Natalya Thinks AJ Lee Will Be ‘Ready To Go’ In The Ring If She Returns To WWE

Natalya chats all things A.J. Lee.

It has been a decade since three-time WWE Divas Champion A.J. Lee wrestled. Her last bout was on an episode of Monday Night Raw in March 2015.

It was relayed to Fightful Select by WWE sources that Lee is expected to make her in-ring return. It was noted in the report that most people in the company consider it a lock that Lee will either be announced to return or will be at the 9/5 Friday Night SmackDown in Chicago, Illinois. Lee’s husband, CM Punk, is engaged in a program with Seth Rollins, and Rollins’ wife, WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch, has gotten in the mix.

The idea of a comeback for A.J. Lee was discussed by one of the talents involved in Lee’s last match, Natalya. She stated her opinion on Busted Open that she thinks Lee will be ready to go in the ring if she is to come back.

“I think yes,” Natalya responded when asked if she thinks A.J. Lee will be ready to go in the ring. “I think she will be able to go. But the biggest thing is is that you cannot — Becky (Lynch) needs to have her ass kicked and I think that if A.J. really — if she’s really gonna stand up for (CM) Punk… If I saw my husband getting slapped by Becky Lynch, Becky Lynch would be having her ass handed to her. So I think that there’s an emotional charge. There should be an emotional charge in that person wanting to come back for revenge or redemption that I would love to see that stands out above everything else. I would say, in my personal, professional opinion, I think she is ready to go. Yeah, absolutely, but again, I don’t know where people are training, I don’t know where people’s bodies are at. I saw a picture of her a couple months ago. She looked jacked. Again, I don’t know what she’s been doing behind the scenes because she does live a very private life, and I think that’s awesome. But, from what Becky has been doing, I would expect A.J. to wanna murder Becky in a wrestling sense, the proverbial wrestling sense.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, Natalya credited Lee, Saraya, and The Bella Twins (Nikki Bella & Brie Bella) for speaking up for WWE’s women’s division at a time when Natalya was too afraid to do so.

“But when women needed more, A.J. (Lee), Paige, The Bellas, they had the courage to say, ‘We need more!’ I was so paralyzed in my own little, like, ‘I can’t believe they’re saying that.’ They’re tweeting, ‘The girls need more. The girls need more.’ A.J. was getting very, very vocal about it, as well as the twins, as well as Paige, and I was like, ‘Oh, they’re gonna get in trouble, they’re gonna get in trouble…’ When I wrote my book, I was like, ‘F*ck, I am so happy and proud of them for speaking up, standing up for the division when I didn’t have the courage to do that because I was so scared.’ I was so scared of Vince (McMahon) or somebody being mad at me, or the company being mad at me or getting called or getting pulled into Talent Relations that I didn’t wanna piss people off. But during that time, we needed someone to speak up, and say, no, we need more than 30 seconds for a match. Women like Michelle McCool, women like Mickie James, women like Melina, women like Beth Phoenix, like Layla, Maryse, Eve Torres, I’m just naming names. We were all wanting so much more, and not all of us could fight for it but I know we wanted it. So, it takes women that have balls and courage to do that…”

The next Premium Live Event for WWE is their Wrestlepalooza event on September 20th. It is going to be their first PLE to air on ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer service.

Fightful will have written and audio coverage of the 9/5 SmackDown.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Busted Open with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.