Women's Wrestling: AJ Lee

Real name: April Jeanette Mendez
Billed height: 5'3"
Billed weight: 107 lbs.
Born: March 19, 1987
Billed from: Union City, New Jersey
Trained by: Jay Lethal
Debut: September 29, 2007
Finishing Moves: Shining Wizard and Sliced Bread #2
Favorite Moves: Hurracanrana, Spinning Heel Kick, Head Scissors, Mexican Armdrags
Notable Feuds: Alexa Thatcher
Previous Names: Miss April (Indy), April Jeanette, April Lee (FCW), A.J. Lee (FCW), A.J. (NXT)

A.J. enrolled in wrestling school in 2007 soon after graduating from high school and worked full time to pay for tuition.  She made her debut six months later for Women Superstars Uncensored (WSU) as Miss April, losing a singles match to Soul Sister Jana.  April then teamed with Malia Hosaka to participate in a tournament that would determine the inaugural WSU tag team champions.  They advanced to the second round by defeating the Soul Sisters (Jana and Latasha) before losing to the Beatdown Betties (Roxxie Cotton and Annie Social).  Later that night, April lost to Hosaka in a singles match.  On February 7, 2009, Miss April got together with Brooke Carter to fight against the Beatdown Betties for the WSU tag team championship.  They won.  They retained the title at a rematch a month later.  On April 11, Miss April defeated Roxxie Cotton in the first round of the third J-Cup tournament before losing to Rain in the second round.  The next night, Miss April and Jay Lethal defeated Soul Sister Jana and Danny Demanto in the final of the tournament, becoming the 2009 WSU/NWS King and Queen.

On May 5, 2009, Mendez signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment, thus assigning her to Florida Championship Wrestling (WWE's developmental territory).  She made her FCW debut on August 14, 2009 under the ring name April Lee where she lost a fatal four-way match between her, Serena Mancini, Alicia Fox and Tiffany (Serena won).  In September, she changed her name to AJ Lee and began challenging for the Queen of FCW title and on February 4, 2010, she defeated Serena Deeb to win the crown.  Lee defeated Tamina Snuka in the first round of a tournament to determine the inaugural FCW Divas
Championship only to be defeated by Deeb in the semi-finals on May 20.  She then unsuccessfully challenged Naomi Knight for the FCW Divas Championship.  On June 2010, she appeared at WWE Raw house shows acting as the hostess and acted as ring announcer at an FCW show.  The following month, Lee and Deeb interrupted a Naomi Knight promo, with Lee watching as Deeb attacked Knight, turning Lee into a heel.  Knight defeated Deeb and Lee in a triple threat match, thus retaining her FCW Divas Championship title.  Later on, Knight and Lee fought against each other in a double countout match in which both the Queen of FCW title and the FCW Divas Championship titles were on the line.  On September 2nd, Lee and Knight's feud ended when Lee lost to Knight in a Lumberjill match.  On November 18, Lee lost the Queen of FCW title in a match against Rosa Mendes.  Later on December 18, Lee defeated Knight, winning the FCW Divas Championship and, as a result, became the first FCW Diva to have held both the Divas Championship and the Queen of FCW Championship.  She held it until April 7, 2011 when she lost it to Aksana.

On August 31, 2010, Lee was moved to WWE NXT where she was paired with Primo (Rookie wrestlers are paired with wrestlers from either the Raw or Smackdown brands).  On September 7, she and Primo defeated Rookie Aksana and Pro Goldust in a mixed tag team match.  The following week, Lee and Primo lost a match to Rookie Kaitlyn and Pro Dolph Ziggler.  Over the next couple of weeks, Lee won three challenges and on October 5, she was tied with Kaitlyn for the number of challenges won.  Kaitlyn got immunity in the poll based on crowd reaction while Lee was eliminated from the competition despite winning a competition and a match earlier in the show.  She returned to NXT for the season finale where she teamed with the Bella Twins and defeated Alicia Fox, Aksana and Maxine.  Lee made an appearance in season four as a model for a "guess the price" challenge and made several appearances in NXT Redemption.

AJ Lee made her main roster debut on WWE Smackdown (May 27, 2011), pairing with Kaitlyn (as The Chickbusters) to fight against Alicia Fox and Tamina Snuka, a match Lee and Kaitlyn lost.  A rematch was held the following week which they also lost.  Lee's first victory came on June 10, where she went against Snuka in a singles match and won.  She repeated the same victory on July 8.  Lee, Kaitlyn and Natalya Neidhart (their mentor) feuded with Fox, Snuka, and Rosa Mendes.  On August 5, Lee lost a match against Natalya who subsequently turned on Lee by attacking her and declaring war on the "pretty little princesses" that made up the bulk of the Divas division.  The following week, Lee and Kaitlyn lost to Natalya and Beth Phoenix before Lee teamed with Kelly Kelly to defeat Natalya and Fox.  Over the next several months, Lee and Kaitlyn continued to feud with Phoenix and Neidhart, losing both singles and tag team matches to them.  In November, tension began to show between Lee and Kaitlyn because the latter was upset at constantly losing to Phoenix and Neidhart.  In that same month, Lee came out in several backstage segments with Daniel Bryan culminating in a romantic storyline when Lee kissed Bryan for good luck on November 29.  On January 13, 2012, Lee accompanied Bryan to a World Heavyweight Championship defense match against Big Show in which Lee was (kayfabe) injured when Show accidentally collided with her and Lee had to be taken out on a stretcher.  Lee saved Bryan from Show when she returned on February 3rd.

Here's a video of AJ Lee vs Serena Deeb: