AJ Lee reflects on her WWE career: "Wrestling really saved my life"

AJ Mendez, best known in the professional wrestling industry as AJ Lee, recently reflected on her wrestling career. The former WWE Divas Champion stated that wrestling saved her life.

Although her run in World Wrestling Entertainment was short-lived, AJ Lee is still one of the most influential names who performed in the 2010s. She inspired many women who entered the business as the "Women's Evolution" in wrestling officially commenced sometime after she left. Lee retired from in-ring competition in 2015 owing to her back issues. This was after an eight-year-long professional wrestling career, in which six years were in WWE.

In a sit-down interview with Freddie Prinze Jr. on Wrestling with Freddie recently, Mendez discussed a bevy of topics. She noted how the wrestling business is what best suited her, and growing up poor, saved her life in more ways than one:

"So I always took everything with a grain of salt and realized that it could be, living on the streets, I could be dead from all of the decisions I've made before wrestling really saved my life," AJ Lee said. "You know, I tell my story a lot, but the cliff-notes version is I grew up insanely poor. I was homeless for most of my childhood; was lucky to make it out alive. Wrestling, storytelling, and just, living in this fantasy world, saved my life." [From 5:00 to 5:28]

Before calling it a career, AJ Mendez was featured in several high-profile contests. In most of them, she was the reigning WWE Divas Champion. Her last such outing was a tag team contest at WrestleMania 31 when she tagged with longtime rival Paige to defeat The Bella Twins. She retired shortly thereafter.

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CM Punk has completed one year in WWE, will AJ Lee follow?

AJ Mendez's husband, Phil Brooks, best known as CM Punk, returned to the Stamford-based sports entertainment giant in November 2023. It was the last thing anyone could have anticipated. Those fans of Mendez hope to see her back in the ring in some form or fashion now that her husband has mended fences with WWE and is doing well in the company.

During a recent interview for Cheap Heat, CM Punk gave fans a ray of hope regarding his wife's potential return to the squared circle. He noted that it is not out of the realm of possibility for an AJ Lee to return a decade after her retirement:

"It's a workload thing for her," Punk said. "She's very, very busy. I'm not trying to not talk about it, but I'm also trying to temper people's expectations. If she wraps up some stuff that she's working on and she has the time, and she feels like dipping her toe back in or jumping back in the pool, she'll let us know." [H/T: Wrestling Inc.]

As seen in the video above, the deafening reception CM Punk received was uncanny, considering his history with the wrestling business. However, the WWE Universe loves the Chicago native.

According to Punk, AJ Lee's return would be bigger; he noted this while addressing a possible comeback at the 2025 Royal Rumble.

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If you use the first quote, please credit Wrestling with Freddie and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.