CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - FEBRUARY 28: <<enter caption here>> during WWE Elimination Chamber at the United Center on February 28, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by WWE/WWE)

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Becky Lynch Def. AJ Lee At WrestleMania 42 | Key Points

• Becky Lynch beat AJ Lee to win her second women’s WWE Intercontinental Championship.
• Throughout the match, Becky Lynch antagonized referee Jessika Carr, whom she’s been feuding with for months.

Becky Lynch defeated AJ Lee for the WWE Intercontinental Championship in a match that prominently featured Lynch’s side-feud with referee Jessika Carr. The finish came when Lynch pulled Carr in front of her, and slammed Lee’s head into an exposed turnbuckle. The budding tensions between Lynch and Carr, who also a trained wrestler, is likely to end up in a future wrestling match. Lee was left dejected and tearful following her loss.

AJ Lee has had one feud since her memorable return in September, and that’s with Becky Lynch. Lynch doesn’t get enough credit for being the Chris Jericho of women’s wrestling due to her breadth of range in her gimmicks. Once upon a time she was The Man, a scrappy underdog who fought for the people. Then she evolved into Big Time Becks, a self-indulgent celebrity who was above it all. Current day Becky Lynch has taken on the mannerisms of President Donald Trump, telling everybody within audible distance about her accomplishments and how “it wasn’t just her saying it.”

But without AJ Lee, there would be no Becky Lynch.

Lee evolved in silence after leaving WWE in 2015, but AJ Lee is the prototype for the wrestling-first women’s revolution that fans take for granted to this day. Despite being one of the greatest Divas champions of all time, AJ Lee was always the anti-diva. And her in-ring work spoke volumes louder than the eye candy that many female WWE Superstars were hired to be during the Divas era. Women’s wrestling in WWE has come so far, Becky Lynch is getting restless having the same four men main event every PPV even after being the first woman to main event WrestleMania.

“For the last few years, I think we’ve, for the most part, those main events have gone to two, maybe three, four dudes constantly," said Lynch to Vulture. "I think we need to change that again. I think we need to. I don’t know what that means, whether that means fighting a bit more, whether it’s me or somebody else.”

Males dominating PPV main events? What is this, AEW? Thankfully, all-women’s PLEs like WWE Evolution give WWE’s loaded women’s roster the spotlight they deserve. In addition to future WWE PLEs where women are more than qualified to headline, WWE Superstars like Rhea Ripley would like to see the tradition of Evolution continue.

What started out as a mixed-tag feuds implicating their spouses turned into the biggest match in the history of the women’s Intercontinental Championship. And considering the women’s United States Championship was nonexistent this WrestleMania season, this match spoke to the star power of both Lynch and Lee on a star-studded road to WrestleMania that left top-tier talent on the outside looking in.

Moving forward, Becky Lynch’s feud with Jessika Carr should shift from a side-feud to a featured match. Whether or not this leads to a permanent in-ring return for Carr remains to be seen.