WWE star Bayley earned the opportunity to challenge AJ Lee for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship earlier this week when she won a gauntlet match on “Monday Night Raw.”

The match, which will take place on Monday, is nearly 13 years in the making. The last time the two professional wrestlers competed against each other was on Aug. 21, 2013, for the Divas Championship. Lee, a veteran at that point, got the better of Bayley, who was still a newcomer.

A lot has changed since then. Lee departed the company in 2015 while Bayley went on to become a four-time women’s champion and two-time women’s tag team champion. Bayley helped shape the WWE women’s division into what it is today. The Women’s Intercontinental Championship wasn’t even a glimmer in anyone’s eye five years ago, let alone 13 years ago.

Lee returned to WWE in September, potentially putting the two wrestling greats on a collision course with each other at some point. With Lee winning the title against Becky Lynch, Bayley was able to solidify her path toward a chance at championship gold.

“Man, it’s so weird. So weird to think, it’s just like the universe works in mysterious ways,” Bayley told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. “I remember 13 years ago, getting that text that I would be wrestling AJ Lee for the divas title and I had just started my character stuff on NXT. I remember that seeming like, ‘What do you mean? What am I? Why? What? This can’t be possible.’ And that’s sort of what I feel like now, just because nobody thought that AJ was going to come back, let alone there be an intercontinental women’s championship, let alone she’d be the champion or ever.”

“It just seems like one of those things where she would just come back as a one time, dream match type thing,” she continued. “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.’

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“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.”

Lee’s return was a shock to the WWE Universe when she teamed up with her real-life husband, CM Punk, to take on Lynch and Seth Rollins. Still, for many WWE fans, Lee’s return still seems unreal.

She returned on an episode of “Friday Night SmackDown,” which took place in Chicago at the time. Bayley told Fox News Digital she was in the city filming something and heard the rumors that Lee may have been returning.

Even as best of friends, Bayley said Lee never tipped her hand.

“She did not say anything to me,” she said. “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.”

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Soon, the two will meet in a dream match of sorts.

Bayley and Lee will face off with the Women’s Intercontinental Championship on the line Monday night on RAW. It can be seen on Netflix, starting at 8 p.m. ET.

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“Beast Mode” started as a phrase people used to describe the running style of former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch.

“I think it was just my relentlessness and my no-back-down type of demeanor when it came to running the ball, like, ‘Boy, that boy a beast,’” Lynch said. “And it’s like, yeah, when I get the ball, that’s what type of mode I’m in — I’m in beast mode.”

Lynch played 12 seasons for the Buffalo Bills, Seattle Seahawks and Oakland Raiders, amassing 10,413 in 2,453 carries with 85 touchdowns. Somewhere along the way, he said, the phrase “Beast Mode” evolved into “this persona bigger than myself.”

“The way that I get approached by kids and fans, like the way that they approach me is almost as if I am like a character so to speak, and I don’t think that I was doing it justice because I’m like, ‘Well s—, I’m just only a man,” the Super Bowl XLVIII champion said.

“But I believe in their mind what they had made up as Beast Mode is this larger-than-life, kind of surreal individual.”

Lynch is embracing that perception of himself … and Beast Mode is about to become a literal comic book hero.

On Friday, Arists Writers and Artisans announced the graphic novel “Beast Mode 510,” which is scheduled to be released Oct. 6. Written by NAACP Image Award-nominated author Sheldon Allen and illustrated by Eisner Hall of Fame artist Denys Cowan, the book was “inspired and guided by” Lynch and is a “deeply personal love letter” to his hometown Oakland, according to a news release from AWA.

“At its center is Beast Mode: the 510’s legendary fixer and freelance sleuth whose rough exterior hides a code of loyalty and willingness to deal with problems others won’t touch,” the release reads. “If you’ve got a problem the authorities won’t handle, Beast Mode will. No invoices. No contracts. Just results.”

AWA chief creative officer Axel Alonso said when he was approached by Lynch and his team about possibly working on a project together, the idea of turning Beast Mode into an almost superhuman crime fighter quickly came to mind.

“To use a football analogy, when Marshawn and his people came to me and said, ‘Can you do anything with this, Beast Mode?’ it was like they gave me the ball on the one-yard line and I had to just walk it in — and Pete Carroll wasn’t the coach, so I could just go right in,” Alonso said, referring to an infamous play at the end of Seattle’s loss to New England in Super Bowl XLIX.

“It was as easy as that. I was like, come on, ‘Beast Mode’? So automatically I talked with Marshawn and said, ‘What’s important to you?’”

Lynch’s input has been key every step of the way, Alonso said, with the five-time Pro Bowl selection getting final say on every aspect. Lynch said he appreciates having his voice heard and being able to put his stamp on the project.

“From the start, we just sat down and had a conversation about where it was that we wanted to go, what is the kind of feel, the look that we want, the kind of tone that we want to tell the story,” Lynch said.

Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch #24 of the Seattle Seahawks runs for a 67-yard touchdown against the New Orleans Saints during an NFC wild-card playoff game Jan. 8, 2011, at Qwest Field.

(Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images)

An early look at pages from the upcoming “Beast Mode 510” graphic novel starring Super Bowl champion Marshawn Lynch as an underground crime fighter.

(Art by Denys Cowan / Courtesy of AWA)

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“I can’t draw or nothing like that, but any type of update or anything Axel will get over to me and, you know what I mean, yea or nay. And then when it comes to like how certain characters would look, certain names, individuals — I would say I’m involved, but I’m not stepping on their toes.”

For Lynch, one of the top priorities was to bring attention to all the unique aspects of his beloved city.

“We kinda have Oakland being a character of its own,” he said. “The personality of what Oakland stands for is something that I would really like to highlight ‘cause I feel that my city gets overlooked. And then the amount of individuals that we have coming out of area, it’s also an opportunity to show a nod to a lot of the Bay Area cultures and icons that we have.”

Even though the book is fiction, Lynch insisted on authenticity in the depictions of the city and the people who live there, including the way they look, act and speak.

“I think the biggest thing will probably be just the way that I speak in general,” Lynch said. “Mother— from where I’m from, we talk with a certain type of a tone, a type of swag.”

An early look at a page from the upcoming “Beast Mode 510” graphic novel. Marshawn Lynch says his character was inspired by the larger-than-life persona fans sometimes associate with him.

(Art by Denys Cowan / Courtesy of AWA.)

And, judging from Lynch’s signature way of talking, a lot of profanity.

None of Lynch’s ideas has been toned down.

“This is an R-rated book,” Alonso said.

“I want this s— to be turned up to the max,” Lynch added, “so if a mother— do pick this up to read, it’s gonna be like, ‘Oh, this some real s—.’ As well as entertaining, as well as insightful and impactful.”

Lynch is used to keeping people entertained, including as the co-host of the “Get Got Pod” with former Seahawks teammate Mike Robinson and as an actor with numerous roles in TV and film (including a breakout performancein 2023’s “Bottoms”).

He said he’s proud of how the project is turning out.

“When you see work and be like, ‘Damn that s— was nice’ and you start thinking about the thought process and how they got to those points, how they got to those things that drew you in, those things that give you that warm feeling,” Lynch said, “I’m feeling like I’m living that as this s— is going.

“Which is crazy as f— because I played in Super Bowls, I walked the red carpet of f—in’ premieres, and this one feels like, out of a lot of s—, this one is capturing that feeling for me. I’m a [Black man] — you know we don’t feel too much. But when we do, we be like, ‘Oh yeah, you know this s— is special.’”

North Carolina football is less than two weeks from opening summer camp ahead of its second season under seven-time Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Belichick.

Belichick led the Tar Heels to a 4-8 record in his first season in Chapel Hill, but a string of off-field headlines largely overshadowed the team.

The controversy has carried into the offseason, apparently prompting at least one prominent UNC football alumnus to forgo attending games in person when the 2026 season begins this fall. 

Marquise Williams, who earned All-ACC honors during his four-year run with UNC, announced his plan to skip games this year.

“I will not be attending any UNC football games this year!” Williams wrote Thursday on X. “The things I’m hearing man I would have never thought.” He added a broken heart emoji but did not elaborate on exactly what put him off.

Williams still lives in North Carolina and serves as quarterbacks coach at Louisburg College. He ranks sixth on UNC’s all-time passing yards list.

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While Williams’ exact reasoning remains unclear, much of the chatter surrounding the program has centered on Belichick, 73, and his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson.

During last year’s widely discussed “CBS News Sunday Morning” interview, Hudson faced accusations that she attempted to exert control during the former NFL coach’s sit-down. The interview was part of a promotional tour for Belichick’s new book, “The Art of Winning — Lessons from My Life in Football.”

The viral moment sparked questions about Hudson’s involvement in both his personal and professional life and whether it could affect football operations.

North Carolina football general manager Michael Lombardi recently addressed the scrutiny and outside criticism that surrounded the program last season, defending the team’s response amid what he characterized as inaccurate accounts.

“All during those stormy times, all during when the boat was getting capsized, when people were attacking us with fake rumors and fake stories all over — nobody’s corrected them yet, but that’s OK, we understand — our players hung together,” Lombardi told the “Pat McAfee Show” last week.

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