Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
WWE fans are excited about this huge superstar return – but it’s also big new for the WWE video games.
A Breakthrough Wrestling Career
AJ Lee’s accomplishments and influence as a professional already qualify her for a WWE Legends contract. And that’s crazy given that she is only 38, but that’s not all.
Lee’s career is actually remarkably short. She only spent two years training and learning on the indies before joining WWE.
Lee signed on to a WWE developmental contract in 2009 and made her way to Smackdown by 2011.
While Lee was already a trained wrestler, she spent 2011 to 2013 as on-screen talent in storylines with male wrestlers. She then wrestled on the main stage for WWE from 2013 to 2015.
By the time she retired, Lee had been in FCW, NXT, Raw, and Smackdown, become the longest lasting Divas champion at the time at 295 days, and of course, became one of the biggest stars of her time.
AJ Lee cited being inspired by Attitude era Superstar Lita growing up. Her own career would go on to inspire the current generation of women wrestlers, including Raw’s Roxanne Perez.
But her career isn’t over yet.
A Big Return
Much like her onetime rival Paige/Saraya, AJ thought she would not be able to wrestler again because of injuries. She also had issues with WWE’s management, especially because of their acrimonious split with her husband, CM Punk.
But like Saraya, AJ would learn that she could recover from those injuries and get back into shape to return to the ring. And so she came back in last week’s episode of Smackdown, confronting Becky Lynch.
AJ is now booked in a tag team match with Punk against Lynch and her husband, Seth Rollins. Fans are definitely looking forward to her return in the spotlight.
But there’s something else that sorely needs addressing.
AJ Lee Needs A Bigger Video Game Legacy, Too
AJ definitely wants to build on her WWE career to log in more years and do even more as a performer. But there’s another side to this outside of her own on-screen career.
As fans pointed out on Twitter, AJ turned up in only three WWE 2K games! Yes, she was only in WWE 2K13, WWE 2K14 and WWE 2K15.
This can be clearly attributed to her relatively short career as a main event wrestler. At six years overall, AJ’s flame in pro wrestling burned bright and fast.
It is a big deal that half of that career was spent in the spotlight as the promotion’s biggest female superstar. But wrestling video game fans definitely did not get to enjoy that career as much as they hoped.
We don’t know how long this in-ring return will last. Given how big WWE’s roster is, she may herself opt to not be a regular performer, to give other wrestlers like Roxanne their chance in the spotlight too.
But we hope she becomes a permanent part of the WWE 2K video game roster. Fans definitely want to play more with her, and they’re elated to get this second chance.
