lee played a crucial role in changing the perception of female wrestlers in WWE, and fans were devastated when she left the company in 2015. Of course, based on how they'd treated her husband, that wasn't overly surprising, and Mendez didn't step back into the ring until last year.
"There was this world in which it was just like a one-and-done," Lee previously told Stephanie McMahon. "Where it was just like, come back and have fun and see how you feel."
"And that’s been a big thing too, because of — I never wanted to feel how I felt mentally, to where my last year was very hard for me," she added. "And so, I have been a little trepidatious in what I’m committing to and what I can handle. And part of the appeal of 'Okay, let’s keep doing this' was that group of women [in WarGames]."
"And being like, 'Oh, I’m a fan of all of them. I’ll be so happy to just be surrounded by them and get to work with them,'" Lee continued. "To just kind of hang out with them in that way, okay, trust this group. I give so much credit to the women [for making] it very appealing."
Stay tuned for updates as we have them.