Bayley Explains Why Wrestling AJ Lee For WWE Women’s IC Title Seems Right

Bayley has earned the right to face off against her good friend AJ Lee for the WWE Women’s Intercontinental Title.

AJ Lee made her WWE in-ring return at the Wrestlepalooza PLE in September 2025 after more than a decade away from the company. In the three matches that Lee has had since returning, she has won them all.

At WWE Elimination Chamber in Chicago, AJ Lee won her first singles match in more than a decade when she beat Becky Lynch to win the Women’s Intercontinental Title.

A 6-woman Gauntlet Match took place on the March 9th edition of Raw, and former Women’s Champion Bayley emerged as the winner. It was announced that Bayley will face her good friend Lee for the Women’s IC Title on the March 16th episode of Raw.

Bayley spoke to Fox News Digital about getting to face Lee early in her WWE career, and now it feels weird that the good friends get to face eachother again.

“Man, it’s so weird. So weird to think, it’s just like the universe works in mysterious ways. I remember 13 years ago, getting that text that I would be wrestling AJ Lee for the Divas Title and I had just started my character stuff on NXT.

I remember that seeming like, ‘What do you mean? What am I? Why? What? This can’t be possible,’ and that’s sort of what I feel like now, just because nobody thought that AJ was going to come back, let alone there be an Intercontinental Women’s Championship, let alone she’d be the champion or ever.”

“I Have A Lot Of Feelings Going Into This” – Bayley

During Bayley’s WWE career, she has solidified herself as one of the top women’s wrestlers in company history. Bayley is a former 4-time Women’s Champion on the main roster, a 2-time Women’s Tag Team Champion, an NXT Women’s Champion, and an unquestioned leader among the women’s division.

As he continued, Bayley spoke about how emotional it is to face AJ Lee in a WWE ring with the Women’s Intercontinental Title on the line.

“It just seems like one of those things where she would just come back as a one-time, dream match type thing, and even when she did come back, and I’ve told this to her, I was just happy to have her around. We’ve kept in touch these last 10 years and been actual friends outside of the business and just to think that now I get to be in the ring with her, I wasn’t like, ‘I need to have a match with you,’ because I got my match.

I just wanted to have my friend around and the fact that we got to do this now, it just seems right. Now, I’m like, ‘Of course we’re supposed to have this match together.’

I would love, love, love to win this championship because I have to finish my grand slam role. I gotta get this one. I gotta get to the United States one, and I gotta get to WrestleMania. So, I have a lot of feelings going into this, and I kinda have to put aside the nostalgia feeling of it.”

While she enjoys being a WWE superstar, Bayley would also love a chance to compete in a TNA ring as well.