User blog:CEDJunior/What Should Happen With AJ & Paige

For those of you who were living under a rock this past Monday night, AJ Lee made her return on Raw and regained the WWE Divas Championship from Paige in an impromptu match. It was on April 7--the night after WrestleMania XXX--that Paige made her main roster debut and congratulated AJ on her big title defense against the rest of the Divas roster. At that moment, AJ decided to face Paige on the spot; with her title on the line. The result would see Paige defeat AJ to end her 295 days at the top. Before last night, AJ had not been seen on WWE TV since.

In the two months that she was away, AJ got engaged to the controversial CM Punk, and later married him on June 13. After the wedding, rumors circulated that AJ was pregnant, though that was clearly not the case. Even so, AJ's return disproved two theories that I had regarding her lenghty hiatus. One, I figured that Punk would somehow talk AJ into not coming back, due to his own controversial walkout in February of this year. Two, I thought that if AJ returned, she'd be de-pushed and de-valued because of her new husband. A lot of people were upset over the way Punk walked out on WWE months ago. In fact, a report came out that Stephanie McMahon was the most angry at Punk, which is why she made that negative reference to him at Payback last month, which was in Punk's hometown of Chicago.

As to AJ's return and title victory, I loved it. The only problem I have with this is that it knocks Naomi further down the totem pole. However, on the bright side, we will finally see what could be a proper feud between AJ and Paige, which brings me to the reason why I loved the return so much. In my estimation, and a few others, I believe that we all witnessed a double turn on last night's Raw, with AJ back as a babyface and Paige becoming a villainess. If you recall before the match happened, AJ was in true babyface mode in congratulating Paige for her victory, while Paige was quick to accuse AJ of goading her into a title match, even going as far as to say that the fans don't want to see her defend the title, which is typical heel rhetoric. AJ asked the fans if they wanted to see a title match between the two, which is typical babyface rhetoric. Of course, the match took place, and Paige increased her heel demeanor by snarling at AJ after delivering a swift kick to her face; grabbing her by her hair and screaming that this was "her house" to her opponent. AJ got the victory with an inside cradle, and Paige was left heartbroken. She even refused to talk to Eden Stiles on an edition of Raw Fallout.

If you think about it, Paige also acted heelish in her post-match interview at Money in the Bank, so I would think that the powers that be would portray Paige as a vengeful villain going after the now babyface AJ. I could picture a segment on the following edition of Raw where the evil Paige cuts a promo blaming the fans for her losing the title to AJ, which will obviously lead to a rematch at Battleground. I've seen Paige shine as a heel in SHIMMER and FCW, but I do think that she has the potential to be a much better villain now than she was in the past. And as for AJ, she really needed a face turn. Her heel role in the past was getting very, very stale, so it was definitely time for a change. Plus, while she's good either way, she's more natural as a herolne. If they do this right, and I mean really right, the feud between AJ and Paige could be the stand out Divas rivalry of the year; possibly even bigger than AJ's feud with Kaitlyn last year. I am looking forward to seeing what develops next week on Raw and possibly SmackDown.