April Jeanette Mendez(born March 19, 1987) is an American professional wrestler. She works for WWE under the ring name AJ Lee, where she is the current WWE Divas Champion.
Before signing with WWE, Mendez performed for several Northeast-based independent promotions as Miss April, including Women Superstars Uncensored (WSU), where she held the WSU Tag Team Championship once.
After signing with WWE in 2009, AJ was part of the third season of NXT in 2010, placing third in the competition. In 2012, after being involved in several relationships with wrestlers feuding over the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship (CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, John Cena and Kane) while also being Raw General Manager for almost three months, AJ was named WWE's "Diva of the Year". At the Payback pay-per-view in June 2013, AJ won her first WWE Divas Championship by defeating her former best friend Kaitlyn.
A self-professed "nerd" and "tomboy", WWE adapted Mendez's comics and video game fandom to her on-screen character, endorsing her as different from the typical women in the WWE and promoting her as the "Geek Goddess".
Early life
Mendez grew up in Union City, New Jersey, describing her family's experience as having to live in motels and other people's houses. Mendez cited her brother’s interest in WWE when they were children as an influence on her eventual decision to break into the male-dominated world of wrestling, and she cemented her ambition to pursue a professional wrestling career when she was twelve years old. Inspired by the female WWE stars that came before her, Mendez worked several jobs after graduating from high school (including being a janitor at day care, a cashier and a secretary at a fitness center) in order to save up the money she needed to both support her family and enroll in wrestling school.
Mendez attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in New York City where she majored in film and television production, and writing, until family and financial issues led to her dropping out six months into her studies. As a tribute to her brother who was in the Army, Mendez previously wore camouflage wrestling attire.