Kaitlyn Says She And AJ Lee Purposely Went Over Allocated Time For Payback 2013 Match

In the spring of 2013, Kaitlyn began feuding with her former best friend, AJ Lee, in WWE. After months of feuding back and forth, WWE announced that Kaitlyn would defend her Divas Championship against Lee at the Payback pay-per-view in June. Lee went on to defeat Kaitlyn after nearly 10 minutes of competition, which Kaitlyn now reveals was actually more than the time they were originally allocated.

During a recent episode of "Muscle Memory." Kaitlyn — real name Celeste Bonin — reflected on her Payback match with Lee. During the conversation, she mentioned that the two worked together to make a few live decisions, including the extension of their match time.

"So we went over on our time on that match and it's a pay-per-view. You should never, never do that, but AJ made the call. So the [referee] was like, 'You guys need to go home, you have X amount of minutes,' and [AJ] made the call to keep going. And I was like, 'All right, I'm with you.' So, we kind of committed in that moment to being like, whatever happens, happens," Kaitlyn explained. "We were so committed to that story, and we had put so much of ourselves leading up to that, that we were like, 'We're not just going to cut it short.'"

Despite the creative call to end it sooner, Kaitlyn said that she and Lee trusted in themselves to pull off a last-minute change, and so, they did. After Lee was crowned as the new Divas Champion and the contest had ended, Kaitlyn recalled feeling nervous about what the backstage reaction might be. 

Luckily, the two didn't receive any heat for it. John Cena, the WWE Champion at the time, praised them for their efforts but delivered a reminder not to go beyond their allotted time on pay-per-views.