AJ Mendes Recalls Having To Pay For Her WWE Try-Out

AJ Mendes (fka AJ Lee) recently spoke with the State Of Mind podcast about a range of topics from mental health to wrestling. When touching on her WWE career, AJ revealed that she actually paid to have her tryout.

"I also paid to tryout, which is such a gimmick," AJ joked. "But it worked, I got hired. I don't think I was supposed to succeed. I think I was good in the ring and I was supposed to train the other girls that were way hotter to go TV. Then I just got really lucky, I got popular with the fans."

AJ Mendes then went on to discuss how she wasn't the prototype of a female wrestler that the company would push at the time. She stated WWE was focused on talent who looked like either Pamela Anderson or Chyna. But she also stressed that she loved her career.

"I loved it. I mean, especially when I started the prototype was like Pamela Anderson," AJ said. "That was what the women looked like. Or, are you familiar with Chyna? You had to be an Amazon woman or a sexpot. And I am neither."

AJ Mendes also revealed that she got through her tryout because of her promo ability. The former Divas Champion admitted to talking a lot of sh*t during that time.

"I talked a lot of sh*t," AJ confessed. "That is my specialty, I am a sh*t talker. It was the first day. They called me in, there were like three rings and three rooms and we were running spots. I can run a spot, I am fine in the ring. But they called me into one of the rooms and were like, 'cut a promo.'  I was like, 'I thought we were doing that on Wednesday?' They were like, 'cut a promo now on the spot.' I didn't have anything planned so I went into a heel character and I was just a d*ck and it worked. That's my natural instinct and it worked."

If you use any quotes from this article please credit State Of Mind with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.