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After passing a tryout, AJ Lee (aka AJ Mendez) signed a contract with WWE in 2009. She spent about two years in the company's developmental brand at the time, FCW. She also competed in the third season of NXT before making her main roster debut in May 2011.
During her participation in NXT, Lee avoided presenting herself as a sexy woman. Instead, she talked about eating pizza and playing video games. In her book Crazy Is My Superpower: How I Triumphed by Breaking Bones, Breaking Hearts, and Breaking the Rules, Lee described how she embraced her true self in her presentation:
"Without realizing it, I was training the audience, and myself, to be comfortable not measuring up physically with everyone else. Instead of trying and failing to compete in that department, I embraced being the best version of myself. That started on a visual level but then went much deeper. When given a microphone, I let my freak flag fly. I talked about robot handshakes, playing Xbox, and eating pizza and displayed a vast knowledge of pro-wrestling history. I made jokes, snort laughed, handed out fist bumps, and acted like my true dorky self," she explained.
However, the company was not entirely satisfied with Lee's on-screen persona. In her book, the former Divas Champion revealed that Talent Relations complained that none of WWE's fans wanted to sleep with her.
"Back in Talent Relations: 'Look, we know you can wrestle, and not many women can. We appreciate that, we just want you to understand that it's important to be the full package. Right now, you're the best wrestler in the competition. Our female fans want to dress like you. Our male fans want to hang out and play video games with you. But no one wants to have s*x with you. Do you see how that's a problem for us? I don't know how they do things in FCW, but here we have a standard our women are proud to stand up to.'"
Ex-WWE star AJ Lee recently underwent an unbelievable body transformation. Check out her photos here.
What did AJ Lee think of WWE's comments?
In her book Crazy Is My Superpower: How I Triumphed by Breaking Bones, Breaking Hearts, and Breaking the Rules, AJ Lee disclosed that WWE Talent Relations advised her to go blonde to step up her appeal. The 36-year-old was stunned by the comments about her persona. Later that same night, she was kicked off NXT.
Despite this, the former Divas Champion understood why Talent Relations would make these remarks about her gimmick.
"After all my hard work and actual, tangible success taking a different route, everything still came down to how f**kable I was. And apparently I wasn't very. In all fairness, I understood where he was coming from. At the end of the day, this business had a long-standing, proven formula for moderate success. Executives had accepted that their women could sell posters and calendars but would not spike the ratings," she wrote.
A former WWE star once went off-script to 'make out' with AJ Lee on TV. Check out the story here.
