Days before their mixed tag team match at WWE Wrestlepalooza, CM Punk and AJ Let met Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch face-to-face on "WWE Raw," with Lynch making reference to Lee's previous career-threatening neck injury. With that in mind, Lynch also asked Lee how she was feeling physically ahead of their match. Lee subsequently admitted that she wasn't sure how it was going to hold up in the ring. According to WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray, the former Divas Champion could have exhibited even more uncertainty in this televised encounter.
"When she brought up the neck, like almost remind AJ that there was that neck injury,"Ray said on "Busted Open Radio." Sometimes when we have injuries, we rehab the injury and then we like to forget about the fact that the injury is there. We don't want to hyper focus on the injury because then it makes us do weird things in the ring to try to avoid the injury, and you wind up re-injuring. So you try to never talk about it, never think about it again.
"I would have liked to have seen Becky go a little deeper into the neck issues," he continued. "I would have liked to have seen a little bit more self doubt. I would have liked to have seen AJ look down, or maybe look at Punk in a little bit more concern. There was something about the promo that was a little off last night, and if I had to say who was off, I'd say AJ felt like the odd one in the ring last night."
Lee initially retired from in-ring competition in 2015 due to lingering damage in her cervical spine. That, of course, changed on September 5, 2025 when she made her long-awaited return to WWE to side with Punk, her real-life husband, in his ongoing feud with Lynch and Rollins.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
