We are now just a couple weeks removed from the critically acclaimed first all-women’s WWE pay-per-view, Evolution. More than just an exclusively female event, Evolution was a love letter to every single woman who strapped on a pair of boots and stepped through those ropes. Well, almost every single woman.
While WWE did make sure to acknowledge the pioneers of the business (like Trish Stratus and Lita, etc) as well as the modern anchors of the Women’s Revolution (Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, etc), there were a few glaring omissions that deserved some recognition. We were forced to take a step back and think about the women who WWE failed to credit with the Women’s Revolution, and why.
While her omission certainly didn’t come as a surprise, we couldn’t help but ponder AJ Lee’s undeniable impact on women’s wrestling.
It has been nearly four years since Lee was inside of a WWE ring – or a wrestling ring in general – so it may be easy to forget just how important she was in the grand scheme of the women’s wrestling movement. You may be struggling to remember what was so special about AJ Lee. Just as a refresher to old fans and maybe a history lesson for new fans, we’re going to take a moment to recap and paint a picture as to why her presence was vital to the Women’s Revolution.
Source: WWE.com
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
April Jeanette Mendez kicked off her wrestling career in 2007, and after spending two years on the independent scene, she was signed to a developmental contract with WWE. After spending a year in FCW, she was added to the cast of WWE’s competition series – NXT – to find their “next breakout star.”
In contrast to the AJ Lee most of us know from her days on the main roster, Mendez’s AJ Lee character initially was a nerdy babyface. A self-professed nerdy tomboy, Mendez incorporated real life aspects of herself into her character, and, as the cliche goes, amplified that personality up to 11 on camera. This wouldn’t be the last time that she would insert her real-life personality into a gimmick.
Ultimately, Lee would not win the competition – she closed out the series in third place – but she nonetheless was called up to the main roster as part of a tag team with Kaitlyn, who did win. Together, they were The Chickbusters. Their partnership didn’t last long, as Kaitlyn would move on to the Divas Championship picture, while Lee would enter an on-screen romance with Daniel Bryan. This angle would prove to be the catalyst that catapulted Lee into superstardom.
Source: WWE.com
THE “CRAZY CHICK”
In light of the now-infamous “Kiss of Death” from the opener of WrestleMania 28 that cost Bryan his World Heavyweight Championship, The Yes Man broke up with Lee. The breakup put Lee’s character into a downward spiral, and it led to a drastic change. She turned heel and shed her eccentric nerdy qualities in favor of being crazy.
This archetype wasn’t anything new for WWE’s women’s division – look at Scary Sherri Martel, Victoria, Mickie James, and Alicia Fox as some prime examples – and the prevalence of such a recurring gimmick is an example of how WWE frequently uses harmful stereotypes to portray female characters. But what made Lee’s performance as a crazy character so different is that it wasn’t so much Lee playing a character as she was playing up her real struggles in front of a camera.
As she explained on an episode of The Dean Obeidallah Show, the WWE had no idea that she was suffering from bipolar disorder when she was assigned her crazy gimmick. In her own words, when explaining her performances as the character, she recalls it feeling “like hiding in plain sight and letting all my aggression out. My craziest, darkest moments, my brattiest moments, in front of millions of people on live television, I got to let that all out and expose all of that while still keeping my secret.”
In her memoir Crazy Is My Superpower, Lee would elaborate further by saying “I twisted my real life heartache into this broken character, and it was thrilling to blur the line between the two.”
Source: WWE.com
Lee’s act of allowing her art to imitate her life worked wonders on her career. Audiences loved her gimmick, and not only did her popularity afford Lee with three Divas Championship reigns – one of which was once the longest reign in the title’s history – but she also found herself inserted in a number of main event storylines focused around the WWE Championship.
At the time, the Divas division had been in something of a slump for the last couple years. Divas storylines had become largely uneventful from 2009 until 2012-13 in the bigger WWE picture. WWE certainly didn’t care enough to feature them in the main event picture. It was as if WWE stopped caring enough to put any effort into the Divas division, but from the looks of it, AJ Lee was the catalyst to change that.
Compared to what the Divas division had seen in recent years, Lee felt like a breath of fresh air for fans. Her character was engrossing, and beloved by a large margin audiences around the world. She was over enough to regularly close out episodes of WWE’s flagship brand alongside the likes of John Cena, CM Punk, and even both Stephanie and Vince McMahon. AJ Lee was the biggest female star that WWE had seen since the days of Trish and Lita.
Considering how significant Lee’s presence was in WWE as their biggest female star in years, it makes it all the more striking that she was omitted from talk about significant women who contributed to the company’s Women’s Revolution.
Source: WWE.com
Why WWE Hasn’t Celebrated Her Accomplishments Today
As she explained in her memoir, Lee ultimately decided to retire due to permanent damage from a cervical spine injury that she suffered during her last couple years in the ring. Of course, that wasn’t the only reason why she left. Something else that motivated her to leave once her contract expired was the ongoing feud between her husband CM Punk and the WWE. Seeing that drama go down made her feel “caught in the middle, like a child of divorce.” She said she was “trying to bridge the divide while getting inconsiderately trampled in the process.”
That right there is probably the biggest reason why WWE continues to leave AJ Lee out of Women’s Revolution conversations: her husband. Granted, Lee’s impact in WWE is big enough to supersede her connection to her husband, but for whatever reason, WWE could never get past that part of Lee’s life.
Even when she cut her infamous (and problematic…we’ll get to that) promo against the Total Divas, WWE called it a #PipeBombshell; comparing it to a similar shoot style promo cut by CM Punk. Other than the brutal honesty displayed by the person holding the microphone, neither of these promos have anything to do with each other and did not need to be compared. So, long before Punk decided to walk away from the company, WWE couldn’t help but associate Lee with Punk at all times.
Perhaps there is also a strong possibility that such an association still exists in WWE. Lee may have left in a much more respectable manner, choosing to finish out the rest of her obligations until her contract ran out. But let’s not forget one thing: WWE didn’t just send CM Punk his termination papers on his wedding day, they also put a damper on Lee’s wedding day by doing this.
Source: WWE.com
SHE’S A REBEL; VIGILANTE
Another impetus that seems to inspire WWE to distance themselves from Lee is that the two parties weren’t on the best of terms while she was still in the company to begin with. Many fans may recall the day that Lee publicly called out Stephanie McMahon on Twitter. She essentially called Stephanie a hypocrite for championing Patricia Arquette’s fight for women’s rights, but never fought for higher wages or more screen time for women’s wrestlers.
The irony here is that while Lee may have been treated differently for being such an outspoken member of the WWE roster, outspokenness like this that helped give birth to the #GiveDivasAChance movement. It took millions of people around the world calling out WWE for refusing to give their women screen time that change actually occurred. Of course, Lee called out the company while working for them.
Source: WWE.com
THE FINAL VERDICT
In many ways, AJ Lee stood out during her run as someone who helped progress WWE’s women’s division at a time when it was stagnant.
However, don’t mistake our glowing reviews for Lee as our way of glossing over the nuance. While impressive, her run was not perfect. As we said earlier, that #PipeBombshell of hers was problematic. It highlighted this “Us vs Them” (or rather “Real Women vs Total Divas”) rhetoric that’s toxic, and it’s the exact opposite of what the Women’s Revolution is all about. That promo is worth criticizing for the same reason we criticized Ronda Rousey’s promo against Nikki Bella in Oct. 2018. In the wider scope of women’s empowerment within the WWE, Lee’s promo was a step backwards, even if it was only meant to come from the perspective of her heel character.
While she was never the sole proponent for change, Lee was one of several women who helped get the needle pushing to where the WWE Women’s Division is today. For that, she deserves more than a mention in the history books chronicling the Women’s Revolution. It’s a shame WWE won’t even bother to put her in a video package. It’s a shame that WWE doesn’t acknowledge Lee in that regard, and while we’re at it, it’s a shame we never got more of Lee in a WWE ring before she retired.
Source: WWE.com
A HAPPY ENDING
However, Lee’s story still has a happy ending. Following her departure from WWE, Lee’s memoir proved to be a New York Times Best Seller. Long after shutting off her “crazy chick” gimmick, Lee continues to be an advocate and representative for mental health awareness, with her most significant contributions taking place alongside the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI).
Not all heroes wear capes, and not all heroes get the credit they deserve. But that’s okay. Heroes don’t do what they do for the credit. Heroes do what they do because it needs to be done. Because change needs to occur.
Keep that in mind the next time WWE fails to credit any one of the women who made a difference in the Women’s Revolution.