Stephanie McMahon Furious At AJ Lee
After #GiveDivasAChance trended World Wide on twitter these past couple of days, the entire WWE Diva’s Locker room has become the focal point of people’s opinions and debates. But not one person managed to make a bigger point than AJ Lee, who isn’t even on the active roster at the moment.
The former WWE Diva’s Champion, and current wife to CM Punk, went to twitter and said:
Your female wrestlers have record selling merchandise & have starred in the highest rated segment of the show several times, And yet they receive a fraction of the wages & screen time of the majority of the male roster. #UseYourVoice
Reports state that the company was completely blindsided by this tweet, with Stephanie McMahon being furious at AJ for making the company look bad. It was actually Stephanie McMahon’s father, Vince, who convinced her to respond to the tweet thanking AJ for her opinion.
In regards to AJ’s facts in her tweets though, we need to look a bit deeper.
AJ claims that the Divas are strong merchandise sellers. Whilst this was particularly for AJ during her push, the same can not be said for the rest of the Divas, and, in fact, don’t reach anywhere near the same level as the main male stars.
She also claims that the Divas are consistently the highest watched segments of any WWE show. Whilst this may be true for TNA, in the WWE it’s shown that the Diva’s segments are barely above average when the weekly segment breakdowns were available. A notable exception was when AJ was inserted into the middle of a fued between her future husband CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, but that included two major male stars as well as the biggest championship in the company, the WWE Championship. Not to mention that storyline happened in the Summer of 2012, over 2 and a half years ago.
In regard to pay, it is generally accepted that the Divas on the main roster are paid significantly less than those of their male counter parts. However the same can not be said for NXT where it is actually the other way round. Many members of the talent at NXT fought their ways through the indies and took a pay cut to have the opportunity to join the company, where as the majority of NXT Divas are from modelling or fitness backgrounds. There is also a belief that the women need to earn at a certain level to maintain the physical appearance that WWE wants them to have.
Editor’s note: AJ, you’re lovely. But you are not your husband. With all due respect you do not have the same reputation and star power that your husband has. I’m all for standing up against the authority (no pun intended), but when you’re own husband is being sued by the company you work for, and you’re already on thin ice by being associated with him, it’s probably best not to poke the hungry lion with a sharp pointy stick…
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