AJ Lee spent years fighting for women to be paid like the men. Signing her new WWE deal was the moment that fight paid off.
Lee was one of the sport’s loudest advocates for women’s wrestling before she stepped away in 2014, and she returned to WWE in 2025 for the first time in nearly a decade with that same mission still attached to her name. On the first episode of the second season of WWE Unreal, she described the feeling of putting pen to paper on a contract that finally reflected what she’d argued for.
“One of the things I fought for back in the day wasn’t just for equal footing. It was let’s get paid the way the men get paid. To know I’m signing this contract where I am getting paid the way my husband’s getting paid, where I’m being treated like an equal, it was a boss-ass moment, I’m not gonna lie.”
The “husband” in question is Undisputed WWE Champion CM Punk, which makes the milestone hit even harder. Being paid on his level is the tangible version of a stand Lee took a decade ago.
Back in February 2015, Lee fired off a viral tweet at Stephanie McMahon, noting that WWE’s women had record-selling merchandise and starred in the highest-rated segments of the show while receiving a fraction of the wages and screen time of the men.
