YMMV / A.J. Lee

• Adorkable: On NXT Season 3, she was a shameless wrestling fan girl with a dorky energy that made her endearing.
• Arc Fatigue: The feud between her and Paige, which started off strong and full of mind games. The first match was disappointing but the build-up was good with some intense segments to hype up their next one. Then Paige won the title too soon and then AJ won it back. The feud underwent Flanderization and was reduced to nothing but Les Yay skits and forgettable matches. Adding to the fatigue was AJ supposedly being the face, but behaving just as nastily as Paige - see Designated Hero and Unintentionally Unsympathetic.
• Audience-Alienating Era: Her face run in 2014, which had her being portrayed as an Anti-Hero when she did nothing heroic at all, winning the Divas' Championship back twice for a feud with Paige that was considered a massive disappointment, and a noted regression in her ring skills (this at least was brought on by an injury she was working through). She managed to regain some good graces with her 2015 return shortly before retirement - but still caught some criticism for unsympathetic promos and notably not doing very much at WrestleMania 31.
• Base-Breaking Character: While near-universally liked from her appearances on NXT Season 3, Redemption and time in the Chick Busters, her 'crazy chick' character and subsequent mega push caused her to become quite polarizing among wrestling fans (although her Divas' Championship reign in 2013 was mostly well-received). Some loved her for being an indie wrestler at the top of the division in a time when WWE were favouring Divas who had come up through developmental, as well as the fact that she had a defined character who was consistently on television. Others found her overrated, her character one-note and too much of a Spotlight-Stealing Squad compared to other women who weren't being used at all, especially when she was absent for much of 2014 and yet still got two additional Divas' Championship reigns, as well as prominent matches at SummerSlam and WrestleMania.
• Broken Base:
  • The Pipe Bombshell promo. Half the base loved it, particularly those who weren't a fan of Total Divas (and disliked the women's matches in general) - and found it cathartic on the part of AJ. Others in the camp that liked it were all for a high profile storyline involving the women - especially resulting in pushes for Natalya and Naomi (and the push for Brie Bella is regarded as a Growing the Beard moment for her). The other half disliked it for a multitude of reasons; namely that AJ's comments were going too far - especially with the Slut-Shaming (extremely hypocritical in light of how AJ the character rose to the top) and branding the aforementioned Natalya and Naomi as "talentless, graceless mannequins" - which might accurately describe say Eva Marie or Cameron but invalidated the mistreatment they had to put up with in terms of either being Demoted to Extra or given embarrassing gimmicks (something AJ never had to deal with, considering she was already getting a massive push within a year on the main roster). Others felt that it just buried the other women, and the resulting feud did very little to elevate anyone besides AJ - since she went over three people at once in a Fatal 4 Way, defeated every cast member multiple times (the only high profile match that AJ didn't come out on top for was the Survivor Series) and even went over the entire roster at once in the Vickie Guerrero Invitational (and Paige winning the title off her the next night essentially rendered the entire storyline pointless).
  • There's also her extreme character shift that started in 2012 from wholesome 'Geek Goddess' babyface to Good Girl Gone Bad 'crazy chick', who started out as a Wild Card but later turned heel. While even then, some people found her face character too annoying and cutesy, she had just as many who preferred it as an Audience Surrogate that made her easy to root for against the other Divas. While the 'Crazy Chick' saw her achieving more success in WWE and definitely made more of an impact, as well as AJ playing it very effectively, it also resulted in her being very inconsistent in terms of audience sympathy - coming across as too sympathetic when she was supposed to be a heel, and not sympathetic enough when she was supposed to be a face, and some preferring the 'Geek Goddess' persona as a simpler identity that focused more on wrestling than taunting.
• Designated Hero: A few times after turning face in 2014, she still manages to come across as a bitch. Notably in one match, she got annoyed with Emma's fondness for taunting and dancing instead of wrestling - and walked out on her. This doubles as a very hypocritical action, since AJ herself has always taken time to skip around the ring. In fact her favourite taunt as a face is to grab the opponent by the hair and skip around with them. And after helping Brie Bella get a sneak win over Nikki, AJ attacked Brie as well. This was revenge for Brie slapping AJ and setting up a sneak attack - but she was forced by contract to do it. And AJ was fully aware that Brie wasn't doing it of her own free will.
• Fandom Rivalry: If Twitter is a reliable source, AJ Lee fans and Bella Twins fans absolutely despise each other, especially since Nikki was booked to surpass AJ as the longest reigning Divas' Champion. This even continued years after both had left WWE, with both sets of autobiographies touching on real life backstage heat between them (never mind that both also were still able to work together, and have praised the other's accomplishments).
• Fan Nickname: AJ's promo on the Total Divas cast was nicknamed the 'Pipe Bombshell' after CM Punk's 'Pipe Bomb' promo in 2011.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Her Slut-Shaming Paige. At the time, it was typical wrestling Trash Talk, meant to belittle the opposition. Then some pictures came out...
  • The whole "crazy chick" character was made really awkward with AJ's revelation that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
  • Her Pipe Bombshell promo had some standard Diva heel Slut-Shaming and a Take That! to the Bellas' "daddy issues" that just seemed like Cheap Heat to enhance the Worked Shoot nature of it. The Bella Twins' book Incomparable revealed that the backstage heat between them was because the promo was unscripted - and the "daddy issues" comment hit a sore spot because the Bellas' father was an abusive addict who drove Nikki to run away from home and she in fact had to force her parents to divorce before she'd return home. The Slut-Shaming in that promo and that AJ would continue to do in feuds with the Bellas (now with her being presented as the face) take on a harsher light as of Nikki detailing two experiences where she was date raped as a teenager.
  • Her use of Slut-Shaming against other Divas also becomes this after her book revealed that the reason she was eliminated from NXT was, as WWE executives apparently told her to her face, "nobody wants to fuck you", which would be enough to give any woman a chip on her shoulder.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The fact that she ended up marrying fellow wrestler CM Punk gives a lot of these:
    • Her infamous pipe bombshell, a couple weeks earlier she was seen with at a baseball game with Punk.
    • How about the whole love trapezoid thing with her, Punk, Daniel Bryan, and Kane? The whole thing started to get legs when Punk says that he dug 'crazy chicks.' Fast forward to a couple of years later, and not only are she and Punk married in Real Life, but her on-screen character has basically become Female!Punk.
    • Of course, the Wham Line during this angle where AJ proposed to Punk must be mentioned here.
    • To say nothing of when Punk guest commentated on an episode of NXT Season 3, including the line where he claimed he watched NXT with no pants every week.
    • AJ became a Promoted Fangirl of Lita.... and then proceeded to marry CM Punk, who Lita had dated for around 2 years...
  • AJ appearing dressed as Kitana for the Divas Halloween Battle Royale 2011. Along came NetherRealm Studios's WWE Immortals a pair of years later.
• Hollywood Homely: On NXT Season 3, she was presented as someone who said "I know I'm not a supermodel", "I'm the one who didn't go to prom" and Cody Rhodes said she'd likely never kissed a boy before. This is apparently due to her thinner frame and being more open about her nerdy interests. What makes it odd is that Kaitlyn claims all the tomboyish Divas were pressured into being more glamorous - so they could have achieved this by letting AJ wear her own clothes (she was forbidden from wearing Chuck Taylors). Instead they have AJ talk about how unattractive she is while still dolled up with perfect hair and make-up, and a flattering minidress.
• Les Yay:
  • With Kaitlyn, to preposterous degrees (witness the 3/29/13 mixed tag match). After wrestling their final match together, AJ even gave her a Kiss of Distraction.
  • Also with Tamina (especially once Tamina became her bodyguard). Not to mention that, in a battle royal before Tamina became her bodyguard, AJ jumped into her arms the same way she had for Kane before she famously kissed him.
  • When she swung by NXT, she actually hit it off with Bayley, and didn't seem to mind the latter saying she followed her from her car. In fact, things only soured between them when Bayley said the word "crazy".
  • In a Tweet after her confrontation with Stephanie McMahon backstage on the 9/23/13 RAW:
    @WWEAJLee: When Boss Lady talked about finding love then moved in close to my face, I thought that entry in my dream journal was about to come true.
  • Paige. To the point that AJ actually once said "Paige is mine, I don't want to share her." In fact, if a certain leaked Raw script page is any indication, she was supposed to start saying that weeks earlier.
  • Then there was the time Brie Bella kissed her in her championship match at Survivor Series as a distraction for Nikki to win the title.^note This was also an Ironic Call-Back to WrestleMania 28, when Sheamus took advantage of AJ's good-luck kiss to Brie's now-husband Daniel Bryan to Brogue Kick him out of a world title in seconds.
• Moral Event Horizon: Crossed it when she was revealed to be behind Kaitlyn's secret admirer. Previously she had only snapped when people called her crazy and had a few violent fights backstage. Here however she crossed the line into outright Manipulative Bitch and solidified herself as genuine evil.
• Narm:
  • The incident where the Big Show ran into her. Because of WWE's PG restrictions there's a limit on violence against women so Big Show was clearly holding back. He lightly collides with her but she bumps as if he had ran at her full force. The fact that she ends up getting taken away in a stretcher and is left out of action for weeks - and when she returns is wearing a neck brace - makes it ridiculous. Even the crowd chanting "she's okay!" ruined any drama it may have had. Not to mention the Big Show's over-the-top tears. What's more is that WWE really sold this angle and AJ stayed off Twitter for weeks, which normally wouldn't have been a huge deal, but for someone like AJ...
  • When she was crazy (but still face), she would sometimes 'snap' in matches and start catfighting with her opponent. It was meant to sell her as unstable and dangerous but it failed to be anything but Narm. It was more akin to penguin slapping than wild brawling.
  • After her 2014 face turn, she developed an awkward habit of skipping around the ring while holding her opponent's head, and said opponent would usually have to just stand there until AJ was finished.
• Narm Charm: The skipping on the other hand. It's silly but yet she makes it work.
• Never Live It Down: AJ Lee in particular can't seem to live down the amount of Slut-Shaming she's done to her opponents. She's just really unlucky that all of these instances happened to be when she was supposed to be the good guy.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • At one point after a match between (among others) Bryan and Punk, she gets in a fight with Vickie Guerrero that ends with her getting injured. Out of nowhere, Kane walks in, picks her up and starts carrying her out (and as the announcers point out, there's no way to tell whether he was carrying her to safety or if he had other intentions), when Punk suddenly attacks Kane. Kane puts AJ down and proceeds to beat the crap out of Punk and Bryan. AJ watches, and then proceeds to drop to her knees and starts swaying and laughing like she's genuinely having a mental breakdown. The incoming backdrop of Kane's evil music, red lighting, and fiery stage graphic during this last part only adds to the eerieness.
  • There is something very, very creepy about how AJ goes from crying into Punk's chest to completely normal in .5 of a second.
• Rooting for the Empire: Despite nominally being a heel during her feud with Kaitlyn, where she setup Kaitlyn to get her heart broken through AJ's secret admirer plot, AJ got a bigger crowd pop on her entrance to their title match than Kaitlyn did and then got a big pop on winning the title.
• Sacred Cow: AJ Lee's fandom considers her the only bright spot in the women's division during her tenure, to the point of downplaying the other women (at best) or Slut-Shaming them (at worst) whenever Lee is discussed. Any criticism of Lee, no matter how valid or well argued, is likely to get you mobbed and dismissed by many of them.
• The Scrappy: Her onscreen romances with CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, and Kane were not too well-received in some circles on the internet, mainly due to the segment in which she put both Punk and Bryan through tables, effectively going over both the WWE Champion and the number one contender in less than a minute. Her stint as the Raw GM immediately following the previously mentioned angle was even less well-received. She seems to have gotten better since her Face–Heel Turn and alliance with Dolph Ziggler, though. As stated above, all this means she has a pretty sizable Broken Base, which doesn't exactly hurt when it comes to being a heel.
• Shocking Elimination: She was one of the favourites to win NXT Season 3, but Kaitlyn won instead. In her autobiography, she claims it was Executive Meddling from people who thought she wasn't attractive enough.
• Strawman Has a Point: Her infamous promo to the cast of Total Divas was meant to portray her as a bitchy heel and Green-Eyed Monster (and now you know why the commentary team kept trying to insinuate she was jealous of them) but as far as most of the fans were concerned, she was right about them being Attention Whores who, whatever about how beautiful they were, had poor wrestling skills and no distinguishing personality traits besides differing levels of Ms. Fanservice costumes and techniques.^note And her criticisms weren't exactly new, either — Beth Phoenix and Natalya Neidhart (which is ironic, considering that Natalya was later reported to have been legitimely offended by AJ's promo) had gone through this exact same situation during their Divas of Doom phase in 2011, and even then they were just saying things many professional critics and fans had been saying for years about WWE's women's division. So much so, in fact, that WWE decided not to try to disprove her claims and just let AJ have the final say on the subject.
• Testosterone Brigade: After proclaiming herself a nerd on NXT Season 3, she received a huge surge in male fans for obvious reasons. In contrast to many other Divas, who remained in the Girl-Show Ghetto, she broke out of it.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: There are a few fans who preferred the 'Geek Goddess' and Chick Busters persona to the darker heel she ended up playing as she rose to prominence.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: AJ and Naomi's budding 2014 feud could have touched on the fact that both were on NXT Season 3, and lost out on winning it in favor of Kaitlyn. There was ripe material to be made from the fact that AJ got the star treatment rather quickly, while Naomi had to languish in developmental for years. But then Naomi's eye injury resulted in the entire storyline being ended after WrestleMania 30 - which could have continued it, considering the match ended with AJ making Naomi's hand tap.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: AJ has done some legitimately awful things as a heel, but the way she's treated by the commentary makes her into a bit of The Woobie. Michael Cole asks leading, heavily biased questions, Jerry Lawler calls her a slut and JBL keeps saying she's insane and outright dismisses the possibility she has any sense of strategy. The touch of dismissive misogyny is the icing on the cake.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: As noted under Designated Hero, despite Paige and Alicia Fox frequently attacking her and trying to make her life miserable, AJ didn't really come across as particularly sympathetic. On Twitter she says she has no friends - and then walks out on Emma during a tag team match. And after losing the title to Nikki Bella, she resorts to Slut-Shaming, and the two spend time in their feud trading insults about what a "real woman" is.
• Values Dissonance: Her pipe-bomb promo and Real Women Don't Wear Dresses attitude/gimmick are seen as this as time passed and the Not Like Other Girls trope started getting scrutiny for sexism and attacking traditional femininity sometime later during The New '10s and The New '20s.
• The Woobie: During the Vickie Guerrero/John Cena arc. Vickie accused AJ of fraternizing with Cena and kept throwing (probably fake) evidence at her, even though Vickie had openly done the same with Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger and the Big Show in the past, and AJ and Cena continually denied it. Eventually, Vickie managed to get AJ sacked from a job she absolutely loved- and what makes it worse was that one got the feeling that Vickie wasn't just doing it because she wanted the job, she was doing it to punish AJ as much as she could for daring to accept a job offer.

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