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Motivation Point

AJ Lee: Insight in the Life of an American Professional Wrestler

April Jeanette Mendez is an American professional wrestler. She works for WWE under the ring name AJ Lee, where she is the current WWE Divas Champion in her first reign.

Before signing with WWE, Mendez performed for several Northeast-based independent promotions as Miss April, including Women Superstars Uncensored, where she held the WSU Tag Team Championship once.

After signing with WWE in 2009, AJ was part of the third season of NXT in 2010, placing third in the competition. In 2012, after being involved in several relationships with wrestlers feuding over the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship, while also being Raw General Manager for almost three months, AJ was named WWE's "Diva of the Year". In June 2013, AJ captured her first WWE Divas Championship by defeating her former best friend Kaitlyn. A self-professed "nerd" and "tomboy", WWE adapted Mendez's comics and video game fandom to her on-screen character, endorsing her as different from the typical women in the WWE and promoting her as the "Geek Goddess".

Mendez grew up in Union City, New Jersey, describing her family's experience as having to live in motels and other people's houses. Mendez cited her brothers interest in WWE when they were children as an influence on her eventual decision to break into the male-dominated world of wrestling, and she cemented her ambition to pursue a professional wrestling career when she was twelve years old.

Mendez was inspired by the female WWE stars that came before her, such as Lita, whom Mendez met as a child at an autograph signing. Video of the encounter, which shows the young Mendez brought to tears by the meeting, is featured on YouTube. Mendez worked several jobs after graduating from high school (including being a janitor at day care, a cashier, and a secretary at a fitness center) in order to save up the money she needed to both support her family and enroll in wrestling school.

Mendez attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in New York City where she majored in film and television production, and writing, until family and financial issues led to her dropping out six months into her studies. As a tribute to her brother who was in the Army, Mendez previously wore camouflage wrestling attire.

Shortly after leaving university, Mendez researched wrestling schools and enrolled in one a mile away from her house. To pay the tuition she began working full-time and began training in March 2007 under Jay Lethal. She debuted on September 29, 2007 under the ring name "Miss April", wrestling on the New Jersey independent circuit.

Miss April made her debut for the New Jersey-based promotion Women Superstars Uncensored (WSU) on October 10, 2008 in a losing effort against Soul Sister Jana. The following night, she participated in a tournament to determine the inaugural WSU Tag Team Champions alongside Malia Hosaka. They advanced to the second round by defeating the Soul Sisters (Jana and Latasha), where they were eliminated by the Beatdown Betties (Roxie Cotton and Annie Social). Miss April went on to form a tag team with Brooke Carter known as the AC Express, and on February 7, 2009, they successfully won the WSU Tag Team Championships by defeating the Beatdown Betties.

On April 10, Miss April competed in the third annual J-Cup Tournament, defeating Roxie Cotton in the first round before losing to Rain in the second. The following night, Miss April and Jay Lethal won the 2009 WSU/NWS King and Queen of the Ring tournament, defeating Jana and Danny Demanto in the final. Miss April left WSU in May 2009 upon signing with WWE, vacating her half of the WSU Tag Team Championships.

Mendez signed a contract with World Wrestling Entertainment on May 5, 2009 after taking part in a tryout camp that she paid $1,500 to attend, and was assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), WWE's developmental territory. Mendez made her FCW debut at the August 13 TV tapings under the name "April Lee" in a fatal four-way match won by Serena Mancini. In September 2009, her ring name was changed to "AJ Lee". She began challenging for the Queen of FCW title, and at the TV tapings on February 4, 2010, AJ defeated Serena to win the crown. On the March 7 episode of FCW TV, AJ successfully made her first title defense against Naomi Knight.

In the first round of a tournament to determine the inaugural FCW Divas Champion, AJ defeated Tamina on FCW TV on May 16, but was defeated by Serena in the semi-finals on June 6. AJ later challenged Naomi for a shot at the FCW Divas Championship on June 27, but was unsuccessful in their bout the following week. On July 11, AJ and Serena interrupted Naomi during a promo, and AJ watched while Serena attacked Naomi, turning AJ into a heel. Naomi went on to retain her FCW Divas Championship by defeating both AJ and Serena in a triple threat match the following week.
 

On the 100th episode of FCW TV (which aired on August 29), AJ fought Naomi to a double countout in a match where both AJ's Queen of FCW title and Naomi's FCW Divas Championship were on the line. On the September 26 FCW TV, AJ lost to Naomi in a lumberjill match to end their feud. At the November 18, 2010 TV tapings, AJ dropped the Queen of FCW title to Rosa Mendes. At the next tapings on December 16, AJ defeated Naomi to win the FCW Divas Championship. Her victory made her the first FCW Diva to have held both the Divas Championship and the title of Queen of FCW. She held the championship until April 7, 2011, when she lost it to Aksana during a TV taping.

AJ won a Diva battle royal on the April 22, 2013 episode of Raw by last eliminating Layla to become the number one contender to Kaitlyn's Divas Championship. AJ challenged Kaitlyn to a title match on the April 24 "Clash of the Champions" episode of NXT, where Kaitlyn won. On the June 10 Raw, AJ was revealed to be Kaitlyn's secret admirer after setting up Big E Langston to pose as the admirer before revealing the truth, berating Kaitlyn and leaving her in tears. Six days later at the inaugural Payback pay-per-view, AJ defeated Kaitlyn to capture her first Divas Championship.

AJ celebrated her championship win the following night on Raw, but was confronted by Stephanie McMahon and eventually attacked by Kaitlyn. In the following weeks, AJ and Langston continued to mock Kaitlyn, with AJ ultimately retaining her Divas Championship against Kaitlyn in a rematch at Money in the Bank on July 14. Later that night, AJ cost Dolph Ziggler his rematch for the World Heavyweight Championship against Alberto Del Rio, after she prematurely snuck into the ring and and hit Del Rio with her Divas title, prompting a disqualification.

The following night on Raw, Ziggler ended his relationship with AJ due her actions the previous night. AJ gained a measure of revenge when she emerged from the timekeepers table and wildly clanged the ring bell to distract Ziggler and cost him his non-title rematch with Del Rio. Adding insult to injury, AJ attacked Ziggler and unleashed Langston to give the Big Ending on Ziggler. On the August 2 edition of SmackDown, it was announced that Langston would not be allowed to accompany AJ to her matches anymore. However, AJ went on to successfully defend her title against Kaitlyn after Kaitlyn's ally, Layla, stopped her from spearing AJ. At SummerSlam, AJ and Langston were defeated by Kaitlyn and Ziggler in a mixed tag team match, putting an end to their feud.

On the August 26 episode of Raw, AJ interrupted the celebration over Brie Bella's victory in a rematch against Natalya, cutting a worked shoot promo on the cast of Total Divas, which has come to be known as the "pipe bomb-shell" (equating it to CM Punk's famous "pipe bomb" on Raw two years earlier). The following week on Raw, AJ interfered in a triple threat match between Natalya, Naomi, and Brie Bella, which was to determine the number one contender for her Divas Championship, leading to the match being stopped and her getting beat down afterwards. Later that night, Stephanie McMahon announced that AJ would defend her Divas Championship in a fatal four-way match against Natalya, Naomi and Brie Bella at Night of Champions, where AJ went on to successfully retain her championship.

On the September 27 SmackDown, AJ aligned herself with Tamina. AJ successfully defended her championship against Brie Bella at Battleground with help from Tamina, but was sent home from the following night's Raw after she showed signs of a concussion stemming from when her head struck a ring post during her title defense. She returned to action at Hell in a Cell where she once again defeated Brie Bella. At Survivor Series, AJ captained a team in a traditional seven-on-seven elimination tag team match against the cast of Total Divas, in which she was the sole survivor of her team before being submitted by Natalya.

AJ, along with several other WWE employees, will be voicing a character in the 2014 film Scooby Doo and the Curse of the Ghost Bear.

Mendez is of Puerto Rican heritage. She was previously in a relationship with her trainer Jay Lethal. Mendez is best friends with fellow WWE Diva Kaitlyn. Mendez is an avid Chuck Norris fan; her favorite show is Walker, Texas Ranger. She actively donates and supports the Humane Society, and has adopted dogs from there. She has a cupboard dedicated entirely to her collection of Chuck Taylor shoes. Her favorite color is green. She has a tattoo in tally marks on the back of her neck, which read as "6-16-13", commemorating the date on which she won her first WWE Divas Championship.

Mendez became a fan of comic books in the fourth grade and claims that comics gave her a sense of creativity that carried over to her later life. Her favorite series are X-Men, Spider-Man, and the Fantastic Four. As for characters, some of her favorites include Harley Quinn, Cyclops and Jean Grey. Mendez also enjoys video games and was the first female winner of WWE's "Superstar Challenge", defeating Mark Henry in the final round of a WWE '12 tournament at WrestleMania XXVIII Axxess to finish in first place out of sixteen.

Championships and accomplishments

• Florida Championship Wrestling

• FCW Divas Championship (1 time)

• Queen of FCW (1 time)

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI Woman of the Year (2012)

• PWI ranked her #9 of the top 50 female singles wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2013

• Women Superstars Uncensored

• WSU Tag Team Championship (1 time) with Brooke Carter

• WSU/NWS King and Queen of the Ring (2009) with Jay Lethal

• World Wrestling Entertainment / WWE

• WWE Divas Championship (1 time, current)

• Slammy Award for Diva of the Year (2012)

• Slammy Award for Kiss of the Year (2012) with John Cena

Videos

Dated 03 December 2013