Top 10 AJ Lee Feuds That Never Were at WWE
On April 3, AJ Lee announced her retirement from WWE in-ring competition. While the news initially came as a surprise to some, it was only a matter of time given the nonexistent relationship at the moment between WWE and her husband, CM Punk.
Although the timing of it was abrupt, it isn't illogical to think that it was AJ's decision to call it a career when she did. In her six years with the company, she accomplished almost everything a Diva viably could, breaking the proverbial glass ceiling and making a Hall of Fame-worthy career for herself.
From 2009 to 2013, she won the FCW Women's Championship, emerged victorious at WrestleMania in back-to-back years, captured the Divas Championship on three separate occasions and held it longer than anyone else. Outside of the ring, she reigned as Raw General Manager for a time and won the Slammy Award for Diva of the Year in 2012 and 2014.
However, AJ's absence has left a major void in the Divas division that has yet to be filled. Furthermore, despite achieving every accolade imaginable, there were still a handful of fresh feuds waiting for her participation.
Keep in mind while reading that a number of the following feuds don't involve currently contracted members of the roster, but rather alumni who could have realistically been brought in at various points to work with AJ.
10. Sasha Banks
1 of 10
As Lee mentioned in her acceptance speech at the 2014 Slammy Awards, there are many women waiting in the wings at NXT to be heiresses to her throne. All of them are due to make major impacts when they're eventually called up, especially current reigning NXT women's champion Sasha Banks.
Although she has been under contract to WWE for the last three years, it wasn't until a few months ago that she really started coming into her own. Breaking away from Summer Rae and Charlotte was the best thing to happen to her, as it has allowed her to develop her own personality and pave her own path to superstardom.
At February's NXT TakeOver: Rivals event, Banks realized a dream when she captured the NXT women's title in one of the best female Fatal 4-Ways in WWE history. Since then, she's run rampant over the division, and no one has been able to put an end to her reign.
Sasha is holding the strap at the moment, and Paige was promoted to Raw while NXT Women's champion, so The Boss could be too. With AJ now gone, it's only a matter of time before she graces Raw and SmackDown.
However, it's a shame we were never able to see them feud. Like Paige, Banks could have made a great first impression in her first night on Raw in a match or segment with AJ the night after WrestleMania, but WWE missed the boat.
9. Victoria
2 of 10
It's been six years since we last saw Victoria in a WWE ring, but even at the age of 44, she could have had one heck of a feud with AJ Lee.
Victoria's WWE career was akin to AJ's in the time she was there from 2000 to 2009, having won the Women's Championship on two separate occasions. In early 2009, she walked away from the ring to pursue other endeavors, only to jump ship to TNA Wrestling.
Although TNA never used Victoria (there known as Tara) to her full potential, she contested several solid matches during her tenure. She had the chance to mix it up with familiar foes Mickie James and Gail Kim as well as TNA originals Angelina Love and Velvet Sky.
Victoria left the company in mid-2013 and has been mostly quiet since then, popping up at WWE live events from time to time or being invited to WWE Hall of Fame ceremonies. WWE also featured her in their "Where Are They Now?" series in late 2013, recapping her career and updating fans on her current activities.
The master of the Widow's Peak wouldn't have had needed to be a full-time wrestler at WWE, but bringing her in to work a program with AJ would have wonderful. Their similarly psychotic personae would have made for an interesting dynamic, to say the least.
8. Charlotte
3 of 10
Along with Sasha Banks, Charlotte is another top prospect at NXT. Her time in developmental has lasted less than two years, but she's already set to be called up to the main roster any day now.
While she didn't show signs of progression early on in her stay in NXT, all it took was one match with resident Diva Natalya at NXT TakeOver in May 2014 to change people's perceptions of her. Her incredible outing against the fellow second-generation star was only the beginning of a great, lengthy reign she'd have as NXT women's champion.
In the last year, Charlotte has contested some of the greatest women's matches WWE has seen in years against the likes of Sasha Banks, Bayley and Becky Lynch. Now that she's no longer holding the gold, it's essentially guaranteed that she will be bound for the main roster before long.
The world won't end because a Charlotte-AJ Lee feud never happened, but it surely would have been must-see. Pairing the best women's wrestler on the main roster with one of the hottest up-and-coming rookies could have instantly cemented Charlotte as a star.
The more experienced Charlotte's opponents, the better her matches are. You know she and AJ would have gone out to the ring and put on a show-stealing match.
7. Kharma
4 of 10
Some may say that WWE dropped the ball with Kharma, but quite honestly, it was a matter of her being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
No woman in recent memory has come into WWE with as much buzz as the former Awesome Kong, who signed on in late 2010. After months of anticipation, she finally arrived at May's Extreme Rules event, embarking on a reign of terror that would last several weeks.
On the May 23 edition of Raw, Kharma oddly broke down crying, which was highly uncharacteristic of her. It was revealed the following week that she was pregnant and would be missing up to a year of in-ring action.
Other than a one-off appearance in the 2012 Royal Rumble match, however, she was never seen on WWE programming again. The two sides mutually parted ways in the summer of 2012.
That said, she left the company under good terms, and the door was always open for a return. There's been speculation at various points over the years that she'd show up as AJ Lee's latest rival or even as her heavy, but that never came to be.
Realisitically, Kharma would have annihilated AJ due to the latter's small stature, but it would have been fun to see WWE's resident "crazy chick" try to escape her at every turn. Kharma's return to TNA and AJ's recent retirement has left this dream match to the imagination.
6. Trish Stratus
5 of 10
Despite retiring from the ring just shy of a decade ago, Trish Stratus has laced up the boots several times over the years, but unfortunately never for a match against AJ Lee.
Following her final match as part of the active roster at Unforgiven 2006, it would be another two years before she was in action again on the December 22, 2008 edition of Raw. She teamed with John Cena to defeat the duo of Santino Marella and Beth Phoenix.
Stratus and Phoenix crossed paths in a six-person tag team match the following year on Raw in which Stratus' team emerged victorious. Her latest run came in 2011, when she aligned with John Morrison and Snooki to beat Dolph Ziggler and LayCool at WrestleMania 27.
The seven-time women's champion looked good in each of her in-ring appearances but was never brought back for the right matches. Each of those bouts were forgettable at best, which is disappointing considering her talents could have been utilized so much better.
Having been enshrined into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013 and giving birth to her first child later that year, it's unlikely we'll ever see Stratus wrestle again. Even if she were to make a comeback, it'd be too little, too late with AJ Lee now retired.
5. Mickie James
6 of 10
Only a few ladies can say they've revolutionized women's wrestling in the last decade, and Mickie James and AJ Lee can definitely be included in that conversation. Interestingly enough, James exited WWE right around the time that AJ made her on-air debut.
For the five years she was with the company, James won a total of six championships and beat almost everyone there was to beat. Her tenure didn't end as many would have liked (she was released from her contract), but she didn't have much else to accomplish.
Likewise, the same can be said for AJ, who had done everything she set out to do before retiring just recently. James spent three years in TNA from 2010 to 2013, but once her time there ended, there was the opportunity for WWE to bring her in and work with the younger talent.
Still, there was a ton of fresh faces she could have locked up with had she come back to the company, including AJ. Their "crazy" characters aside, they were two of the very best to grace the division and would be capable of creating magic together as rivals.
An appearance at the WWE Performance Center in November 2013 sparked rumors of a return to the company for James, but nothing ever came of it. Like AJ, the future WWE Hall of Famer has since retired from the ring as well.
4. Tamina Snuka
7 of 10
Tamina Snuka's presence on this list may come as a slight surprise, but given the storyline significance of her longtime relationship with AJ Lee, it was an angle that deserved a proper conclusion.
In her crusade against the cast of Total Divas, AJ turned to the only person she knew she could trust: Tamina Snuka. The two joined forces in the fall of 2013 and laid waste to most of the Divas division for as long as they were together.
For most of AJ's run as Divas champion, Tamina stood by her side and ensured she maintained possession of the prestigious prize. Tension was teased between them heading into the Divas Championship Invitational at WrestleMania 30, but they remained a cohesive unit coming out of the event.
After AJ dropped the strap to Paige shortly after WrestleMania, she disappeared from WWE TV, leaving Tamina to fend for herself. Upon AJ's return to the ring in the summer, she had already undergone surgery to repair a torn ACL and has been out of action ever since.
With AJ as a the babyface and Tamina as the heel, a feud between the two would have been a fitting way to close out the career of the three-time Divas champion. It may not have the lit the world on fire, but at least it would have made sense from a storyline standpoint, something we don't see all too often with the Divas nowadays.
3. Bayley
8 of 10
Of the current crop of women down in NXT, no one would have been made a more perfect opponent for AJ Lee than Bayley.
Since her arrival on the NXT scene in late 2012, Bayley has been one to watch, progressing in the ring at a rapid rate and quickly capturing the hearts of everyone at Full Sail University. Time and time again, she has come close to winning the NXT Women's Championship, but to no avail.
Once she's eventually called up to the main roster, Bayley will be over with the audience in no time given her lovable personality. That said, her underdog persona would have played very well against the confident and chaotic Lee.
In her final WWE appearance the night after WrestleMania 31, AJ sported a Bayley T-shirt during a tag team match. This is no coincidence, as it's well-documented that the two are good friends outside the ring, based on their social media interaction.
At the very least, they were able to do battle with the Divas Championship on the line on the August 21, 2013 edition of NXT. It was a good match while it lasted but only scratched the surface of what these two could accomplish in the squared circle together.
2. Lita
9 of 10
Needless to say, this match was the least likeliest to happen given that Lita hasn't wrestled a match in nearly nine years (her match with Heath Slater from Raw 1000 aside), but it still would have been nothing short of sensational.
In the five years she was with WWE, AJ knocked off every key player in the Divas division but never faced anyone quite like Lita. An innovator and a rebel, Lita breathed new life into women's wrestling during her decorated career, winning countless championships and participating in some of the most memorable storylines of the last 15 years.
After retiring from the ring at Survivor Series 2006, Lita remained distant from the wrestling business for several years. She returned to Raw in 2010 and would make only a handful of appearances in the years that followed before being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2014.
Although Lita has expressed zero interest in lacing up her boots again, you'd have to imagine that she would have at least considered it with the right storyline and under the right circumstances. Of course, the biggest moneymaker she could have had would have been against AJ Lee.
AJ hasn't shied away from admitting that she grew up idolizing Lita, so the story would have written itself. It'd also would have given the New Jersey native the one match necessary to solidify her legacy as one of the all-time greats.
1. Stephanie McMahon
10 of 10
It still baffles me that this feud never ultimately came to fruition, especially considering WWE had countless opportunities to pull the trigger on it.
The first face-to-face interaction AJ Lee and Stephanie McMahon had came on the June 17, 2013 edition of Raw, only one night removed from AJ's first Divas Championship victory. Stephanie confronted AJ and advised her not to overstep her boundaries, lest she suffer the consequences.
It was a throwaway segment designed to send a message to the ladies in the locker room to not disrespect Stephanie behind the scenes, but even so, they showed signs of magic in their few minutes sharing the ring together.
Their next encounter occurred on the September 1, 2014 Raw in a segment also involving Paige and The Bella Twins. The staredown between AJ and Stephanie lasted mere moments, but it was long enough to give fans hope that we could one day see them go to war in the ring.
Heck, AJ's fiery response to Stephanie on Twitter in February, which called her out for her lack of respect toward the Divas division, would have been a perfect setup for a match at WrestleMania. However, due to it not being a part of a storyline, it was forgotten about, and AJ targeted The Bella Twins upon her return instead.
Obviously, it never would have been acknowledged that AJ is the wife of CM Punk (the man whom Stephanie's husband allegedly fired), but it would have made a match between them extremely personal and feel real. But alas, with AJ now gone, their potential feud isn't anything more than a missed opportunity.
Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, is a journalism major at Endicott College. Visit his website at Next Era Wrestling and "like" his official Facebook page to continue the conversation on all things wrestling.
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