After four years away from the company, Kaitlyn, former Divas Champion and Season 3 winner of the original version of NXT, is returning to WWE to compete in this year’s Mae Young Classic. ESPN.com broke the story via an interview with Kaitlyn. Although there have been rumors, this makes her the first official entrant announced for the second annual women’s wrestling tournament, which will once again air on the WWE Network. As of yet, the dates have not been announced.
Kaitlyn originally left WWE in 2014 after her marriage to PJ Braun (a marriage that ended last year), with a desire to focus on her athletic clothing company. Her return was foreshadowed by rumors that circulated last fall, when Dave Meltzer reported “internal talk” about her in WWE, just as she was scene working out in a wrestling ring. Instead of coming back right away, she instead debuted on the indie wrestling circuit. As she told ESPN, her comeback at Coastal Wrestling Championship reminded her why she missed the business:
The highs and lows and the adrenaline rushes and the quick thinking on your feet — it came rushing back to me. Anytime you step back in the ring, it’s the same rush and you never get used to it. There is always this fear and this question of ‘Oh, my gosh, can I do this?’ And to me that’s part of what makes it amazing.
Whether she plans to do more with the company after the Mae Young Classic is still up in the air, but she’s about the same age as Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, so there’s no reason she couldn’t come back to RAW or SmackDown to stay for a while. In her ESPN interview, she seems very excited about the world of women’s wrestling in 2018.
It’s seen so many different types of women of all different shapes and sizes with different skills and techniques that it is so exciting to be a part of that world again.
