FanPost

Requiem for the Black Widow

WWE.com

AJ Lee is gone, the latest in the endless line of heroes and heroines that eventually must hang up their boots, and I am poorer for it. I never truly understood or appreciated her while she was there, only to realize simply how much I am going to miss her now that she is gone. While honest, no doubt that admission and that attitude towards her is part of the reason that she will seemingly never again make it a continual and regular thing to come down the ramp towards the squared circle.

Which is a damn shame, because her importance cannot be overstated.

She grew up in a rough childhood. She was the rarest and most dear of future WWE stars: the childhood fan who fell for the business at an early age and then worked passionately to reach the highest levels that she could. Professional wrestling is a profession and a form of entertainment to the majority of us plebes; to people like AJ Lee, it is art.

Her childhood idol was Lita, and a good test to see if someone has a soul is to see if they feel something in their hearts when they find that video of a tear-struck and star-struck April Mendez, still a young girl, meeting Lita at a convention…and then Lita reaching across the table and giving her a hug.

She won everyone's hearts in the third season of NXT, long before Triple H took it over and turned it from a reality show and into a developmental league that draws better accolades than most of what Monday Night RAW and Smackdown receive, and is legitimately the reason a large portion of WWE Network subscribers keep their monthly commitment. She got to keep some of her real-life traits, such as a love of nerdy things and a warm and friendly smile that let you know that she was just as happy to be here as the fans were to see her. She was eliminated in the top three of show, a moment that stunned just about everyone that followed or cared, but in the end she had the last laugh: though Kaitlyn developed a cult following and Naomi is improving by leaps and bounds, neither of them were bound for the importance that April was.

She got called up to the main roster anyway, her on-screen friendship with Kaitlyn (influenced by the fact that they were real friends too) creating an entertaining babyface tag team, though one that was perpetually stymied by the ruthlessness of Natalya and Beth Phoenix, the Divas of Doom and top dogs of the Divas division. Eventually, the frustration over not breaking the proverbial glass ceiling led to the breakup of the Chickbusters, and AJ Lee would go on to bigger and brighter things.

In the course of remembering the things she did, it is important to know what she wasn't: she wasn't the greatest female wrestler of all time. She was above-average in the ring on a daily basis, and could be lights out on a good day. She, along with the rest of the division, was hamstrung by the patriarchy-influenced upper management that didn't want their boys getting upstaged by a bunch of girls, but even then she never had a particularly fantastic move. The Black Widow submission, as cool as it looked, was always rather impractical and difficult to pull off. And of course, just like the majority of women in the toxically testosterone-laden culture of WWE, she would rely on the dreaded Diva roll-up to win a few matches here and there.

But in the grand scheme of things, that never mattered in the end. Because in the end, what AJ Lee should be best remembered for is two things. Two things that speak to the power of who she was and what she was capable of. And two things that cannot be taught, is never truly appreciated by fans until well after the fact, and is inherently something that management is willing to take advantage of.

The first was her indescribable talent for making others look good.

Kaitlyn was and is a bodybuilder first, and a wrestler second. As a result, she needed someone to help her in matches to make sure there was a fluidity to the proverbial tug of war between her and her opponent. The landscape of professional wrestling is scattered with the carcasses of careers of men that looked good in a gym and yet were sloppy and dangerous in the ring, until they were blacklisted out of their company because no one would work with them. AJ Lee was more than willing to serve as the Ric Flair to Kailtyn's Sting, making the audience believe that Kaitlyn was a threat and that, if she wanted to, she could snap anyone on the roster in half with a well-timed spear.

She was the perfect foil to one of the most entertaining heels in the past decade: Vegan Douchebag Daniel Bryan. In a company that increasingly values dramatic bombast over technical artistry, AJ Lee helped Daniel Bryan show the world that The American Dragon was more than just a fantastic wrestler: he was a comic genius, a hypocritical jerk and preachy blowhard who celebrated every victory, no matter how cheaply won, like it was the equivalent of USA 4, USSR 3. He repeatedly blew her off or downplayed her importance to him in their relationship, turning her into a long-suffering character that you just wanted to hug…provided she didn't kick your ass.

(The less mentioned about her brief fling with John Cena, the better. The fact that she escaped that with her career intact and even greater than before is both a testament to her ability as a performer…as well as a lame-ass defense to point out that, hey, John Cena does put over new talent! Eh, sometimes)

You know why else she was famous. She was the one that kissed Daniel Bryan, before he was victim to the Brogue Kick Heard Round The World, ending his title hopes in 18 seconds and causing the fans to finally riot and accept him as the second coming. Even though he would try to patch things up with her, she would dump him at the altar, revealing that she was the new GM of RAW and that Daniel Bryan could go fuck off. Even after having her heart allegedly broken by him, she still managed to come out on top.

Daniel Bryan is the Intercontinental Champion, and one of the most over guys on the roster. But he has AJ Lee to thank for it; she gave his character life, and she helped those around her look good.

And, most amazingly, she was willing to go out and do this.

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In one moment, in front of one of the hottest crowds in memory, AJ Lee turned Paige into a made woman. The Anti-Diva is alive and well, because AJ Lee put her over clean as a whistle on her first night on the main roster. Regardless of whether or not that was mandated primarily by the boss, it still speaks to one's professionalism to think to the future.

But all of this is secondary to the thing that AJ Lee should be most remembered for.

She was fucking fearless.

In the macho-bullshit culture of wrestling, where women are treated as little more than sideline fodder and eye candy, AJ Lee was someone that refused to adhere to that malarkey. She evolved into a deadpan and sly woman, someone who knew exactly what den of snakes she was walking about, and absolutely refused to be cowed by it. She brushed off the creepy advances of someone with the checkered history of Jerry Lawler. She unflinchingly buried the fuck out of the Total Divas-based women's division, knowing that in the end they were there to be ogled, and not to be admired. And she had the guts to publicly call out the boss' daughter and the company itself for the way that it treated performers. AJ Lee was never someone who wanted to be ogled. She wanted to be admired. And she refused to be intimidated.

And that made her must-see TV.

Be honest, the Women's Division of NXT is the best in American professional wrestling. (Japan is disqualified for obvious reasons. For starters, their bookers don't have their heads up their collective asses.) But isn't AJ Lee partially responsible for that? Didn't she show the world that women in WWE didn't have to be models that just happened to be wrestlers…they could be wrestlers who happened to be pretty on the side? Or adorable, or badass, or creative, or scary, or entertaining, or...

You get the idea.

Because the main roster has no grasp of nuance, they turned everyone up there into variants of AJ Lee: they were either crazy, or they were prickly towards one another because they thought that their man had been stolen, or they were catty and mean-spirited without the razor-sharp wit to go with it. AJ Lee was a sly and snarky character, and one who deserved to stand out on her own. Instead, they decided to poorly clone her multiple times in lieu of making real change.

But those of us that know, know. We know the difference. We give a shit. And we know that bosses like Sasha Banks or classically pretty and talented women like Charlotte or adorable cuddle bugs like Bayley have AJ Lee to thank for refusing to be cowed. For refusing to be scared. For refusing to take any bullshit.

She wanted to be the best, and she wanted to change things.

Sound familiar?

In the end, she was done in by things completely out of her control. Her spouse dared to leave on his own terms, refusing to play ball with a company that he felt had abandoned him long ago. He then decided to sue them and go after them, and though things haven't settled yet (and they probably won't anytime soon), it sounds like he is probably the one with leverage. He's gone. He's not coming back. And because of that, the powers that be need someone to turn their petty anger towards.

The fact that she carried on as long as she did under the circumstances that she had to is mind-boggling. It speaks to a true love of a business that seemingly did not love her back, and was only interested in using her to make themselves look good. It is a decided missing of the point, similar to the way that the WWE might have judiciously edited the theme and meaning of the Ultimate Warrior's final speech for the Hall of Fame into something different than what he intended.

When there was no other reason to watch, AJ Lee was the one that carried the women's division on her back. She was the one that kept the division from folding completely into the forgotten crevices of WWE's history, similar to the cruiserweight championship or the 30-day defense minimum. She got to live her dream, and in the end, when it became too much to deal with, she left on her terms.

It is fitting, then, as we attempt to crystallize the meaning of her career and the value that she gave to the company, that AJ Lee scored one last symbolic victory before she left. As the fans griped over the act that the Divas match for Wrestlemania 31, one of the better Wrestlemania cards from top to bottom, was reduced to a tag team match instead of a fatal four-way for the title, AJ and the others put together a match worthy of that card. And in the end, it was AJ Lee locking in the Black Widow one last time, ensnaring Nikki Bella, one of the biggest poster girls for the Diva-ification of women's wrestling in WWE, for the victory.

Not many get to go out on top to end their run.

Add April Brooks to the list.

Godspeed, Black Widow. You made a mark that can never truly be erased, and you captured the hearts of millions of people like a shooting star in the sky, showing them that WWE women aren't just nor should they be eye candy; they're wrestlers too.

You've got the rest of your life ahead of you, and the world at your feet.

Now go light it up.

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