AJ Lee Makes Surprise WWE Return at 9/5 WWE SmackDown Show

Sep 5, 2025

Friday’s WWE SmackDown show at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois featured AJ Lee making her surprise return appearance to WWE.

During the show, WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins was seen in the press box area with a microphone in his hand. Rollins stated that tonight we are all witnesses to history because the legend of your hero CM Punk dies tonight! This led to the crowd chanting “CM Punk” and Rollins responding in a lavish introduction for his wife and current WWE Women’s Intercontinenal Champion Becky Lynch.

This led to Lynch coming out from the entrance way and made her way down to the ring. This led to a loud “AJ Lee” chant from the crowd and Lynch responding yelling back saying “how dare you, how dare you chant another person’s name while she’s standing in this ring.” After some more words boasting about herself, Lynch proceeded to rundown Chicago’s sports teams saying that they all suck.

.@BeckyLynchWWE has heard enough from Chicago 😬 pic.twitter.com/Tqb1ckf2gT
— WWE (@WWE) September 6, 2025

This led to CM Punk’s music playing to interrupt and him coming out to the ring. Punk grabbed a microphone as the crowd chanted his name. Punk stated this isn’t about Becky, it’s about her coward of a husband but Lynch insists it IS about her. After some banter between the two, another AJ Lee chant broke out which Lynch responded shutting it down. Punk responded back saying she will let them chant the name of AJ Lee. If it bothers her so much, she shouldn’t have stuck her nose where it doesn’t belong.

After some more words by Punk mentioning how he can have one of his sisters come out from over the barricade and beat Becky up, Punk brought up Bayley and Rhea Ripley’s names, which Lynch responded back by slapping Punk repeatedly and egging him on to do something. Punk left the ring as Lynch continued to insult him.

Tell her, @cmpunk! 😤 pic.twitter.com/J4HmMIvZXm
— WWE (@WWE) September 6, 2025

Punk stated this is the type of situation he never wanted to be in. Punk stated he would never put his hands on a lady but he knows somebody who will! This led to Lee’s music playing and the crowd erupting in cheers when she came out to the stage. Lee then skips down the ramp and circles around the ring before smiling at Punk.

AJ LEE IS BACK!!!!! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/UPsT7EcVdE
— WWE (@WWE) September 6, 2025

Lee then looked at Lynch who gave a scared shocked reaction leading to Lee entering the ring and a brawl breaking out, which ended with Lee sending Lynch out of the ring after a slap. This led to Lynch and Rollins, who tripped trying to go over the barricade, regrouping on the outside as Punk got into the ring.