On Monday night, Bayley will step into the ring like she has for the better part of the past 20 years. It should be a feeling and a moment she’s experienced thousands of times before, yet there’s something undeniably different — intangible — when it comes to this go-round.
“That seems like a sentence that could have never been said, even two years ago,” Bayley confessed in an interview with Uncrowned.
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To lift the curtain, Bayley is referring to her upcoming Women’s Intercontinental Championship match against AJ Lee, slated for Monday’s “WWE Raw.” It will be far from Bayley’s first championship match — it won’t even be her first match against the recently returned Lee — but, in many ways, it’s a culmination of how hard Bayley and countless others have worked to get women’s wrestling to where it is today.
“[The women’s division] is definitely the strongest it’s ever been, and that’s saying a lot,” Bayley said. “I grew up wanting to do this based on how amazing the women were in the Attitude Era with Trish, Lita, Gail Kim, Victoria, Molly Holly. Right now, I think we have such a strong division, with women who come from all over the world, from all different backgrounds — it’s really cool to think that we have something or someone for everyone. Everybody is a little bit different and I think that’s what draws in such a large audience.”
Trish Stratus and Lita aside, Bayley is part of perhaps the most influential group of women in the history of professional wrestling, The Four Horsewomen. Alongside Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks (now Mercedes Moné), the quartet helped usher in a new era for the sport in the mid-2010s, coined the Women’s Revolution.
It also happened to coincide with the first time Lee and Bayley met in a WWE ring. Lee, the Divas Champion at the time, defended her title against Bayley in the nascent days of NXT, WWE’s developmental brand.
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“As someone who has worked with AJ, 13 years ago for the Divas Championship, to now be there for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship, it’s like a totally different world,” Bayley said. “It feels like it was meant to be, she’s been such a great friend to me for all these years that she was gone. She can still go, which is so annoying how good she is in the ring still. I’m just excited.”
Lee, who was one of the more influential and popular figures at the start of the Women’s Revolution, was famously absent from WWE for more than a decade. Her departure in 2015 meant she watched the majority of the rise of women’s wrestling from the sidelines, as stars like Bayley helped take the division — and industry — to new heights.
AJ Lee returned in 2025 after a decade away from WWE.
(WWE via Getty Images)
There was the change from the Divas Championship back to the Women’s Championship. There was the introduction of four new titles, including the Women’s Intercontinental Championship. There were WrestleMania main events and premium live events dedicated to women alone. There was the emergence of global superstars like Lynch and Rhea Ripley, who could each individually lay claim to being the biggest stars in WWE — male or female — for significant periods.
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The changes that Bayley helped bring about, usher along and elevate didn’t just plant the seed for future generations, it lit a fire in a previous one.
“To me, lately, what’s been the true testament is seeing the Bellas come back, seeing AJ Lee come back and want to be a part of this, mix right in with us, even be a little intimidated, want to step their game up,” Bayley said.
“It’s so cool because when we were coming up and when we were trying to build the division, we were thinking about the present, how big we wanted to make it at that time and how much we wanted to inspire the future. We never really considered people from the past wanting to come back to be a part of it. I think it’s been like a cherry on top of the work that we put in.”
As excited as she may be to take on Lee for the first time in 13 years, it’s not hard to also see the enthusiasm in Bayley when she speaks about the future of the division and business. Bayley earned this opportunity against Lee by winning a 37-minute gauntlet match against five other women last Monday. In a match with names like Asuka, Iyo Sky, Lyra Valkyria and Raquel Rodriguez, Bayley’s work with Ivy Nile is what stood out.
Bayley with an Elbow Drop to Ivy Nile in the Womans Gauntlet Match during “WWE Raw.”
(WWE via Getty Images)
“I selfishly really wanted to be in that match with her and was hoping we would be able to cross paths in that match, because we’ve never wrestled before,” Bayley said. “I’ve seen Ivy grow. She has dark matches every week or is on Main Event every week. Every time, she improves. Every time, she comes back asking for feedback and whatever somebody gives her, I see her do it the next week. That, to me, says so much about a person, about a performer or athlete. Putting her insane body aside, we know how strong she is and her work ethic is wild, I love seeing her growth. Being in the ring with her really showed how much she has been putting everybody’s feedback into play. I really hope that we can get back in there, she’s really somebody who deserves to be in the talks of being up for the championship.”
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Aside from working with budding stars in WWE, Bayley is preparing to run her second Lodestone wrestling seminar. The first, held in Orlando in December, drew such a “crazy” positive response from those inside the community that she is overwhelmed — in a good way.
“I’m still figuring it all out, taking baby steps,” Bayley said. “I think it was such a good response and the women that were there for the first one, all 22 of them, they’ve been sharing their experience in interviews, in their posts and in our group chat. Just hearing what it meant to them and how they’re able to spread the knowledge that they’ve learned, people on the outside are seeing it. People want to be a part of it, not just because they might meet John Cena or wrestle in front of him, I think it’s the community that really bonds people together. People want to be a part of something special and real because in this world of wrestling, sometimes that’s hard to come by.”
It’s also provides a tool that didn’t exist for Bayley — or many of this generation’s biggest female stars as they were breaking into the industry. For many, it wasn’t until Shimmer emerged in the mid 2000s that there was a promotion dedicated to women’s wrestling, and as indie wrestler Nicole Matthews told Uncrowned in an interview last year, it wasn’t a surprise that that talent pipeline — including Bayley — funneled into NXT.
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“I’d never attended a seminar in wrestling, which sounds crazy,” Bayley said. “Being from the Bay Area and California, they just weren’t offered and I just didn’t have any women in my area so I didn’t have any women mentors until I got to Shimmer. I had Serena Deeb that really helped me there and all the women there. It’s just something that I feel we really needed and it was an idea I had a few years back.”
In many ways, Lodestone is the offspring of Shimmer. There may be expansion to including up-and-coming male wrestlers, but for now there’s a uniqueness that adds to the intensity and the allure all at once.
“I think being able to be surrounded by so many women who want the same thing, and it’s kind of special to keep it females only at the time,” Bayley said. “There are so many women out there who want to get better and help each other. The hunger from women, to me, is much stronger right now than it is for the guys. I’ll proudly say that and it’s what’s driving it. It’s not me, it’s the women who want to be better.”
Even as her match with Lee looms, there’s an Allegiant Stadium-sized shadow that’s being cast over Bayley and all of WWE. With WrestleMania just a few weeks away, a win on Monday night could go a long way in securing a spot on the card for WWE’s biggest event of the year.
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Throughout myriad character changes, Bayley has always had a strong connection with fans, who are as informed as ever and aware of last year’s disappointment that she was not on the WrestleMania 41 card.
“Even when I dive into these different characters, there’s always some very real part of me that is a part of that character,” Bayley said. “I try to let them in on my struggles and my accomplishments. It’s hard to explain really because it is a natural connection and something I have had since I’ve been on NXT. I do think that they can tell when something’s phony, when you’re phoning it in or not really feeling something. I’ve always tried my best to let them know how I’m feeling in every situation.”
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Bayley sees “three possibilities” for a path to WrestleMania 42. The most direct one appears to be to defeat Lee and win her first Women’s Intercontinental Championship. Lynch, Bayley’s longtime running mate in the Four Horsewomen, is lurking in the title picture and may factor in. Bayley has also worked alongside Lyra Valkyria in a monthslong tag-team relationship, and there could be an avenue in a subdivision that she helped build into one of WWE’s most intriguing.
“What I’ve learned from last year is that the only thing I can control is being ready,” she said. “I was ready last year and it’s really helped my mindset going into this year. I feel, honestly, the door is wide open.”
Regardless of the outcome, Monday’s match marks a moment that a year ago was nothing more than fantasy booking at its finest, and a decade ago maybe downright impossible. Bayley won’t just be the challenger, she’ll serve as the connection through the past, present and future of women’s wrestling, just like she always has.
