AJ (again) reportedly leaving WWE

[Astrozombie]

Yeah, I loved AJ's NXT run and even her afterwards when her and Kaitlyn were briefly the Chickbusters. But when they went 'psycho' AJ, I just didn't think the role fit her very well, especially when they had her move from guy to guy. It felt demeaning in it's own way. But then she got Michelle McCool-ed. She dominated the entire division, or I should say the entire division jobbed to her. It was just really reductive. Even on her way out, she didn't really have a passing of the torch moment (unless you count her wearing Bayley's shirt and honestly I fear is gonna be the next 'AJ' in terms of that whole anti diva bullshit). Well maybe she did with Paige or Naomi, but Paige doesn't need it, as she's established herself.

It's just a shame that they constantly put AJ at the forefront of the division. I mean of course we have the Bellas and Paige (and them starting up that storyline with Naomi), but they all pretty much revolved around AJ and no other girl was really allowed to have a spot in the limelight. As for a future return, she's been ruined for me, even if she went back to geek/gamer girl AJ, it wouldn't do anything for me. And considering how much she shamed a lot of the women. Scripted or not, it left a sour taste in my mouth, truthfully it was my biggest issue with her character. Her resorting to the 'you're a slut' mentality. You'd think her character would be above that, but in actuality it was Nikki and Brie who spoke out against her throwing labels like that and they were supposed to be heels.

And she's pretty much accomplished all that you can as a Diva. I'm just hoping the next Diva that gets built up will at the very least have a gimmick that I can get behind.

[Mutant Couch]

I really need them not to ruin Bayley. Her and Alexa Bliss have the most potential to actually fit in that role model for young girls role. They(Alexa a little more) could easily be the Cena equivalent in the women's division.

[Tiarnán]

I thought she was much more suited to her final character (yes, I guess you could call it a female Punk) than she was to both the early on nerdy girl underdog or the crazy nymphomaniac thing she had going on that Summer she was on top.

AJ's problem for me was that they seemed hesitant to build up any of her opponents in a substantial way, meaning that as over and as solid as AJ was she never had a meaningful feud with another woman. The Kaitlyn thing was alright, but she just fumbled around endlessly with the Total Divas for months. The matches were strong enough but they literally followed the same pattern for about five different girls, with the TD of the month getting the upper hand on TV before AJ cheated to win on PPV. it just felt like management said, 'Screw character development, they have a TV show'. In turn this was detrimental to their top star because it made people turn against AJ. Nothing was being done to create interest so naturally boredom set in.

Following that, her final year was patchy at best. but it needn't have been despite the crap she must have had going on behind the scenes with her being in the middle of the dispute between her husband and her employers. The Paige feud was handled hideously; if ever there was a chance to give someone else the AJ rub it was here, and yet they turned it into a joke from the get go.,Don't get me started on the Bella feud, which honestly should have written itself. I just honestly don't know what the writers do with themselves half the time if this is what they're coming up with. No direction was,taken to actually mould AJ into a true face, meaning that we essentially had the AJ of 2013 with commentary support. That doesn't fly, and it's no wonder people began to turn against her. Meanwhile we had Nikki Bella, the heel, raising some perfectly viable counter points against AJ while Paige stood on looking like a spare part. Just horribly handled all round.

Basically, I feel that any criticism people have of AJ seems to come from a standpoint that she couldn't control. Granted, you could make a point about her ring work becoming more monotonous but I do think that's more of a problem for the main roster division as a whole. I will say that it's a shame that a woman who was so passionate about her job a two years ago that she got the date of her first title win imprinted on her skin got the point where she just didn't have the interest, but frankly I don't blame her. She was a talent who on one level was able to do things that seemed unimaginable in 2011 but conversely fell head first into the wall that the company has in place to keep its women from actually living up to the potential that they so clearly have.