AJ Lee leads the WWE Divas to the spotlight
AJ Lee was the absolute pinnacle of female representation before the beginning of the revolution in 2015. When she first came to prominence, she was involved in a romantic storyline with Daniel Bryan and actually cost him the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 28.
However, despite this relationship not lasting long, AJ Lee was not out of the spotlight.
She aligned herself with many Superstars such as CM Punk, John Cena and Kane. Her segments were quickly becoming the most entertaining parts of the weekly broadcast. She had become Raw General Manager during this time, which only increased her airtime and allowed her to develop her character into a ‘crazy’ woman who used mind games to get what she wanted.
It was the first time in a while that a woman was able to use the time she had on TV to create a character that the audience could become invested in. WWE finally had a woman that was capable of carrying the top title and making it mean something. She captured the Divas Championship at Payback 2013 against Kaitlyn.
AJ Lee went on to hold the title for a total of 295 days, which at the time, was a record-breaking reign. When she lost it to Paige on her debut, it began the next chapter in the revolution of women’s wrestling. It was the combination of what Triple H had built in NXT and the crop of Divas that were still struggling on the main roster.
Paige debuted on the main roster and captured the Divas Championship on the same night. She was the youngest Divas Champion at the tender age of 21 but massively experienced nonetheless, having wrestled all over the world since the age of 14.
NXT was still in the early stages of building a foundation for the main roster to capitalise on. With Paige coming up to the main roster as early as she did, WWE thought they had cracked it. However, it would soon become clear, that the foundation was not strong enough to carry over onto the main roster.
There was not enough talent and not enough women to support the initial step. I applaud WWE for wanting to change the landscape of the female division and they could not have tried to do this with anyone better than Paige but it was a shame to see it backfire so quickly.
After a feud with AJ Lee, which Paige lost, Nikki Bella actually captured the Divas Championship from AJ Lee as Paige’s initial momentum began to wane. At the time, Nikki Bella was not considered a good wrestler, nor was she considered good enough to hold the Championship.
I remember watching the title win, wondering what on earth WWE were thinking.
