AJ Lee

AJ Lee was born April Jeanette Mendez and grew up in Union City, New Jersey. She is the youngest of three children, and her childhood was shaped by poverty, mental illness, housing instability, and drug addiction within her family. Her brother's interest in WWE helped inspire her to pursue wrestling, an ambition she committed to at age 12. She attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts to study film and television production but left after six months because of family and financial difficulties.

Mendez was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at about age 20 after experiencing harmful effects from an earlier depression misdiagnosis. She wrote about her diagnosis and a suicide attempt in her memoir, Crazy Is My Superpower. She has supported mental health awareness through work with the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the Jed Foundation, and received NAMI's Multicultural Outreach Award in 2018. She married fellow professional wrestler Phillip Brooks, known as CM Punk, on June 13, 2014.

Mendez began wrestling training in March 2007 and made her independent-circuit debut later that year under the name Miss April. In Women Superstars Uncensored, she formed a tag team with Brooke Carter and won the WSU Tag Team Championship in February 2009. She also won the 2009 WSU/NWS King and Queen of the Ring tournament with her trainer Jay Lethal.

WWE signed Mendez in 2009, assigning her to Florida Championship Wrestling. Under the name AJ Lee, she won the Queen of FCW title and the FCW Divas Championship, becoming the first female wrestler in FCW to hold both championships. She competed in the third season of WWE NXT, where she finished in third place, and made her main-roster debut on SmackDown in May 2011 alongside Kaitlyn as part of The Chickbusters.

AJ Lee gained major attention in 2012 through storylines involving Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, Kane, John Cena, and Dolph Ziggler. At WrestleMania XXVIII, her kiss distracted Bryan before his 18-second loss to Sheamus for the World Heavyweight Championship. Later that year, she became Raw General Manager after Vince McMahon offered her the position during the wedding segment at Raw 1000. She held the role for roughly three months before stepping down in October 2012.

In 2013, AJ defeated Kaitlyn to win her first WWE Divas Championship. Her first reign lasted 295 days, a record at the time, and she became a record-tying three-time champion in 2014. Her signature finishing move, the Black Widow, is an octopus-hold submission.

AJ Lee's final WWE match of her first run came at WrestleMania 31 in March 2015, where she and Paige defeated Brie and Nikki Bella. WWE announced her retirement from in-ring competition on April 3, 2015. Mendez later attributed the decision to permanent damage to her cervical spine and the fulfillment of her wrestling goals.

After six years away from wrestling, Mendez joined WOW, or Women of Wrestling, as an executive producer in 2021 and later provided color commentary for its syndicated television program. She departed the promotion after her season-long contract ended. In September 2025, she returned to WWE as AJ Lee, joining CM Punk in his feud with Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch. She and Punk defeated Rollins and Lynch at Wrestlepalooza, and AJ later won the WWE Women's Intercontinental Championship before losing it to Lynch at WrestleMania 42.

Mendez's memoir, Crazy Is My Superpower: How I Triumphed by Breaking Bones, Breaking Hearts, and Breaking the Rules, was published in 2017. It became a New York Times best seller and covers her upbringing, mental health, and professional-wrestling career. She also appeared in projects including the voice role of AJ Lee in Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery, the film Rabid, and the television series Heels.

In 2019, Mendez formed a writing partnership with actress Aimee Garcia. Together they created the comic series GLOW vs. The Babyface and the Dungeons & Dragons limited series At the Spine of the World. They also co-wrote the 2022 Netflix film Blade of the 47 Ronin and founded Scrappy Heart Productions in 2020 to promote diverse storytelling. Mendez wrote a story for DC Comics' Wonder Woman: Black and Gold and was included on the inaugural Latinx TV list from the Black List.