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AJ Lee’s First WWE Intercontinental Championship Challenger Revealed On RAW

By Faiz Ahmed • Published Mar 09, 2026 21:05 EDT
AJ Lee WWE Women's Intercontinental Champion
AJ Lee Women's Intercontinental Champion - Source: WWE.com

WWE RAW was off to a bang tonight as the first match of the night saw the promotion decide the new number one contender for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship.

AJ Lee defeated Becky Lynch for the title at Elimination Chamber, and she announced last week that she’s going to be a fighting champion and won’t back down from any challenge.

Following her announcement, a huge number one contender’s gauntlet match was announced, in which IYO SKY, Lyra Valkyria, Bayley, Raquel Rodriguez, Asuka, and Ivy Nile competed to become Lee’s first challenger.

IYO SKY and Lyra Valkyria kicked off the match as the two former NXT Women’s Champions lit the stage on fire. Both of them competed in a highly competitive match, which SKY ultimately won with an Over-the-Moonsault.

Bayley earns a shot at the WWE Women’s IC Championship

Out came Raquel Rodriguez, and she proceeded to dominate SKY, since she was the fresher of the two. The former Women’s World Champion then gained some momentum and went to hit her finisher.

She was distracted by Liv Morgan, but before Raquel could take advantage, Stephanie Vaquer came out to chase Liv away, which allowed IYO to roll Raquel up. Frustrated by her elimination, Rodriguez attacked SKY after the match.

She hit her with a big boot, sent her face-first into the ring post, and executed a Tejana Bomb on the ring apron, before referees stopped her. Ivy Nile was the next to come out, and she picked up an easy elimination as she pinned IYO SKY to eliminate her.

Nile then wrestled an extremely hard-hitting and challenging match with Bayley that saw them push each other to their limit. Bayley ultimately earned the win with a Bayely-to-Belly to Ivy Nile, but the bout had left her spent.

She then took on her former WWE stablemate, Asuka, in the final of the gauntlet match. One-half of the Kabuki Warriors dominated for large parts of the match, but Bayley showed incredible resilience after her gruesome match with Ivy Nile.

Both women tried everything to get an opportunity at the WWE Women’s IC Championship. Bayley was almost taken out of the match by Kairi Sane as Asuka distracted the referee. However, Lyra came at the right time to attack her. She kept Kairi occupied as Bayley got out of the Asuka Lock and hit the Roseplant to get the win.

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