AJ Lee and Paige lobbied for WWE to let them compete in the cage at Hell in a Cell

In a pair of recent interviews, WWE Divas champion AJ Lee has made it very clear she feels her feud with Paige was deserving of the Hell in a Cell match concept, and the pair could have delivered something special if given the opportunity.

Speaking with IGN.com's Matt Fowler, Lee explained that the rivals made their wishes about their match for this Sunday's pay-per-view (PPV) clear:

Trust me, we were very vocal about wishing that was possible. And trying to make that happen. We really were. Especially Paige, because she's down for any of that stuff. The really cool thing too was that we've been kind of smashing each other all over the place already. On the stage, and then she pushed me off the stage. And the announce table. The barricade. The post. Things that girls actually hadn't done in so long. So we were surprised that we were trusted with that in the first place. It seems like they'd trust us to take it to the next level and we kind of wished we could.

She expressed a similar sentiment in her radio interview with DC101's Mike Jones, and made it clear that even if she and Paige aren't given that opportunity, women in WWE should have a chance to do whatever the men do:

I can tell you for sure that women like myself and Paige are down for it, and I think more than capable of hanging with the guys in that kind of scenario, because we're insane and we like to jump off of stuff!  I think if anyone could do it we could, but if it's not in my generation, it needs to happen someday, and I really think women could handle that.

It's stances like this that make AJ an important WWE figure and a favorite for a lot of fans, even if she's no Sara Del Rey or Cheerleader Melissa in the ring.  Lee tells Fowler that one of the great things about her career has been the opportunity to be a role model for young female fans, and open WWE's eyes about the possibility of making money with women's wrestling.

I got into all of this by having amazing role models. Like Miss Elizabeth. You know, like Mickie and Trish and Lita and Molly. These girls that I looked up to. And so now seeing younger girls emulating me is always going to be the most real thing and the best thing I've ever done with my life. Especially because I like to perpetuate being more of a tomboy or being more comfortable with your individuality. For it to be okay. And for girls to get that at a young age perhaps because of me is the best thing I'll ever do on this planet.

And then, you know, the other side they don't even realize maybe is that them dressing like me and being comfortable with themselves and putting all this stuff on Twitter has in its own way affected the Divas division from a business standpoint. Because that was the beginning of them agreeing to do female merch for the first time in, like, seven years. I was told that Divas didn't sell anything. And that they weren't sure how to profit from that. And so girls tweeting pictures of themselves dressed like me helped change their minds.

And you look now, two years later, and everyone has merch. The girls are treated like the guys. And that kind of started with girls putting AJ shirts on and Chuck Taylors on their feet. It's the coolest thing in the world to me that pictures on Twitter would be so effective.

Check out both interviews (IGN here, DC101 here) for more great stuff from the Divas' champ, including more thoughts on the Paige feud, who she'd like to face next - and why Stephanie McMahon isn't one of those people, Total Divas, and her love of Eddie Guerrero and Matt Fraction & David Aja's Hawkeye (aka, why AJ Lee is my spirit animal).