AJ Lee Says Seven-Hour Fan Lines at Meet-and-Greets Convinced Her to Return to WWE

AJ Lee’s return to WWE after more than a decade away was not driven by a sudden creative opportunity or a specific pitch from the company — it was the fans who ultimately convinced her. Speaking on The Takedown on Sports Illustrated, Lee described the moment she realized the demand for her return had never gone away, even after all those years outside the business.

“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,” Lee said. “To be able to give them a title run and a WrestleMania match has been incredibly meaningful.”

AJ Lee Says Working Alongside Talent She Inspired Feels Like Being at Her Own Funeral in the Best Way

Lee also spoke about the surreal experience of working alongside the current generation of women’s division talent — many of whom have cited her as a direct inspiration for their careers. “It’s kind of like being at your own funeral a little bit. 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.” She also described arriving back in WWE with a fundamentally different internal framework than she had during her first run. “I can walk into this place with a new kind of confidence and a calmness of just being a grown-ass woman. I know what I can do. It makes it a little bit more fun — I get to really just enjoy and soak up the moments.” Lee defends the Women’s Intercontinental Championship against Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 42 Night One on April 18 in Las Vegas, in her first WrestleMania match since WrestleMania 31.