Sports
WWE star Bayley opens up about long-awaited match against AJ Lee: ‘Universe works in mysterious ways’
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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.
Bayley celebrates her win with Lyra Valkyria after the Woman’s Gauntlet Match during Monday Night RAW at Climate Pledge Arena on March 9, 2026, in Seattle, Washington. (Meg Oliphant/WWE via Getty Images)
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.’
Bayley with an elbow drop to Ivy Nile in the Womans Gauntlet Match during Monday Night RAW at Climate Pledge Arena on March 9, 2026, in Seattle, Washington. (Meg Oliphant/WWE via Getty Images)
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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.”
AJ Lee returns to SmackDown at Allstate Arena on September 5, 2025, in Rosemont, Illinois. (Rich Freeda/WWE via Getty Images)
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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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Sports
Eli Manning hilariously shuts down comeback talk as Giants explore Odell Beckham Jr reunion possibility
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The New York Giants have had an active offseason, but fans still want to see a reunion with Odell Beckham Jr.
A video of Beckham scoring a touchdown from his time with the Giants went viral on social media.
“All these Giants signings have been great and all, but there’s still one final piece missing…,” the user posted.
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NFC coach Eli Manning looks on during the NFL Pro Bowl Skills Competition at the UCF Nicholson Fieldhouse in Orlando, Florida, on Feb. 1, 2024. (Nathan Ray Seebeck/USA TODAY Sports)
Eli Manning, who threw the touchdown to Beckham in the clip, had some fun with it.
“Guys, I’m not coming back to play! Stop asking,” Manning posted on X.
Manning retired after the 2019 season, ending a 16-year run with the team. Toward the end of his career, Manning struggled, as the team went 9-26 in his starts over the last three seasons of his career.
Before Manning’s play declined, Beckham was one of his favorite targets. Manning threw more touchdowns to Beckham (44) than to any other player in his career.
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New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning and wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. warm up before a preseason game against the Miami Dolphins at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Aug. 12, 2016. (Danielle Parhizkaran/USA TODAY NETWORK)
Beckham was electrifying in New York. In five seasons with the Giants, Beckham played 59 games, catching 390 passes for 5,476 yards and 44 touchdowns.
He was then stunningly traded to the Cleveland Browns and never recaptured that same form, spending just two and a half seasons with them before they released him.
The Giants recently brought Beckham in for a workout. He played under coach John Harbaugh with the Baltimore Ravens in 2023. The 33-year-old was productive as a depth receiver, catching 34 passes for 565 yards and three touchdowns.
Harbaugh called Beckham one of his favorite people in the world in March.
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Odell Beckham Jr. started his career with the New York Giants. (Danielle Parhizkaran/USA TODAY NETWORK)
“He and I do talk. We do text,” Harbaugh said. “We’ve maintained a really great relationship. He’s one of my very favorite people in the world. It’s not like you don’t talk to guys on things like that. And certainly we have.”
“We’ll just have to see where it all goes, what’s best for him, what’s best for the Giants.”
While the Giants have to see where it goes with Beckham, they know for sure Manning is staying in retirement.
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Sports
Prep talk: Servite, Notre Dame to qualify athletes at Division 3 track and field prelims
The Southern Section will hold its four track and field prelims on Saturday at four high schools, but lots of focus will take place at the Division 3 meet at Yorba Linda.
Servite, with its outstanding sprinters, and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, with sprinters, hurdlers and shotputters, will be trying to qualify their best athletes in preparation to battle it out at the Southern Section championships on May 16 at Moorpark High.
“We’re trying to qualify but also build upon all our races,” Servite coach Brandon Thomas said.
Servite looks finally healthy. Robert Gardner, a sprinter who was hurt all season, ran 10.87 seconds last week in the 100 meters in his comeback race. He’ll be one of four Servite athletes trying to qualify in the 100. Another previously injured athlete, Jaelen Hunter, has also returned and will be in the 400.
Notre Dame’s Brayden Borquez recovered from his spill at the Arcadia Invitational to win the 110 hurdles last week at the Mission League finals. JJ Harel, the defending state champion in the high jump, is also gearing up to score points in the long jump and triple jump.
Other finals will be held at Trabuco Hills (Division 1), Ontario (Division 2) and Carpinteria (Division 4).
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
Sports
Draymond Green refuses to let Charles Barkley bury the Warriors, delivers cutting Rockets jab on air
Wednesday night on “Inside the NBA” was less of a pregame show and more of a roast session as Draymond Green joined the desk.
The Golden State forward started going at it with Charles Barkley as the Mound Round of Rebound poked fun at the sinking ship that is the Warriors dynasty.
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Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors reacts during a game against the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif., on April 10, 2026. (Rocky Widner/NBAE)
The tension started when Sir Charles decided to eulogize the Dubs while looking Green dead in the eye.
“It’s over for the Warriors. No disrespect. It ends for every old team,” Barkley said.
“You had your run; you get old; you let Klay go. You and Steph are on the backside of your careers; it just passed you by.”
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Barkley kept his foot on the gas.
While he gave the Warriors credit for “one of the greatest runs ever,” he made it clear that Father Time remains undefeated in the paint.
“Sports … listen, sports are for young people,” Barkley added. “You hope to have a great long career, but sports … nobody wins when they’re 37, 38.”
NBA TV analysts Charles Barkley and Chris Webber speak to Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green after Game 3 of the NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 7, 2017. (John W. McDonough/Sports Illustrated)
In predictable fashion, Draymond was unable to stomach the banter.
He waited for the opening and went for the jugular, referencing Barkley’s infamous sunset years in Texas.
“Yeah, I mean, I think the goal is just to not look like you in the Houston Rockets uniform,” Green fired back.
The jab was a direct hit on Barkley’s ring-chasing era in Houston, where the Hall of Famer was famously a shell of his MVP self.
Green then shifted into a rare moment of veteran self-awareness and admitted the Warriors are in a transitional phase, but insisted the pedigree matters more than the box score.
“I think understanding what is success at this point is key for us,” Green explained. “Knowing and understanding that it may not be realistic to win a championship, but can we continue to build to that so that once we leave this organization, it’s still in a great space?”
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Despite Draymond’s talk about maintaining a winning pedigree, this year was a harsh wake-up call for the Golden State faithful.
Draymond Green and head coach Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors react during the fourth quarter against the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Ga., on March 21, 2026. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
The Warriors’ season went out with a whimper as they finished 10th in the West and were bounced immediately in the play-in tournament.
Barkley might think the light is fading, but Draymond is clearly going to keep swinging on his way out.
Send us your thoughts: alejandro.avila@outkick.com / Follow along on X: @alejandroaveela
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