Speaking with Fox News Digital, WWE’s Bayley addressed her upcoming match on this Monday’s Raw, in which she will challenged AJ Lee for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship.
“It just seems like one of those things where she would just come back as a one time, dream match type thing. And even when she did come back, and I’ve told this to her, I was just happy to have her around. We’ve kept in touch these last 10 years and been actual friends outside of the business and just to think that now I get to be in the ring with her, I wasn’t like, ‘I need to have a match with you,’ because I got my match. I just wanted to have my friend around and the fact that we got to do this now, it just seems right. Now, I’m like, ‘Of course we’re supposed to have this match together.’
The last time Bayley and Lee competed against each other was during the August 21, 2013 episode of NXT, for the Divas Championship. Lee came out victorious, pinning Bayley to retain.
Bayley went on to say, she would love to capture the Women’s Intercontinental title, thus completing her grand slam championship role.
“I would love, love, love to win this championship because I have to finish my grand slam role. I gotta get this one. I gotta get to the United States one, and I gotta get to WrestleMania. So, I have a lot of feelings going into this, and I kinda have to put aside the nostalgia feeling of it.”
Bayley also noted that despite she Lee being friends outside the ring, she (Bayley) had no idea that Lee would be making her return to WWE after she left the company shortly after WrestleMania in 2015.
“She did not say anything to me. “I had heard rumors. I’m a big believer and I hold a lot of hope for a lot of things that I truly feel and I just so happened to be in Chicago to film something that day for SmackDown and I was like, I’m just going to stick around. I don’t need to go back to my hotel. I’m just going to stick around and yeah, I was right. And I’m so happy that I followed my heart, but she was very quiet about it.”
Monday’s Raw will take place from the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas, airing live on Netflix beginning at 8:00 pm ET/5:00 pm PT.