Trivia / A.J. Lee

• Actor-Inspired Element: Her 'Pipe Bombshell' promo on the Total Divas cast was all thought up by her.
• Dye Hard: Naturally dark-haired - she sported lighter hair for the 2011 period of her career, before going back dark as she was paired with Daniel Bryan.
• Executive Meddling:
  • Kaitlyn claimed in her shoot interview that AJ wasn't allowed to wear Chuck Taylors on NXT at first - and that they were forced to wear colourful and sparkly dresses every week.
  • In her book she talks about being eliminated from NXT after a meeting with talent relations where she was told "no one wants to fuck you" and the company had a standard to uphold. This was in spite of her getting the most fan votes.
• Friendship on the Set: Kaitlyn was her best friend in WWE, and they had been close ever since their days in FCW together. Kaitlyn even said it meant a lot for her to be the one to give AJ her first title in WWE, given how long she'd been dreaming about becoming a champion. The two of them also travelled with Eve Torres in 2012 and were saddened by her departure.
• Hostility on the Set:
  • In addition to Natalya taking offence to her 'Pipe Bombshell', and wrestlers such as Cameron saying that she wasn't very helpful or willing to guide someone in the ring, AJ faced lots of hostility towards the end of her time in WWE. Reports suggest anything from letting fame go to her head, residual backlash from CM Punk's ongoing tension with the company and heat from perceived lack of interest in the division; she stopped working live events and rarely did PR and charity work that the likes of Paige and the Bellas did. Around the time she became Divas' Champion, she noticeably un-followed a significant portion of the roster - including Natalya and surprisingly Daniel Bryan.
  • While the rumors were overblown, there was heat between AJ and the Bellas stemming from the 'Pipe Bombshell' promo. As the promo was unscripted, and AJ claims none of the others knew she'd be cutting it, her line about the Bellas' "daddy issues" hit a sore spot; the line was a Take That! to a recent episode of Total Divas featured Brie attempting to get Nikki to reconnect with their father. Their book Incomparable detailed that their father was an abusive addict who drove Nikki to run away from home as a teenager, and the episode touched on some of it, making it in very poor taste on AJ's part. Her Slut-Shaming comments also gave her fans free reign to start doing it to them repeatedly too (Nikki taking them especially hard as a sexual assault survivor). Brie had to confront AJ about it backstage. However, Nikki has praised AJ repeatedly over the years, wishing she could have been part of the Evolution PPV and saying that a dream match would be teaming with her, Brie and Paige against the Four Horsewomen.
• Lying Creator: In her book she claims that Trent Baretta was her first serious boyfriend, and makes no mention of her well-publicised relationship with Jay Lethal.
• Playing Against Type: Was exclusively a face on the indies. She found most of her success in FCW and WWE as a heel. She did turn face towards the end of her WWE time, but still in a Good Is Not Nice way.
• Promoted Fangirl: There's even video footage of her waiting in line for tickets to WrestleMania XX and of her meeting Lita. Taken even further when she became the new Raw GM and then the longest-running Divas Champion in history (until Nikki Bella surpassed her).
• Real Life Writes the Plot: AJ was asked to join Total Divas after JoJo was removed from the cast. She turned it down and claims Vince approached her and said she would have free rein to cut a Worked Shoot explaining why she didn't want to be on the show.
• Reality Subtext:
  • She legitimately has bipolar disorder, as she revealed in 2017, so her character's issues and habit of assaulting everyone who called her crazy may have come from experience.
  • The fact that Natalya was presented as the leader of the Total Divas cast member and main contender challenging AJ was due to the fact that Natalya was the one legitimately offended by AJ's 'Pipe Bombshell' promo.
• Romance on the Set:
  • She dated Jay Lethal on the indies. She even made a cameo in the crowd once in TNA alongside Jay's family cheering him on.
  • She had a serious relationship with Trent Baretta while they were both in WWE.
  • And of course she eventually married CM Punk. In her book she says he flirted with her during their 2012 storyline, but didn't get together until a year later.
• Star-Making Role: Most likely her managing of Daniel Bryan during his World Heavyweight Championship reign in 2012.
• Throw It In!:
  • Her entire pairing with Kaitlyn was borne out of their off-screen friendship getting acknowledged after Kaitlyn's face turn on NXT - and they were debuted on Smackdown in a team together. Fans jokingly called them the 'Chick Busters' as a Distaff Counterpart to the Dude Busters (Caylen Croft & Trent Baretta) - before it eventually got referenced on TV.
  • Her famous shoot on Jerry Lawler on commentary shortly after her 'Pipe Bombshell' was basically her responding to months of his misogynistic comments about her character's craziness. According to her there were no hard feelings from what she said.
• Ur-Example: The first Diva to have held both titles in FCW - Queen of FCW (defeating Serena) and the FCW Divas' Championship (defeating Naomi). Additionally she's the first Diva to win the Diva of the Year Slammy Award twice in a row.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Shortly after becoming the Queen of FCW, AJ taped a mixed tag match, where she was pinned by developmental Diva Penny Cash (previously known as Jenny Cash) - who had been wrestling her on live events. This all pointed to a feud between them...but then Jenny was released before the episode aired.
  • After a tryout match against Layla, AJ was going to be called up to TV in 2010. A vignette even appeared on the Smackdown tapings but got cut from the broadcast. The planned program would have been her in a love triangle with Dolph Ziggler and Vickie Guerrero - something that was given to Kaitlyn for NXT Season 3. The vignette was initially cut because Alberto Del Rio was getting called up at the same time as well and they didn't want two call-ups being hyped at the same time. By the time he debuted, plans had changed for AJ to debut on the NXT season instead.
  • NXT Season 3 was initially planned to have a mixture of male and female rookies before being re-tooled into an all-female season. It's likely that AJ would have appeared on this version too, given that she had the most experience of the other rookies. Naomi likely would have been included too, and the remaining female spots by Aksana or Karlee Pérez.
  • A former writer claims that Brad Maddox was originally going to be called up as an ex-boyfriend of AJ's.
  • A segment was filmed with Kaitlyn turning heel on AJ and joining the Divas of Doom, but cut from the Smackdown broadcast. It was initially going to be re-filmed but Vince decided to stop the whole Divas of Doom storyline. It's unknown if AJ would have factored into the ongoing models vs wrestlers feud (Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres and Alicia Fox vs Divas of Doom).
  • The title match at Money in the Bank 2012 with AJ as special guest referee was planned to end with Daniel Bryan beating CM Punk for the WWE Championship, and for him and AJ to become a heel power couple. Management decided to prolong the angle, and AJ was phased out of it. This can probably be put down to Punk being given the option to turn heel instead and hold the belt until Royal Rumble 2013.
  • AJ was working with an injury towards the end of 2014, and there were reportedly plans to write her off TV with a worked injury storyline. But for whatever reason, she was removed after her Divas' Championship rematch at TLC, and Natalya and Naomi moved into the title picture in her place.
  • Nikki Bella talked about hoping AJ would make a return or appearance for the Evolution PPV, but it's unknown if she was asked.