AJ Lee's Top 5 Career Moments Ahead Of Her Rumored WWE Return Tonight

AJ Lee is a three-time WWE Divas Champion and was voted the Pro Wrestling Illustrated Woman of the Year from 2012 to 2014. Lee wrestled at the end of the Divas era in WWE, but regularly showed an edge that other women didn't at the time.

As AJ Lee makes her WWE return, let's take a walk down memory lane and highlight Lee's top career moments.

5. AJ Lee becomes General Manager of WWE Raw

Lee was all set to marry Daniel Bryan on television for WWE, but ended up leaving him at the alter because Vince McMahon made her the General Manager of WWE Raw. The dramatic event took place at 1000th episode of WWE Raw and Lee would go on to make life hell for Bryan and current husband CM Punk.

Lee eventually resigned as General Manager because of storyline allegations that she had an affair with current top WWE star, John Cena. Those allegations were made by Vicki Guerrero, who Lee would feud with later in her career.

4. WWE Divas Champion and secret admirer

Lee won her first WWE Divas Championship at the WWE Payback event in 2013. She secured a title opportunity against Kaitlyn by winning a Battle Royal. After that Battle Royal win, Kaitlyn was courted on-screen by a secret admirer. In storyline, the admirer appeared to be Big E, but Lee later revealed it was her that tricked Kaitlyn to get in her head.

After mental games and embarrassing Kaitlyn, Lee defeated her at Payback to win the championship. It was the first of three title reigns for Lee in WWE.

3. The WrestleMania kiss of doom

AJ Lee and Daniel Bryan were attached at the hip for much of her early run in WWE. Lee and Bryan had an on-screen romance storyline, which culminated in an odd way at WrestleMania 28.

Bryan was the WWE World Heavyweight Champion and he faced off against Sheamus in the opening match of the event -- which, was headlined by the first-ever John Cena vs. The Rock match. Bryan slowly and arrogantly started the match, but first asked his girlfriend to jump onto the ring apron and give him a kiss.

Lee obliged and planted a big kiss on Bryan in front of the huge WrestleMania audience. Bryan then turned and was clocked in the face by a Sheamus Brogue Kick. Sheamus pinned Bryan to become the new champion in just 18 seconds.

2. Lee vs. McMahon

Lee never got the change to wrestle Stephanie McMahon in the ring, but the two women did go toe-to-toe with a promo exchange on WWE Raw in 2013.

McMahon confronted Lee in the ring on the night after Lee became the WWE Divas Champion for the first time. McMahon told Lee that she expected her to act like a diva since she was holding the Divas Championship.

In response, the WWE fans got to see an edgy side of Lee. Lee went in hard on Stephanie during the promo and discussed her relationship with Triple H on live television. The two women never had a match because of the exchange, but it highlighted how smooth and innovative Lee could be on the microphone when she needed to.

1. The AJ Lee Pipe Bomb

CM Punk coined the term pipe bomb after he viciously assaulted most of the top WWE stars on the microphone while sitting on the top of the Raw stage in 2011. John Cena was a target, The Rock was a target, Vince McMahon was a target, and WWE as a company was a target for Punk on that night. He didn't miss.

AJ Lee got a similar opportunity to do the same thing in the summer of 2013. Lee was the WWE Divas Champion at the time and the Total Divas reality show on E featuring The Bella Twins, Natalya, and other WWE Divas was tremendously popular.

With much of that show's cast in the ring, Lee sauntered out onto the entrance ramp with a microphone and eviscerated the wrestlers in the ring. Lee accused them of having to switch careers to reality stars because they weren't good enough to be actresses.

Lee also questioned how stars like both Bella twins made it to the top of WWE -- insinuating that it was only because of their romantic relationships with top male stars -- John Cena and Daniel Bryan.

The line of the promo was when Lee told the women in the ring that they could walk as many red carpets as they wanted in their "ridiculous heals," but that they'd never be able to lace up her "Chuck Taylor's."

A few years later at WrestleMania 31 -- in her last match for WWE -- Lee would team with Paige to take on The Bella Twins, two of the women that caught Lee's pipe bomb fury.

Since CM Punk returned to WWE in 2023, WWE fans have pined for the return of AJ Lee. All indications point to her coming back and returning on a very big stage next to the company's top current stars.

Will she have the Chuck Taylor's on? Time will tell.