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WWE star Bayley earned the opportunity to challenge AJ Lee for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship earlier this week when she won a match on “Monday Night Raw.”
The match, which will take place on Monday, has been almost 13 years in the making. The last time the two professional wrestlers competed against each other was on August 21, 2013 for the Divas Championship. Lee, a veteran at the time, bested Bayley, who was still a newcomer.
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Bayley celebrates her victory with Lyra Valkyria after the Woman’s Gauntlet Match during Monday Night RAW at Climate Pledge Arena on March 9, 2026 in Seattle, Washington. (Meg Oliphant/WWE via Getty Images)
Much has changed since then. Lee left the company in 2015, while Bayley became a four-time Women’s Champion and two-time Women’s Tag Team Champion. Bayley helped shape the WWE women’s division into what it is today. The Women’s Intercontinental Championship wasn’t even a twinkle in anyone’s eye five years ago, let alone 13 years ago.
Lee returned to WWE in September, which could put the two wrestling greats on a collision course at some point. With Lee winning the title against Becky Lynch, Bayley was able to solidify her path to a shot at championship gold.
“Man, it’s so strange. It’s so strange to think, it’s like the universe works in mysterious ways,” Bayley told Pak Gazette Digital in a recent interview. “I remember 13 years ago I got that text message that I was going to fight AJ Lee for the Divas Title and I had just started my character in NXT. I remember feeling like, ‘What do you mean? What am I? Why? What? This can’t be possible.’ And that’s how I feel now, simply because no one thought AJ was going to come back, let alone there would be a Women’s Intercontinental Championship, let alone she would ever be the champion.”
“It just seems like one of those things where she would come back as a one-time dream couple,” he continued. “And even when she came back and I told her this, I was happy to have her around. We’ve stayed in touch these last 10 years and we’ve been real friends outside of the business and just thinking that now I get to be in the ring with her, I didn’t think, ‘I need to have a match with you,’ because I have my partner. I just wanted to have my friend around and the fact that we have to do this now, it just feels right to me. Now, I’m like, ‘Of course we’re supposed to have this match together.’
Bayley with an elbow against Ivy Nile in the Womans Gauntlet Match during Monday Night RAW at Climate Pledge Arena on March 9, 2026 in Seattle, Washington. (Meg Oliphant/WWE via Getty Images)
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“I would love, I would love, I would love to win this championship because I have to finish my role in the Grand Slam. I have to get this one. I have to get to the United States and I have to get to WrestleMania. So, I have a lot of feelings going into this and I have to put aside the feeling of nostalgia.”
Lee’s return came as a shock to the WWE Universe when she teamed up with her real-life husband, CM Punk, to take on Lynch and Seth Rollins. Still, for many WWE fans, Lee’s return still seems unreal.
He returned on an episode of “Friday Night SmackDown”, which took place in Chicago at the time. Bayley told Pak Gazette Digital that she was in town filming something and heard rumors that Lee might be back.
Even as best friends, Bayley said Lee never shook her hand.
“She didn’t tell me anything,” he said. “I had heard rumors. I’m a big believer and I have a lot of hope in a lot of things that I really feel and I happened to be in Chicago to film something that day for SmackDown and I thought, I’m just going to stay. I don’t need to go back to my hotel. I’m just going to stay and yeah, I was right. And I’m really happy that I followed my heart, but she was very quiet about it.”
AJ Lee returns to SmackDown at the Allstate Arena on September 5, 2025 in Rosemont, Illinois. (Rich Freeda/WWE via Getty Images)
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Soon, the two will find themselves in some kind of dream fight.
Bayley and Lee will face off for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship at stake on Monday night’s RAW. It can be seen on Netflix, starting at 8 pm ET.
