AJ Lee
From the cruel street life to the bright spotlights, it’s been crazy roller coaster ride for professional wrestler AJ Lee. The poor little girl from New Jersey who vowed to become a professional wrestler at the age of 12 and accomplished her dreams at the age of 27.
Full Name | April Jeanette Mendez Brooks |
Net Worth | $4 Million |
Date of Birth | March 19, 1987 |
Marital Status | Married with CM Punk |
Birthplace | Union City, New Jersey, United States |
Ethnicity | White |
Profession | Professional Wrestler, Author, and Actor |
Nationality | American |
Height | 5 ft and 2 inches (157cm) |
Weight | 52.16 kg |
Retired | April 3, 2015 |
Horoscope | Pisces |
Wrestling Organization | WWE |
Age | 32 years old |
Nickname | AJ Lee |
Online Presence | 2M on Facebook, 5M on Facebook, and 990K on Twitter |
Early Life and Childhood
AJ Lee was born April Jeanette Mendez on March 19, 1987, in Union City, New Jersey. Her father Robert Mendez was an automotive engineer while her mother Janet Acevedo worked as a homemaker, and later as a home health aide. While describing her childhood, Lee said her family continuously struggled with poverty, mental illness, and drug addiction. She grew up living in motels, friend’s houses, and a car. She had to eat in food banks. Mendez is the youngest of her two siblings. As a child, Mendez was highly influenced by her older brother. She gives credit to her brother for all of her wrestling endeavors. He used to gift her all kinds of interesting video games, comic books, and science fiction, which turned her into a geek.
Lee graduated from Memorial High School in West New York, New Jersey, in 2005. After graduation, she joined New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in New York, where she majored in film and television production. However, she had to drop her studies due to financial issues.
After that, Mendez had to do multiple jobs to support her family and to fulfill her vows of becoming a professional wrestler. She started saving up to join a wrestling school by working as a janitor and cashier at a Pathmark supermarket.
Age, Height, Weight, Net Worth
April Jeanette Mendez Brooks is now 32 years old and has maintained her body so well that she weighs only 52 kgs. With a height of 5 ft and two inches, Lee has the personality of an empowering lady. Due to her successful career as the wrestler, author, and actor, she earns good and has a net worth of $4 million.
Career
In early 2007, Lee began her wrestling training at New Jersey-based wrestling school and started competing with New Jersey independent wrestling promotion soon after as Miss April. She even joined Women Superstars Uncensored (WSU) in the following year and formed a tag team to win the WSU Tag Team Championship.
Spreading her wrestling wings, AJ moved beyond the small-time wrestling promotions. And opt for Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) in early 2009. After scraping together $1500 as a camp entrance fee, she finally became a part of this huge brand. Soon after, she got assigned to the developmental territory and competed in televised events as of April Lee. In May of 2011, Lee made her debut on the WWE main roster with her best friend Kaitlyn calling themselves Chickbusters. The duo didn’t last long as Kaitlyn turned heel after losing multiple matches as a tag team.
Lee made her first win in an individual competition after defeating Tamina. Since then, Lee won several matches and made a successful career holding the Divas Championship title for an overall record of 406 days. Though wrestling brought her to the limelight, AJ was also known for her romantic storylines with wrestlers. Fans of WWE equally enjoyed storylines that involved sad breakups, emotional tailspin, regular feuds, and romantic entanglement of AJ Lee. It was in 2015 when AJ retired from an in-ring competition, which led to an end of her professional wrestling career.
Personal Life
AJ Lee is fond of comic art and loved reading it since she was 10. Being a huge Marvel fan, her favorite comics include X-Men, Spiderman and Fantastic Four. As there is saying, nothing brings people closer than shared interests, and one of the benefits that deeply ignited romance between CM Punk and AJ Lee is their mutual admiration for comic books. Though their love story began in WWE with the storyline of two being in a relationship, they truly fell in love when the duo found similarities between their passion and subject of interests. After being in a tie for two whole years, they got married on June 13, 2014. Since then, CM Punk went on to become a professional UFC Fighter, and Lee chose her career as an animal rights activist.
Like his wife, CM Punk is also a comic book aficionado. Turning his passion into a small profession, he wrote the intro for Avengers vs. X-Men, co-authoring a Thor issue. He eventually became one of the regular writers for Drax.
Also See>>Rhyno, Bio, Age, Weight, Height, Net Worth, and Personal Life
Accomplishments
Florida Championship Wrestling
- FCW Divas Championship (1 time)
- Queen of FCW (1 time)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- Woman of the Year (2012 – 2014)
- AJ Lee got Ranked no. 2 of the top 50 female wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2014.
Women Superstars Uncensored
- WSU Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Brooke Carter
- WSU/NWS King and Queen of the Ring (2009) – with Jay Lethal
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
- AJ Lee was announced as the Worst Worked Match of the Year (2013)
WWE
- WWE Divas Championship (3 times)
- Slammy Award (3 times)
- Diva of the Year (2012 – 2014)
- Kiss of the Year (2012) – John Cena
Other Media
In the memoir, ‘Crazy is My Superpower: How I Triumphed by Breaking Bones, Breaking Hearts, and Breaking the Rules, Mendez has mentioned her upbringing and career in professional wrestling,, which was published on April 4, 2017, by Crown Archetype. It ranked on no. 10 positions on The New York Best Seller list for hardcover non-fiction. By collaborating with actress Aimee Garcia, Mendez co-wrote the comic book series GLOW vs. The Babyface, based on television series GLOW.
Social Media Presence
https://www.instagram.com/p/B6Y4dBSASBP/