AJ Lee Reveals How Her WWE Return Came About, CM Punk Calls His Wife An Inspiration, WWE Bringing PLE To Italy In 2026, WWE NXT Ratings (9/16/25)
— WWE Superstar AJ Lee appeared on ESPN’s SportsCenter this week to discuss her in-ring return. She revealed her WWE return has been an option for her for the past two years.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On how her return came about: “Gosh, it’s sort of been something that was in the air for the past couple of years as an option. However, when I retired, I was very comfortable staying retired, and I felt very complete in my career. I’ve always set to do something, to embark on a new journey, it has to feel brand new and feel like I’m needed and exciting and kind of scary. Starting this new chapter on ESPN feels like a whole new mountain the company needs to climb, and I was flattered that they believed that I could help draw eyeballs in that way. Also, Becky is very interesting to me. I think she’s wonderful in the ring and we have a lot of similarities. She would not be an easy person to get back in the ring with. That was exciting.”
On how surreal her return to WWE has been: “A little surreal. I you know was sort of imagining what that moment could be like and I in no way anticipated the response would be as humbling and amazing as it has been. So I still feel a little bit like I’ve disassociated. I’m just imagining all this and it’s it’s been pretty cool. It’s been wonderful.”
On ring rust being a legitimate concern for Saturday: “I mean, yes. It’s been 10 years. I, you know, I try to stretch as much as I can, but you don’t really know what’s going to happen when you get out there. But in the same way that that does feel, you know, kind of scary and, as Becky said, a liability in one way, I think it’s an asset because I am unpredictable. I don’t know what I’m going to do when I’m out there. I might go out there and braid her hair. I might bite her in the face. We might four-way kiss. Who knows what’s going to happen on ESPN.”
— On a recent edition of ESPN’s Pardon My Take, CM Punk shared his thoughts on teaming with his wife in the ring. He said,
“She’s inspirational, honestly. Her will-power, a lot of that is diet, but she’s also super strong in the gym and is lifting heavy weights and busting her ass all the time. I’m having the time of my life. I’m like the uber-nerdiest, wife-guy. I always like to say that I try to spend as much time with my wife as I can, and I spent a lot of time with her, and it never feels like it’s enough. Having her back in this environment with me at work is like a dream come true.”
— WWE is set to bring a pay-per-view event to Italy next year.
During an appearance at the IMG x RedBird Summit, WWE President Nick Khan confirmed to SportBusiness that Italy will host a WWE pay-per-view event in late 2026.
Discussing WWE’s growing international presence, Khan said, “Almost half of our Premium Live Events take place outside of the United States now. We believe WWE is a global property, and the results for these shows — both in attendance and viewership, locally and globally — have been significant. We’ve seen year-over-year increases for viewership on each one.”
The Italian pay-per-view event will coincide with the country joining Netflix’s WWE streaming partnership. While WWE has not yet revealed the date, city, or venue, the company previously ran an international edition of Friday Night SmackDown in Bologna on March 21 as part of the road to WrestleMania 41.
— WWE NXT’s Homecoming episode on September 16 attracted 737,000 viewers on The CW Network, according to a report from Programming Insider. This marked an increase from the 645,000 viewers who tuned in for the September 9 episode.
In the key 18-49 demographic, Tuesday’s show earned a 0.17 rating, up from the 0.14 rating recorded the previous week.
(h/t – Fightful)
