There Would Be No New WrestleMania Moment for AJ Lee Without the WWE Universe (Exclusive)

AJ Lee is just five days away from lighting up the 'Grandest Stage of Them All' for the first time in over a decade.

The reigning Women's Intercontinental Champion will defend her title against Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 42 this coming Saturday night inside of Las Vegas' Allegiant Stadium. It's a match that sounds like the search result of someone typing "fantasy booking" into ChatGPT just a year ago, but this is a very real and heated rivalry between leaders of their respective eras in women's wrestling that is bound for a conclusive finish.

When AJ Lee returned to WWE this past September, she did so with absolutely zero expectations. She had no grand vision of engaging in a months-long program with the greatest female wrestler in WWE history, winning singles gold or wrestling her first ever singles match at WrestleMania. She just wanted to do something special for her loyal fanbase.

"I knew that coming back was the right decision because of my fans," Lee told The Takedown on SI.

At just 28-years-old, AJ Lee retired from professional wrestling shortly after Paige and herself earned a tag team victory over The Bella Twins at WrestleMania 31.

She spent years very purposefully out of the spotlight, working as a mental health advocate, a writer and as a producer behind the scenes for WOW: Women of Wrestling from 2021 to 2023. It wasn't until she started doing autograph signings and photo ops that she realized just how much she was missed on WWE programming.

"I was getting these lines that were legitimately seven hours long and that's when I realized, oh, they're still here. There's still this hunger here. This support that only comes with wrestling. It only comes with this really loyal fanbase who watched me from day one, were a part of the mission statement of underdogs for the win and stuck with me, and were waiting for me to come back. And... to be able to give them a title run and a Mania match, has been incredibly meaningful."

Thanks to the WWE Universe, AJ Lee is getting to enjoy a new era in women's wrestling

During her initial tenure with WWE, AJ Lee was an advocate for change. For years the Divas Division struggled to garner even a fraction of the screen time that their male counterparts received, this despite the growing popularity of many of the women in the locker room at the time.

Lee's tweet directed at then WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon in early 2015 helped spark the #GiveDivasAChance movement that ultimately led to the start of the Women's Revolution, which fittingly saw AJ's WrestleMania 42 opponent Becky Lynch receive her first opportunity to shine on the main roster.

Just a few months after going viral on social media, Lee walked away from WWE, never believing that she'd get to experience the new landscape that was built upon the foundation she helped pour.

"Whatever you're an advocate for, or you're fighting for, it's always for the next generation. You kind of never think it's going to be for you, that change. You wanna start the change, and it makes the world better for people to come after you. You leave the world better than you found it. And so that was my idea with wrestling."

Lee was very much at peace with passing the torch onto the next generation in 2015, but now that she's back working alongside them, she's learning firsthand just how big of an impact she made with the stars of today's WWE.

"It's kind of like being at your own funeral a little bit," Lee said with a laugh. "Everyone has something really nice to say about how I helped them in their career, and it's just meaningful and very surreal and cool."

While women's wrestling across the board is a vastly different scene than the one she left behind, AJ Lee has undergone a transformation of her own.

During her twenties, Lee likened herself to that of an aggressive chihuahua. Someone who was scratching and clawing for any chance to prove herself to the world, and it worked out for her in the long run. She's always had a fighter's mentality, especially if she's chasing a dream. Nowadays, Lee is spending more time enjoying said dream.

"I know who I am. I know what I've done. I can walk into this place with a new kind of confidence and a calmness of just being a grown-ass woman. And there is a different level to performing that way, with that mindset of, yeah, I know what I can do. And so it makes it a little bit more fun. I get to really just enjoy and soak up the moments versus feeling like you were scrapping every day back then."

And Lee has more time than she's ever had to soak in those moments. During her days ruling the Divas Era, AJ was lucky if one of her televised matches was allotted more than five minutes of airtime. Many of her Divas Championship defenses, on record, failed to reach even the two-minute mark.

Since she's been back, the reigning Women's Intercontinental Champion has yet to have a match run under 10 minutes. The adjustment has been the exact type of challenge that she was begging for back in the day, and she's really been pushing herself to make every second she has in the ring count.

"Thankfully, I am in the best shape of my life and part of that is because I've spent the past 10 years taking care of my mental health and finding that right balance of how to be a healthy, strong person just in real life. And so to be able to bring that into wrestling, I've come in as the best version of an athlete I can be. So, that's been helpful."

Read more from our conversation with AJ Lee: AJ Lee Talks Running It Back With Paige & the Bella Twins in WWE (Exclusive)

Even after a decades-worth of advancements in women's wrestling, time is one aspect of the performance art that remains under a constant microscope. There are entire X accounts that are devoted to keeping track of the minutes that women spend in the ring throughout a given week, across multiple promotions.

That microscope will be fine tuned this weekend for WrestleMania 42, but Lee tells The Takedown on SI that there's no set sweet spot for a given match.

"It's all about telling the best story that keeps people captivated the entire time. And there's a lot of it you cannot plan for. It has to feel organic, it has to feel like you are communicating with the audience in real time. And that [is] something I feel has always been something I'm in tune with and is probably a big part of my success."

There's a legitimate chance that AJ Lee and Becky Lynch will spend more time in the ring this Saturday night than Lee's previous two WrestleMania matches combined, but one of Lee's main goals for this bout has less to do with a specific time than it does staying connected with the WWE Universe.

"Making sure their hearts are with us. And so far, they've just been so into this rivalry with me and Becky, and to feel that passion, you can feel like heat when you're in the ring. You feel it in your skin. So that's exciting. I just want people to continue that sort of ravenous hunger for this match-up."

Lee is a perfect 4-0 dating back to Wrestlepalooza this past September, with three of those victories coming at The Man's expense. If she can force Lynch to tap out to the Black Widow once again, she'll be free to continue her Women's Intercontinental Title reign against a litany of fresh opponents.

There's no shortage of women that Lee would love to work with. Rhea Ripley, Liv Morgan, Roxanne Perez, Stephanie Vaquer and Lyra Valkyria were among those mentioned by name to us, but the decision to make those dream bouts a reality will come from a higher authority.

Again, AJ Lee shows up to work each day with zero expectations. Other than to let the WWE creative train carry her to her next destination.

"I'm so proud of everything I've done before, everything now feels like extra credit. It feels like sprinkles on the sundae," Lee said. "This era is about just enjoying it and being surprised and being able to soak it in and have fun every second. Did not expect a title, did not expect another Mania match. So as long as I'm just sort of here for the ride, I think fun things will come my way."

If you use any quotes from this piece, please H/T The Takedown on SI and credit Rick Ucchino. You can watch our entire conversation with AJ Lee in the YouTube video posted above.