Hey, y'all. I know it's different, it's Friday night, but guess what HWP Extra is live right in front of you, right after SmackDown, because this is the first ever HWP emergency podcast. I'm your girl, Stephanie Hardy, hosting creator of this fabulous show HWP and Steph and Kat talk while along with a writer for Daily DDT and so many other things. And I am joined by my fabulous friend.
She is a writer for Wrestling Inc. And the host and creator of a Wrestling Gal And you've heard her voice and seen her on so many different wrestling platforms. This is Ella j and we are here to discuss the amazing thing that we just witnessed on SmackDown. And of course, if you're watching, put in the comments let us know how you're feeling about everything. I see Rakarshon in the comments on YouTube watching hey, and just let
us know how you're feeling. But of course, this is an emergency podcast, the first of it's kind in HWP history. We're just making all kinds of history here in the fifth year of a hearty wrestling podcast. Y'all. Aj Lee is back. Aj Lee is back. Aj Lee is back. There are no other words to describe what just happened.
Aj Lee, the second longest reigning Devis Champion, the New York Times best selling author, executive producer, comic book writer, mental health advocate, color commentator for WOW Superheroes, and just all around hero to many women, is back in WWE after so long.
It feels like a fet sentence. So I'm not gonna lie like I was telling you off. Their put this literally on my list of things I never thought i'd see, Like even when there was rumors, I still had my doubts. I'm like, spen ten years, like could it really? But then again, her husband was also gone for nearly ten years, so it only makes sense that she come back alongside him.
Ella, I am just speechless because it's just it's so funny, because I feel like the journey that we've been on this entire year has been the universe, the ww universe collectively willing her to come back. Yeah, all year, all year, from the Royal Rumble on to even through Evolution, and now at this point we've been willing for her to come back, and even willing for her to come back
even before then. So the idea of her actually being in front of our faces coming to the aid of her beloved husband, one of her many crushes back in the day during the Devas era in the twenty tens. Cmpunk is just absolutely out of this world. The speculation was heavy. Everybody was guessing that it was gonna be her, all the leanings into it. It was kind of obvious, but then kind of not obvious. You had other people saying, oh my god, it could be real Ripley, Oh my god,
it could be Bailey. Oh my god, it could be this person. But throughout the day today it started to become more and more apparent that it was going to be mss Mama's Miss Black Widow. So Ella, how have you been feeling with all of the speculation and the rumors and stuff Before we get into the nitty gritty, Yeah, you.
Know, I was hoping it would be her, But in the back of my mind, I'm like, I gotta be realistic too. It's been a while, it's not guaranteed. I also thought Bailey would have made perfect sense. Him and Punk or her and Punker friends in real life. They've had a long time history. Bailey also has history with aj. We saw that teased on Monday Night, Raw and Punk mentioned it. He could have called up real ripley uh. Some people were saying AJ Styles could have showed up
in a wig. There was a lot of alternate, alternative possibilities. We didn't know if we were actually gonna get her. We thought that we'd at least get like it implied that it to be her. But I'm so glad Hello, Ed, thank you Ed joining us. I'm so glad that it actually was her because after they kept teasing that this was gonna be like a monumental must watch, they needed to deliver, and they needed to deliver AJ Lee and that's what they did.
I know, Like just even just the stuff about AJ Styles being in a wig, you know, that was so hilarious for me because there's just you know, because it's like when one AJ was gone, AJ Styles popped up and became more promisent.
No, that's true.
Now we have two aj that's true.
AJM left in twenty fifteen. AJ Styles shows up in twenty sixty. You're absolutely right, mm hmm.
Yeah, And now we're hearing in the today of things and we have two AJ's and it is just the most amazing moment, the most amazing thing that could have happened at this point. First of all, let's just get into how beautiful she looks.
She got the abs, like girl, we see I see you, girl, like she missed so good.
Miss Mama's has been in the gym. She's got the blutes, she's got the pecks, she has everything. And she came skipping out here as an evolved version of herself because you know, back in the day, she would come out here with these bad boys. Okay, So she would come out here with the Chucks, okay. And when I tell you, when I tell you, she made me feel seen back in the day because converse are my shoes, and then they would go, they're me and my boyfriend's things. I
kid you not. The night she came out with Dolph Ziggler when he cashed in his money in the bank's breakcase, she had on the pair of Chuck Taylor's that were Harley Quinn, theinged from the comic book that were red and purple and black. And I have those pairs of shoes because that was the first pair of Congress my boyfriend ever bought for me in our relationship. And I
swear anytime she would come out in those Converse. I would feel just so happy because I was just like, there's a girl out there who loves Converse just as much as I do. But here's the thing. Tonight, she came out as an evolved version of herself wearing vans. Wearing vans, and I hear the vans are very comfortable. I've actually never tried them on, but I've seen a couple of designs that are really really cute.
Yeah, I can't attest to that. I'm not much of a sneaker person personally, but it's a little bit of a tweak. I wonder if the details gonna like mean anything, you know, Like you said, though it shows that she's evolved, she's not the same. Also, I love just the way that Punk is looking at her, like he is so proud, he's so in love with her, like fans the next
step up from Converse. I'm not a sneaker person, but I believe you, but Punk, the way that he's looking at her is we never really got to see it on screen, like we now we're actually like going to get to see They teased it, but we need to wait to get that kiss. I guess, I guess.
Oh my god, the romance okay, because oh my god, I'm a romantic girly. So I'm such a romantic girly because it's like, and then even thinking about that in terms of evolving, like back in the day when we saw them, you know together, we're not really together, but just kind of like with that fun flirtation thing that she had going on with him, Like they weren't a couple at that point, Like when you really think about it, they were not even a couple at that point.
Yeah, I was a year before they came official behind the scenes really yeah.
Yeah. And so now you know, we're seeing them and we know that they will relationship is very much real. And he's looking at her as if he's just so proud of her, like like he truly like that is really his true true love. And I think and that is just the stuff that I just can't get enough of. Like I'm just so happy because we're getting to see them as an actual couple and it's just so beautiful. He's just looking at her like like that's his everything.
And I love seeing men like that seem punk, you know, for all the craziness you know that has followed his career, he is a very emotionally you know, secure man, and I just love seeing him, you know, be show up as this great example of masculinity where it's not so where it's not toxic at all. And this is him sharing the spotlight with his lady love, who is just as accomplished as he is, and it's just so beautiful. And the way she's sat on these ropes, she is perch. Funny, I know she is perched.
Also, maybe it's just because we never heard the whole thing? Did they the second chorus of her theme song? Was that new or did we just never get to hear the full thing when she was like in her prime?
That's we never heard the whole thing.
Okay, that's what I thought, because the entrances would be like so short. So that makes sense because like there was the whole like second chorus I'd never heard before. And I've been watching since O nine, so I saw all of a. J Lee and w W.
I had never heard like that second part of her theme song.
Yeah I don't hear you.
Yeah, I didn't hear it until I actually went on Apple Music and listened to it myself today and I was just like, yeah, like there's a second verse to it, So they played the whole thing all the way out and she was skipping and everything. And then another beautiful part was the fact that her in laws were, you know, in the audience. Like because Cumpunk may reference to his sisters, they.
Used to jump to jump because the way my.
Sister shout out to Jackie would have jumped over immediately and security would have had to have been like call down. Yeah, like that. That was amazing And it's just I just can't even I'm just so happy that I can't even put it into words. NBS on Twitter is watching us, thank you. He's saying, hey, stuff, came to see your reaction to AJ returning. Thank you for watching on Twitter.
But yeah, it's just an amazing deal. But of course, as we you know, bask in the glow of this amazing return, we do have to go back to a form of the beginning when it comes to miss AJ because mss Mama's in the last few years since Cumpunk has made his return, ironically in the All State Arena where they were the place, we were there. We were
there on that cold Chicago night. It was a wonderful night at that war games over the past few years since he's been back, he's been talking about AJ and Larry and of course in this rise of ww in its current form, in this new era, there are probably newer fans who probably don't know that AJ is more than just you know, a girl on Cmpunk's bracelet that
he was fighting over with Drew McIntyre. And you know, there are probably a lot of people who don't even who are just now being exposed to her for the very first time. So allow us to take you on a little bit of a journey of a history lesson for ms Mama's. So this of course started this past
weekend with clash in Paris. We had Cmpunk in a fatal four way against j Uso seth Rolins in La Knight for the World Heavyweight Championship, and of course Seth Rollins has been you know, running around with his Vision Faction and vowing to spitefully keep cmpunk from ever becoming World heavyweight champion again, cashing in on him at Summer Slam, you know, just faking an injury. And at Atlanta we're
here again. We both were that weekend for evolution and stuff and just going on this whole tirade to keep seam Punk away from the gold Right. And so just when it looked like cmpunk could have had Seth rawlins, even though this is Jay Uso right here, dead to rights, Becky Lynch comes out, joins the Vision, hits him in his private part and screws him over, yes, yeah, screws
him over for Seth to retain. And then they're all slavering over each other like you know, obnoxious couple too, and you know they're just yeah, look at us, like I'm a part of the Vision now, blase blah, and you know, of course on Monday night Raw she gets into it in Paris, she gets into it with cmpunk because Sampunk she did with her head and I was like, what are you doing? This was a very funny Monday afternoon, It really was. And it's just like she gets to
see on Punk's face when he's asking for Seth. And here again Punk being you know, a model man, saying, look, this has nothing to do with you, This is none of your business. I want your coward of a husband, you know. And because he's hiding behind the Vision, he's
hiding behind you, you know. And what's so funny is he even calls seth Rolins a bum and saying that she had bad taste of me, and yeah, which is hilarious, and Loki speaks to something that I feel about something she put in her book about him, but we're not going to discuss that right now. But either way, she slapped him and he was just like, look, you're gonna
regret ever doing that. And because Paris, thank god for raucous international crowds, because they kept chanting aj Lee's name, and because they kept mentioning aj Lee even on the post show. This sent everybody into overdrives, everybody into speculation overdrive, rumor overdrive, all the things, and everybody was just freaking out.
And so cum Punk goes backstage and he talks to Adam Pierce, who has to be the most stressed out, sassiest general manager in the history of life, and he says, look, is this back down gonna be in Chicago? And he's like, yeah, home, sweet home, why and he said that's perfect And then this this sense is even more into you know, speculation overdrive. So ella, how did you feel about the correlation of all these events leading to where we are now?
Well, once Becky Low blowed uh CM Punk and then revealed herself kind of clicked for a lot of people were like, wait a minute's gonna even the odds for CM Punk now, uh, you know Imoji and then Punk obviously on Monday was like, you're gonna regret putting her hands on so and also we had seen him before
before this even happened. We saw Punk and Riha Ripley backstage, and Ria offered to offer Punk help if he needed it, So we saw there's maybe a tease it could have been Ria Ripley obviously, like we mentioned, Bailey has a history with Punk, so like those were plausible options, but like aj Lee like makes the most sense and would have been the biggest, really the biggest asset to this whole storyline. And so we're like, is it actually gonna be aj because you know, we've been let down before.
But obviously the day after this the reports came out that yes, it is indeed a j Lee. Even then, in the back of my mind, I was like, I'm so jaded. I'm like, wwe is gonna swerve us get our hopes up for something and then it's not gonna be her, But then it actually was her. Aj has not wrestled in like ten and a half years. She wrestled last retrosent in March twenty fifteen, so it's been a long time.
You know.
She stayed fit though she did some scenes for Heels. We saw her if you watch that, she did the Black Widow to Punk. They were wrestling the ring in a scene. But it's been ten years since we've seen her in a WWE ring like period, so I'm excited to see I think a tag match is perfect for her because then even if she is a little rusty, even if she is, I don't think people are gonna
care that much. She's such a big character and she was a heavy draw, especially during the diva's era for those who aren't a were she was one of the most popular merch sellers at the time, like way before all the horse women and all of that, Like she was like the top diva, like driving sales. So I think even if she's a little bit rusty, I don't think it's gonna matter that much. She's with Punk, people are gonna cheer. It's gonna be an awesome moment obviously,
like it. Hope it leads to like a singles match somehow, But for now. I am more than happy to see a mixed tag because that's also another rare thing in w We don't get a lot of mixed tags nowa dates, so I'm excited for that one. Yeah.
Ed actually brought it up in the comments, you know, he said, if a j Lee has five opponents for this run, excluding Becky in this mixed max challenge, who would you want for me? It's Bailey, rox Sand, Stephanie, Ria, and EO. That's really good. That's murder.
Bailey and Roxanne like are like those are like shoe wins, like absolutely because Roxane is literally AJ's not literally but she is AJ's daughter, and then Baibie's obviously good friends with Aj. Ria would be super fun. I like Nicki Bella is right there. I would love to see them run it back. Oh yeah, Aj and Nicki fought over the devas title for a while. I see it means since we're talking about returns, like can Paige come back to Ohaea?
A lot of people also thought that the rich could have been heard.
Yeah, I wouldn't know. That's my girl, Page is my girl? Yeah, So like Bribella, where are you at now?
Right?
There's so many crazy returns this year, but I think Bailey and Roxanne would have to be shoe ins for like to working together in some facet, assuming that it's kind of a longer run.
For a j Yeah, it's really nuts just when you sit and think about her contributions to things because for a long long time, because of the nature because she herself retired, and then of course due to the nature of which the m punk left and her retiring due to her injury and stuff, there was a lot of Yeah, there was a lot of her foundation in the Divas division leading into the women's evolution that was not mentioned
and was not given credit for. And I am so so glad that at this point, you know, there's an acknowledgment of that because during this point and I and I talked about it a little bit in my past episode that I did on her Divas Invitational WrestleMania match in the past, if you'll go back and listen to that, where she advocated for more time, more money for the women.
At that time, she advocated, you know, just for better treatment for the women, because you know, at that time it seemed as if WW was putting on Divas matches just for almost the sole purpose of taping for Total Divas.
No shade to that reality show because it exposed a completely new audience to wrestling, and I will never throciate at it, but it seemed like there wasn't a lot of emphasis or importance placed on the women at that point in time, and she was really one of the ones, you know who was like, look, I am a wrestler,
you know, let me wrestle. Let me wrestle these women, these women are talented, you know, proved me wrong, challenged me for this title, and that's exactly what she did with that title, reign as the one of the longest
reigning Divas champions. Like that's really what she did. And even though a lot of people feel like her pipe bombshell doesn't really particularly age as well due to you know, people's feelings about Total Divas and the evolution of all of those women on screen that we have seen, that was a really big moment where she was just like, look, this is about wrestling, Like, come to me and fight me, because this is what I'm here for. And I'm glad that now you know, there's a level of credit that
she can now get. She can finally fully get her Flowers and I'm just so thrilled about that. And I want to see her fight everybody. I want to see her fight everybody. But I definitely, you know, love the list that Ed brought up, all the people you brought up. I wish Live Morgan was healed. I wish Naomi.
I just literally, like two weeks before aj Lee returns Naomi, who was her competitor on NXT season three, I think it was it is pregnant, and it's like the timing could not be worse and she was champed too, like girl, like obviously we're happy for her, but like.
The timing, what could have been right? Literally, and then you have the caginess of live you know, and how that would have worked out, like that would have been amazing. But here's the thing, though, there are so many other women she could tell stories, which she could tell a story with Elena Vega if you wanted to, Oh yeah, who played her, you know in the Soraya biopic. So I mean, there's just so many ways I can go
with it. I mean, so many women she could fight her and Chelsea Green could have a thing.
Oh my god, oh my god.
There's just so much that can happen, and you know, it's just really great. I'm just so thrilled about it. But of course we do have to keep going into her more of her history right about now. So the first time, of course, she had an indie career before she got to you know, NXC and WWE. The first time I saw her, I wasn't watching NXC the game show. I was in college, so you know, there was a limit to certain things I did and didn't watch. But the first time I saw her it was when she
was in the tag team with Caitlin Chickbusters. Yeah, they were the Chickbusters, and they would always put them in a match against Natalia. You know, any combination of a match between Natalia and Beth Phoenix. They would always put them both in it, and they would always and the Demons of Doom would always wind up beating them somehow, and I would low key just pray for the day they would actually defeat them, because they would just they would fight them so much and lose so many times.
I was like, bro, like, when are they really going to like fight them and get a chance.
There was you might be aware of this. I just thought of it. They bwe did film a thing on the SmackDown of Caitlin turning on AJ and joining the divas a doom, but they never aired it. Oh wow, so Jalan's heel turn. Never they would have split them up, but they never. They never aired it, so then they just continued teaming together.
I mean, but I feel like that was perfect though, because their friendship, yeah, is one of I feel like it's one of the more underrated tag teams and underrated female friendships when it comes to, you know, women, the women's division, because seeing them both together and both be goofy and nerdy together and stuff, it's I feel like they're sort of like the predecessors to Saul Ruka and Czaria.
Yeah, I can see that. You know, Caitlyn's got the muscle. I was a big Caitlin girl, like after like my like Kelly Kelly's and Mickey James's left WW like Caitlin and like Paige were like my people. I enjoyed their dynamic but also like their few It was really good, like over the Deep Championship and then they had speaking of mixed tags at Summer Slam, Biggie and AJ against Dolf and Caitlin. That was another underrated moment. They were
great as tag team partners and opponents. I really enjoyed it.
Yeah, I really did enjoy them. I enjoyed them feuding against each other, even though it broke my heart because I just don't like it when friends break up. But the way in which they broke up too, it was
just like bruh. Like, of course, AJ was just crashing out over all everybody, Yeah, crashing out over all the crushes that she had, and Caitlyn was chasing the title and AJ was mad about that, so she basically perpetrated a whole secret admirer thing, Oh my god, yes to be the secret admirer and then dump her before it even began. And then she just trash her and just called her all kinds of horrible names. It was just nuts, that's right. Yeah, oh my god. It was a crazy story.
And just seeing them fight, you know, over the title, that was like the first time I actually that was the first time I had seen anyone really cry over the Devas Championship. When Aj one it, I was just like, oh my god, because winning a women's title, which was very important for her, But even with that, I have to mention with her crashing out over so many guys. She was in an on screen relationship with Brian Danielson
of course back then known as Daniel Bryan. Yes, and they were cute for a minute, but he was just mistreating her a lot of the time. And then he definitely like sent it into overdrive after he lost his WrestleMania Matthews. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and then after you know, she was trying to go after c I'm punk ironically, yes, going after Kin. You know, they found they were back their way back to each other and they had a
wedding at Raw one thousand and yeah. Ella, this was very special to me because this is where me and my boyfriend come into play. Okay, So Raw one thousand took place in July of twenty twelve, and he and I were bonding online because we had met each other prior, but we were bonding online over wrestling, and they were and WW was building up to the one thousandth episode of Raw, and he had the ungodliest crush on AJ. He really did when we first started talking, and I
was just like, you know, and I liked AJ. But then at that point because I was because I was developing feelings for him, I was just like, why do you have a crush on her?
Yeah?
Yeah, it was just really nuts. It was really nuts, and we can laugh about it now because it's been thirteen years, but at the same time, you know, back then everything was fresh and he was just hoping to God that she wouldn't go through with marrying him, and I said, well, you never know, you know, I told him, ww, weddings don't usually go as planned, and this one didn't because she became general manager after.
I think my favorite run of hers was the general manager run. Also, like the John John Cena like that was like they were together for like five six weeks. That was a whole scandal because she got fired because she was fraternizing with John Cena. I remember that storyline that was that was scandalous at the time, and then she ended up turning on him at TLC, then aligning with Dolph, making out with Dolph at the Slammies. Dolphin her Dolphin her were probably making Yes, I remember that
she just walks away and they're like it was. That was probably the sloppiest makeout too that she had in her run with anybody was her and Dolph, But you could tell that they were having a lot of fun. That was probably my favorite like storyline, romantic storyline. It was when she was Dolph. They had a lot of had a lot of crazy segments, but it was a lot of fun.
They were hilarious, and I'll never forget the time when someone was trying to call her crazy and then Nick at Slash Dolph covered her ears and said your must babe, and then covered her ears and said she's not crazy, and then he and then she uncovered her and said she's passionate, you know, like their their relationship was hilarious. And I love the ways in which she would wear
her boyfriend's T shirts like she would have them. She and here again showing those amazing apps with those jeans or with those shorts, and she just looked so good all the time, and I was just like, man, if I if I looked like her, I'd wear Yeah.
That's also when she took that chop from Big Ee during the entrance and she she just no solid it like he was completely fine, Like I was crazy.
I was so worried for her. I was so worried for her in that moment because I was just like because I remember watching it happen in real time, I was like, oh, and then she just kept walking and I was like, oh my god, Yeah, Oh my god, I'm fazed. Yeah, and Biggie was his muscle, Like, oh my god. Just the evolution of everybody involved in that is just absolutely nuts. But of course her and Dolph wound of not working out, but she started focusing on
herself and then to Mina Snuokle was her muscle. Yes, and she held on to this Devis Championship and for all of the craft that you know, us wrestling fans talk about this championship, you know, I feel like she really made this not saying the other women didn't make it mean anything. You know, they did the very best naketure of what they were given. She really made this
title mean a lot, like a whole whole lot. And you know, she's one of the main reasons why I'm pretty sure you know, people take it to a degree, you know, take it seriously to a degree, because she defended it. She fought forward, like she took on every woman in that roster and defeated them all for that title. And she held on to that record for as long as she could.
Five days, Yeah, right.
She two hundred and ninety five days is just was unheard of at that time for a women's title. So the idea that she did that and you know, had her own style and was just not afraid to be herself and wrestle, which is she was ahead of her time for real.
I absolutely agree. And man, I remember she had some she had some great feuds there obviously with like Caitlin at that time, uh NAO. She had some really good matches with Naomi too. That was really after she broke out after that tag team match at SummerSlam, is when she like really focused on like her singles wise, where
she wasn't involved with like any of the like guys anymore. Really, so that's when we really got to see her, I feel like truly, you know, granted there was still obviously limitations at that time with like the divas and stuff like time constraints, but I feel like after that was when she like really got to shine like solo. And then for a while she did held the record for the Divas Championship that obviously Nicki Bella overtook that in
twenty fifteen. She had some great feuds with Page the following year they went back and forth with the title, and then obviously Nicki ended up beating Page and beating AJ in late twenty fourteen, and then obviously that leads into Page and AJ aligning for against the Bela Twins at WrestleMania thirty one.
Yeah, it was really insane because for a minute, it was almost like her and Sorea were just how potatoing that belt, and all of it came just because AJ was bragging about beating everybody at WrestleMania thirty only for Soirea, who was NX the first ever NXC women's champion at that time, to come and beat her in one night
in her debut like that was absolutely nuts. And then at one point they tried to pretend they were friends, and then they weren't friends, and then AJ was gone for a minute and she came back and then beat her for the title again. It was just really really nuts, you know, and and for some people it could have been, you know, discombobulating, but at the same time, that was what wrestling was at that time, and you had to,
you know, just enjoy it for what it was. And I actually had one of AJ's love Bites t shirts at one point, but I think I lost it, so I think now it's the perfect time to re up.
I'm curious. I'm curious, you know what. I'm gonna look. Sometimes they have shirts right away. Sometimes I'm gonna look.
Oh, I'm pretty sure they're gonna have it right away. I'm more than sure the traffic for it is gonna be.
Oh yeah, it's gonna like they're gonna crashed wwe shop. Oh yeah, it's back. Love Bites is back right at the top.
It's gonna it's gonna crashed the same way seampunk crash shop A w.
Yeah, she's got the love Bites design in like a shirt, a sweatshirt, a tank top. It's it's a play on one of her old designs. Of course, I don't I don't even know if you guys would be able to see it, but yeah, yeah, and she got the Black Widow and the love Bites in the back.
Yes, I was hoping she was going to actually lock in the Black Widow on and got away.
Yeah.
I was like, okay, okay, okay, okay, I guess they're gonna say.
We can't have all the dessert on the first night. This was just a taste of hope we'll get the black widow probably in the match.
Yeah if SmackDown was three hours, and maybe we would have got it. Yeah, but I don't think we could have handled all of that in three hours like that. That that need it, that deserved to be the very end. It really did well. Ella. I do have a question though, since we were together for Evolution, would you have felt better? Would you do you feel like this return right here tonight was perfect for her or would you have liked her to have been involved in Evolution at some point?
I think storyline wise, this is probably the best way for her to come back because she hasn't been in the ring in ten years, and I feel like, again I'm just speculating, but a tag team match is probably easier to get through than a singles match where she's by herself and probably ring rust, So at least she might not have to be in the ring as much
and Punk can take it. And Punk's been active whereas she hasn't for a decade, so I think physically for her this is probably the better option, and storyline wise this is huge for her. You know, Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins are at the top of their games respectively.
See them.
Punk is a top star still, and plus we've never seen aj in Punk like okay, so they have tag team together, but that was like during the phase where Punk was not actually into her. You know, they're actually together now, So I think storyline wise, this is probably the most perfect way to do it. What I have loved to see her at evolution. Absolutely, I feel like we should have had more of the Legends in like actually competing instead of just sitting around the ring, But
that's the whole other sidebar. I think this is perfect what I've loved to see your evolution, Yes, absolutely, but storyline wise it's a you got top stars and physically I have to imagine this is probably the easiest match and safest match for her to do, especially considering she has a wrestle in like ten years.
Yeah, I agree, I absolutely agree. The Legends being an evolution was fantastic, and there was levels to me, in a selfish sort of way that they kind of wonder what would have what would it have been like to see some of those legends back in the ring or whatnot, But of course we don't know, you know, what their situations were body wise and all of the above, but you know, and honestly, Evolution was still one of the best shows, if not the best show of the whole year.
So you know, I'm not complaining about anything at all because my heart is still full from that show and it's been two months. Heart's still full from it. Never over it, never will be over it. I can't, I literally can't. I'm pretty sure I'll go to therapy and still can't get over. But yeah, ah, of course, as you mentioned her tag team match with Page at Wreussellmania thirty one, they did have a match the night after, and that turned out to be her final WW match.
She retired because she did have issues neck issues and injuries that were sort of nagging, but she still tried
to push through it. And then, of course you had the nature of the way that Cino on Punk's relationship with WW ended back then, and her just feeling like she was fulfilled in terms of her wrestling career, having done everything she wanted to do at that point, which is crazy to think about because she left at that point, but then right afterward, right afterward, you had like the women's evolution that happened, and if she had not have decided to retire, it could be argued that she probably
would have benefited from that as well.
Absolutely, she retired also at twenty eight. She's only thirty eight now, so like she could I mean, I don't know if she intends this to be like a long term thing, but I would think realistically, like she could still physically go. You know, I don't know how her neck is, and obviously she's cleared to compete, so it's better than it was ten years ago. But like, she's thirty eight, like Punk her Punk is almost a decade older, and he's still going. So let's go. We want like
an extended run. I feel like there's a lot of also, like Lyra Valkyria is somebody who was also an aj girl, Like she has her old tweets about aj Lee still up there, one of them, which by the way, was a photo of Roxanne meeting aj But Lyra tweeted about like talk about full circle things. Give me a triple threat with rock san Lyra and.
Aj right absolutely nuts, like these women, like she is now in a women's division full of women who were inspired by her.
Yeah, which is crazy.
That is beautiful. That is one of the most poetic and most beautiful things that I love about the fact of her being back because with her getting her flowers, you know, for her contributions to women's wrestling, she gets to be in a locker room full of women who watched her like that's incredible. That is just absolutely incredible. That's the stuff that we love to see. It's inspirational.
And so in the midst of her being gone, she wasn't gone from our site completely because what with her also being a mental health advocate, because she discussed what her mental health issues were. She wrote an autobiography called Crazy is My Superpower, which you may have heard Michael Cole make reference to brilliantly on commentary tonight. She wrote a book about her whole life, and if you have not read it, I do recommend it. It is a great read. I bought it and read it and it was really good.
And actually I might read it again. I'm not sure if I have enough time. I don't think I do, but either way, it's a great book. It was a New York Times bestseller. She tells the story of how she got started with wrestling and just some of the things that she struggled with in during her time growing
up in New Jersey. With her family, and what she had to sacrifice in order to become you know, a wrestler, and what she had to you know, fight through in w W in a WW that just was not prepared to see women as full fully realized characters, and how she still fought to be you know, the most authentic version of herself. Like, it is such a good story. I do recommend reading it, Ella. I think at one point we did talk about this book and of you reading it, I.
Admittedly have not. You have I have not. No, it's all aole, but I've only heard good things about it. I went to school, like for psychology before like wrestling even became a thing. I've only heard good things about it. Like, she is very open. I believe she had bipolar disorder. She is very like open and transparent about that, which I think is awesome. So and she's been able to embrace that. I think that's also another reason why a lot of people look up to her as her candor.
She's not afraid to be vulnerable and tell her story, which I feel like a lot of people And again I don't know her whole story, but I feel like a lot of people, you know, some of the stuff that I know that. I just the little stuff that I do know of, Like, I don't think a lot of people would have had the strength to really overcome that and then go on to have a successful career. Also, like dealing with that while you're at the height of
your career at the same time. You know, I don't think a lot of people would have been able to survive or really endure that. But she did, and she came out of it, and she obviously continued to give back even while she was away because you mentioned Wow. She later became a producer for women A Wrestling But I know that is your like cherished projects, so I will get I will let you talk about that endeavor.
Yeah, And then also just talking about her career as a writer, she has not only written her autobiography, she's also worked on multiple comics books, one of them being Glow, which leads into the Wow thing, and then also just So. And she's also like screenplayed or written for different TV shows that has a production company too from what I understand. Yeah, yeah, so mss Mama's has a pan and that's really cool.
I love that for her. And of course she has also acted in various commercials and you know, she gets her acting on like you mentioned with Heels that was once on Stars, which people are still you know, begging for it to come back because of how good of a show it was. It's on Netflix now, but still like she was still out here, you know, front facing
in public, you know at times. And then of course she would pop up at comic cons because she was such a comic book fan, which was something that she also had no problem representing on WW television as well.
Like she called herself a geek goddess, like she was always you know, into video games and stuff like that, and that made her cool to men and women all over the planet because at that time, of course, women in WW were mostly you know, sort of seen like like as these perfect gorgeous women, but you didn't really hear much about what they were interested in. But she, you know, let it be known from jump from her NXC days all the way into her main roster day
that she was different. She was a Chuck Taylor wearer. She was you know into comic books and such. So she represents a lot of different interest in a huge way. And that's something that can be spoken about as well. And in talking about that of course we move into Wow.
This was special to me because there are gonna be a lot of people who are going to say that, of course she has not been involved in wrestling per se in ring in like over ten years and stuff, which is accurate, but I want the record to be shown that she was involved in wrestling because, of course with the rebooted version of Women of Wrestling Wild Superheroes, she was an executive producer for the rebooted for the first season of the rebooted version of the show, and
she was a color commentator alongside David McClain, owner and creator of Wow, as well as Steven Dicky. She added so much intelligence and so much of her sense of humor to the commentary desk that at times I would just find myself just wishing she was more involved with the end ring stuff because there's just so much, so many facets of her character that would pop up, pop out on commentary that was just like, man, I miss
you so much. We me and Katrina enjoyed covering her elsewhere and on our own show, Stepan kat talk Wow so much and we loved seeing her be a part of things, you know with the show and supporting so many other women who wrestle for the Indies and also wrestled for a Wow, like Jasmine Allure, you know who wrestled on Wow in the first season and a little bit in the second season as well. She called her
her twin because they got to look alike. And just seeing her, you know, take a hand in and embracing these women on Wow, it was just really really healing. That's why Loki broke my heart when she said that she wasn't going to return at one point because her contract was up, and I'm more than sure she had other things to do, but we do miss her on Wow all the time. And you know, she was involved in wrestling in that way in terms of her voice and in terms of her input, but just not in ring.
And I just want the record to show that because there's going to be a lot of people who are gonna mention it, who are going to mention her wrestling career and be like, oh, well, she hasn't done this since this, and they might skip over the Wow thing, and let's not skip over it. Let's stop skipping over them because they matter like they always do. So yeah, please watch Stephan Kat talk Wow to hear more about our feelings about the show because it is still on.
It's going into its fourth season, so let's just put that out there. So we are going to continue our show, keep that going. But it was so great seeing AJ be a part of this. It just felt right. It just felt really right and really good. And we miss her over there. But of course now you know that's Bailey.
Actually I'm sorry, but of course now she has made her grand return to WWE, and there haven't been any announcements made as to I guess so far, I haven't looked on my phone or online or whatever to see any announcements that have been made about the match, but it's it can be very much assumed that she will be in a mixed bag match with her hubby against Seth and Becky. But selfishly, I want her to go
after the Instal Championship. Like selfishly, that's what I want because if her husband is going to go after the world heavyweight, then I want AJ to hold some more gold too.
I mean, she possibly could have a singles match on rob ahead of Wrestler Palooza potentially, Like this is just the beginning. I really hope that this is like goes beyond Wrestler Palooza me too, because there's so much potential there, like, so much potential matches obviously though, like I mean, we'll take what we can get, you know, at this point,
but there's so much potential for so much. I would love to see hear go after the women's Icy title, because that wasn't even like a women's mid card title, was not even like not even fathom mobile like a decade ago. Like we were lucky after they unified the Women's and the Devas Championship. We were lucky to have the one Divas Championship, bro, Like.
We were Like, people don't understand. Yeah, it's like for all of the trouble, for all of the craziness that we go through, for what we want, you know, for you know, the booking of the US title and the Icy title, you know, and even the booking of the Women's World title and the Women's Championship, it is a miracle from the Lord himself. Well I'm a Christian, so it's just like it's a miracle from the Lord himself
that we have multiple women's titles to talk about us. Yeah, it really is, because once upon time it was just that one title and that was it, And there was one time where it was the Women's Championship and the Devas Championship, and then they combined them, and then it times where you wouldn't even see the Divas title on major pay per views, Like it's just it's a miracle that now we have all the titles that we do have,
and everybody is in a figuring out phase. Nothing's ever truly perfect when it comes to wrestling, and even when it comes to women's wrestling. And I know how protective we can be because we want the very best for all of the women, but we really have to sit and just think about how far we've come and how grateful we are, and a lot of that has to do with the contributions of AJ. So I am just so thrilled that this is where we're at. I'm so happy that she is back in WWE, sitting perched on
her throne next to her man. I'm never gonna get over this image.
I'm just not like, just don't want to go after me too.
Oh my god, I'm gonna watch it like crazy tomorrow morning.
Does it never feel like a fever dream? Like certain things happen and like it doesn't feel real, Like I like, it feels fake.
Like this feels like a dream. Yeah, liked, like did we dream it? Like? Are we gonna wake up the next morning and it's not gonna be real? Yeah? It's real. Yeah, but yeah, so we have reached the end of our time together. Thank you guys so much for watching and listening to this emergency podcast about a jay Lee returning on SmackDown in Chicago her home, well, her home with her love rather because she's from New Jersey. She's from
Union Park, New Jersey. Yeah, I think it's Union Park, New because I think Live Morgan is from Elmwood, New Jersey. I've never been to New Jersey, so that's a place I still think I have. Yeah, that's a place I still gotta go. So yeah, forgive me if I'm getting things wrong, but yeah, Union City, New Jersey's own A jay Lee is back and I just had to talk about it because this is just an important moment in women's wrestling history. And I'm so thankful for you Ella
for being willing to come on. Oh my god, thank you so much.
Thank you for the invite. Again. One of the things that you never would have those on my list, said yeah, and that's never gonna happen. It did.
Yeah, that's yeah. You never say never in wrestling. Yeah, not at all. So ella, thank you for joining me and just tell everybody where they can find and follow you what you've got going on.
You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, and Blue Sky. It's la j like it says right there. I just had a new interview with Rachel leg come out. She's an up and coming indie wrestler that just moved to Florida. So that's out. Now have a few more interviews coming out. I admittedly will not be at Wressell Paluza. I will be it all out, which, by the way, thank god they moved into three pm so I can watch Wreussell
Palooza still. But I will be at aw all out, but I luck hopefully that's over by the time Wressell Palooza starts, so I can watch aj Lee Wressell. But in the meantime, yeah, I'm so excited. We'll have to wait for the official announcement if they haven't already made it, but congrats to aj Lee. She's officially back.
Absolutely well, of course, check out her interviews because her interviews are always great and just everything that she does. Ella has been out here for years doing the dang thing, so please support her and all the things. So of course you can find and follow me your Girl, Stephanie Hardy on Instagram and Twitter at Queen steph Hardy. You can follow the show The Hardy Wrestling Podcast on Instagram at Hardy Wrestling Podcast and on Twitter at Hardy Wrestle Pod.
You will be able to listen to this episode a little bit later, of course, I will post it and it will become available by at least tomorrow. And of course read all of my articles on Daily DDT. I might have one outcoming come. I have one coming out tomorrow, so please be on the lookout for that and read all my other stuff because I'm very proud of all
the work I do over there. And just continue to support us and support your girls out here in wrestling media doing all the things, doing all the write ups, hosting all the things, and just being successful. And also be sure to tune into stephan Kat Talk Wow. There is a new episode of that that went up the day before my birthday. So yes, your girl is thirty two years old.
A birthday present, aj Lee was.
My birthday present and child time. I say this all the time. Anytime women's wrestling history happens the week of my birthday, I feel like it's just for me, it's mine, It's just for me. Like it's happened more than once. It happened with the May Young Classic. Yeah, like it happened like tonight, Like it's happened so many times and
I and I'm just grateful for it. It's almost like God, it's like looking down on me from Heaven's like, what's something that's gonna make her happy this week women's wrestling, and he delivers every time, and he knows. But even with wrestling, even with the men too, because you know that happens too, because Carmelo Hayes and Ricochet happened on my birthday as well.
So, hey, I got birthday seam punk A, look.
At you, and I have the same birthday as Xavier Woods and Beyonce.
Honestly, that's a legendary right there.
And awesome Calm and Jason David Frank May he rest in peace. Yes, So yeah, just a lot of icons. I was born on September fourth, Yeah, it's just an amazing day. So of course this has been HWP Extra, the Hardy Wrestling Podcast in the first ever emergency pod. Aj Lee is Back, Baby Women's Wrestling is kicking butt in twenty twenty five. Until next time, by y'all.