Former WWE Diva’s Champion AJ Lee left the company a few years ago, but her role was very critical in helping put women in WWE back on the map. However, this might not have happened if WWE got her to do one stupid storyline. WWE is known for pitching various ideas to talent; sometimes they are absolutely brilliant, and other times they are completely idiotic. WWE also tells a talent that if they don’t feel comfortable with a story, they can decline it.
Many do not because they know what it means when you do. Creative will be difficult to deal with, and they won’t use them very much, if at all, for a long time. AJ Lee spoke about a situation like that occurred back in 2012. She spoke to the New York Post during the promotion of her new book Crazy Is My Superpower , which has a lot of very interesting stories in it. During the interview, she remembered a time in which WWE took her completely off television for months.
It all started when she turned down a crazy storyline pitched by WWE creative. The storyline called for AJ Lee to “take part in a series of goofy skits in which her character hallucinated, kissed a leprechaun, and danced with dinosaurs from outer space.” She turned down the story for an understandable reason: She and her mother had bipolar disorder. As such, she did not feel comfortable with this as she did not find it amusing and felt it was not right to joke about mental health.
She told the Post , “It felt like it disrespected both me and my mother. It was a joke, but, to me, it wasn’t something to laugh at. It’s hard to not think you’re alone in the world so it’s good to connect with other people who’ve faced similar issues. I want to show that they’re not something that’s going to stop you.”
What is so interesting about all of this is that AJ Lee did work with Hornswoggle a lot and did turn into “the crazy chick.” She did not work in the same angle the company proposed originally, but WWE did get an informed version of what they could do that fit AJ Lee the person as well as AJ Lee the WWE Superstar. The crazy chick angle would be done about a year later, and things worked very well for her there.
She would have several “boyfriends” who she would kiss, get bored of, and move on. All involved in this angle were Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, Kane, John Cena, and eventual husband CM Punk. She would kiss all of them, at least once, and her segments were usually a main fixture of the show. What is so interesting too is that long before the WWE NXT women came up, AJ Lee was breaking down walls for women left and right.
She was in the main event segment on WWE RAW more than once and worked alongside the men a lot, so WWE fan saw AJ Lee sometimes multiple times in a given show. AJ Lee was one of the best characters WWE had at the time, and they really loved using her in every major segment they could. She was the only bright spot for the women’s division for years, so much so that WWE really only could use AJ Lee in the division.
She is a three-time WWE Diva’s Champion, but she also had the longest reign with the title for a while too. Nikki Bella would end up beating it a while later, but AJ Lee held the title so often because no other woman was anywhere close to her level. When Paige came up from WWE NXT, she finally had someone close to her that she could do good work with.
At the end of the day, AJ Lee became a star with a gimmick that worked well. The crazy chick gimmick caught on brilliantly in the WWE. However, if WWE would have had her work the angle they proposed, things may have never gone as well for her career as they ended up becoming. AJ Lee is one of the best WWE Divas of all time, and fans want her back in the WWE soon. However, her return is doubtful.
[Featured Image by WWE]