AJ Lee’s current run of WWE programming appears to have reached its natural conclusion — at least for now. WrestleVotes Radio on Fightful Select is reporting that a WWE source has indicated Lee’s creative work at the company is effectively done at this stage. There is hope internally that she will return for future programs and matches, with SummerSlam specifically mentioned as a big event she could appear at down the line, but nothing is currently planned.
The news comes just weeks after Lee lost the Women’s Intercontinental Championship to Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 42 Night One in Las Vegas — a match that served as the culmination of a program the two had been building since Lee’s return to WWE in September 2025. Lee followed her husband CM Punk into a rivalry with Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch before branching into a standalone feud with Lynch for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship, winning the title at Elimination Chamber earlier this year.
Lee had spoken candidly ahead of WrestleMania 42 about what brought her back to WWE in the first place — and the answer centered entirely on her fans. “I knew that coming back was the right decision because of my fans. 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. And to be able to give them a title run and a Mania match has been incredibly meaningful,” Lee told The Takedown on SI.
AJ Lee Says She Returned to WWE With a New Confidence and Calmness After a Decade Away
She also reflected on the different internal experience of this return compared to her original WWE run. “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. I get to really just enjoy and soak up the moments versus feeling like you were scrapping every day back then.” Lee left WWE in 2015 before returning last September, and her farewell social media post after WrestleMania 42 suggested the chapter had reached a meaningful stopping point — even if it may not be permanent.
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