by Tom Clark
May 22, 2013
This is not a fan piece on AJ Lee. It's not, I promise.
This is not about my fascination with AJ's image; that of a sexy but rough and tumble comic book fan girl. Of course, a woman like her is one in a million and to be honest when it comes to the world of Spider-Man, The Punisher and Batman, the more females are reading, the cooler it is.
And this has virtually nothing to do with the Chuck Taylor Converse that she sports whenever she's on TV even though I wear a pair of black and white Chucks seven days a week. Of course, they are the only shoes for the cool kids, so me and AJ? We're the cool kids.
Oh did I mention that AJ is a professional wrestler? It just gets better and better.
This is the true reason for this column, the fact that we are finally beginning to see AJ Lee get back to working in the ring. It's rather odd to see her back in that role, if I'm being honest. I guess it's because of what WWE has had her doing for awhile now.
AJ has become WWE's resident bad girl. She is not the one you bring home to meet the parents; she's the one you hide from them. Dangerous, mentally unstable and somewhat psychotic, AJ sees herself as the victim, as someone who is eager to please but whose affection is thrown back in her face at every turn.
Her relationships with Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, John Cena and Kane all fell apart and AJ found herself more emotionally damaged with each breakup. She believed she was used, abused and then thrown away.
But instead of staying home, eating a gallon of ice cream and crying on her couch, AJ decided to take the heartbreak and transform it into near quiet scary rage. She became colder, darker, until the perky exterior that drew fans to her in the first place was all but gone.
And in its place is the smiling, yet twisted character that we see now.
We have witnessed AJ Lee's evolution as WWE's Harley Quinn and the fact is that she has never been more entertaining. At any given moment, she is must see TV and her unpredictability has kept fans hooked from the moment that she first tilted her head as her mind began to warp.
It's been a fun ride.
But something has been missing. Something has not been quite right in AJ's WWE career. For those casual fans that watch the WWE product and see AJ as merely the skipping, devious girlfriend of Dolph Ziggler, then there may be no issue at all. Those fans are happy to just keep hating her in this role and move on to the next topic at hand.
But for pro wrestling fans like myself who want more from her? The girl needs to be in the ring. Period.
And now she is, as it appears that AJ is on a path that could taker her to the WWE Divas Championship. Her problems with former best friend and current champ Kaitlyn are increasing exponentially and it's only a matter of time until AJ gets a title shot.
That puts her back in action and I believe that is the missing piece for not only her character but her career.
I love what AJ brings to the table in terms of her character. She is one of WWE's more entertaining stars and puts all of herself into everything she does. But for me, it's the wrestling that makes it all work and now that she is back in the ring, using the Black Widow as her new submission move, then she will hopefully bring a renewed spotlight back to the Divas division.
She cannot save it on her own, that much is clear. WWE needs to fully invest in the women as they once did when Trish Stratus was the queen of the company in order for that to happen. AJ performing in a handful of matches will not be a miracle cure for the Divas division.
But, this is a start. Anytime an entertaining Diva who is ready to impress gets a shot then that is good for WWE. AJ has the ability, she has the character and against Kaitlyn, she is bringing back memories of the days when Trish and Mickie James were doing business in a very entertaining feud.
This is the AJ Lee that I want to see; talented, smart and fully capable of tearing someone's head off whenever the mood strikes her. AJ is getting back to her roots and I for one could not be happier about it.
See? Not a fan piece at all. Told you.
thought it was full of Aj asshots and instead sounds like a beliber fan forum
