Did AJ Lee's Brutal Total Divas Promo Actually Change WWE's Womens Division?

The return of AJ Lee to WWE, Part Two of Hell freezing over in terms of Brooks Family comebacks to the company, set the wrestling world on fire, as the former three-time WWE Divas Champion drew praise from fans and contemporaries alike upon her reappearance. While it remains to be seen how impactful her second run might be, much of her first tenure in WWE is still influential to this day, including a promo in 2013, often compared to her husband's infamous "pipe bomb," that may or may not have been a precursor to a drastic shift in the division.

On an episode of "WWE Raw," addressing the cast of "Total Divas," including Natalya, JoJo Offerman, Naomi, and Cameron in the ring, and The Bella Twins and Eva Marie at ringside, Lee (Divas Champion at the time) lampooned the show and its cast members, calling them "cheap, interchangeable, expendable, useless women," and asserting that they all "turned to reality television because they just weren't gifted enough to be actresses and they just weren't talented enough to be champion."

The promo cut deep, with the crowd seemingly in favor of at least some of Lee's points, and just a few years later, at WrestleMania 32 in 2016, the Divas title was replaced by the WWE Women's Championship, so if it wasn't a direct result of her candor, the promo can at least be seen as an example of the changing landscape with regard to women's wrestling in WWE and what ultimately went down as "The Women's Revolution."