Killing her softly: RAW rush job not to blame for demise of AJ Lee

Remember, you can't spell Vajayjay without AJ.

That means the young lass who was thrust into the spotlight as World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) General Manager for Monday Night RAW, was just as quickly thrust out of that position to embark on a new endeavor, which based on how well this entire angle has been executed, is likely to be characteristically underwhelming.

Too bad.

We've all seen those recent promos for the upcoming CM Punk DVD, "Best in the World," and there's a short clip somewhere through the middle where creative curmudgeon Paul Heyman reminds viewers, "Nobody in the WWE knew what to do with him, they just signed a guy that had some buzz."

That pretty much sums up AJ Lee's 2012 wrestling campaign.

Sure, I was just as dumbfounded as the rest of you over this week's asinine angle (read about it here), which isn't that far removed from the mind-numbingly stupid Broski/Hoski debacle, but the RAW rush job, at least from a creative standpoint, is not to blame for her demise.

She should have never been promoted to General Manager (GM) to begin with.

Lee was as hot as anything the WWE has done all year in the role of psycho ex-girlfriend spurned by Daniel Bryan, one that included CM Punk and eventually culminated in a failed wedding. She was the new "it" girl and she was over. Way over, which the powers-that-be apparently weren't ready for.

When you strip everything else away, what's left was a girl that had some buzz -- and WWE didn't know what to do with her.

The position of GM was grotesquely miscast. Sure, her legs are a signal impervious to noise, but wrestling 101 states that talent unable to wrestle should at least be able to talk. What's ironic here is that Lee can wrestle, but was given a role that forbids it.

And her promos, ultimately, were a failure.

So too, was trying to evolve into an executive while holding on to the fleeting charm of the cutie crackpot. She demonstrated no real purpose, exhibited no real charisma, and got embroiled in no real feuds -- save for a few altercations with Vickie Guerrero.

Which, in retrospect, looks like a seed that was planted in case her role as GM bombed.

It did, not surprisingly, and now Vinny Mac has pulled the plug. And for what? At first glance, an eventual alliance with Dolph Ziggler would bear fruit, serving as the catalyst to end his relationship with Guerrero, but that implies Lee, in the course of just a few months, has been romantically linked to Bryan, Punk, Kane, Cena and now Ziggler.

That's not being an active part of the storylines, that's turning tricks.

To be fair, even the greatest of Divas, like Trish Stratus and Lita, have been reduced to creatively coiffed Vajayjays. The former at one point was swapping spit onscreen with Vince McMahon while the latter got plowed by her boyfriend on live TV.

So I guess in the end, the slow, steady and sometimes jarring demise of AJ Lee is less of a surprise and more of a foregone conclusion.

Still sad.