With each passing day, the speculation of the return of AJ Lee gets stronger. Let’s explore the opponents she faced in her last WWE match.
AJ Lee’s final match in WWE took place on March 30, 2015, during Monday Night RAW. The match was a six-woman tag team contest where Lee teamed with Paige and Naomi against The Bella Twins (Nikki and Brie) and Natalya. This made Lee’s last opponents in WWE a group consisting of Nikki Bella, Brie Bella, and Natalya.
The match lasted over 13 minutes and ended with Naomi hitting her finisher, the Rear View, on Nikki Bella to secure the victory for her team. The contest took place at the SAP Center in San Jose, California, just one night after WrestleMania 31. At WrestleMania 31, Lee and Paige had defeated The Bella Twins in a tag team match.
Lee’s team emerged victorious in what would unknowingly be her career finale. The match featured back-and-forth action between both teams, with Lee getting significant support from the crowd. Nikki Bella appeared to have control at one point, but Naomi managed to catch her with the Rear View for the win.
WWE announced Lee’s retirement from in-ring competition on April 3, 2015, just a few days after this final match. Lee later revealed that she had been dealing with serious neck injuries, including three herniated discs in her cervical spine, which ultimately forced her to retire. The decision came at the height of her career when she was just 28 years old.
The End of AJ Lee’s Revolutionary Career
Lee’s retirement marked the end of a groundbreaking WWE career that spanned from 2011 to 2015. She held the Divas Championship three times and was particularly known for her record-breaking 295-day reign with the title. Lee was instrumental in pushing for better treatment of female wrestlers in WWE, famously criticizing the company’s handling of women’s storylines and screen time.
Latest update on Lee and her return, read more.
Her final match came during a period when she had been advocating for change in how the company treated its female performers. Lee had publicly stated that women received only a fraction of the wages and screen time compared to their male counterparts. Her advocacy helped lay the groundwork for what would later become known as the Women’s Revolution in WWE.
The neck injury that ended her career was severe enough that doctors asked if she had been in a car crash. Lee described feeling paralyzed during the injury and losing feeling in her legs temporarily. Despite the option for surgery, she chose rehabilitation but ultimately had to retire due to the permanent damage to her cervical spine.