The latest guest on What’s Your Story? with Stephanie McMahon is someone who has some interesting history with the show’s host: recently returned WWE Superstar AJ Lee.
Part of why Lee is an interesting
guest goes back to McMahon’s first guest on another recent project: CM Punk. Lee and Punk are married, and Steph’s father Vince famously sent Punk his termination paperwork on the day of their wedding. AJ was actually still working for WWE at the time, which had to create some tension as the company backed Dr. Chris Amman’s defamation lawsuit against her husband.
Another issue directly involved Steph and AJ, however. That would be the February night back in 2015 when McMahon amplified Best Supporting Actress winner Patricia Arquette’s message from the Oscars about gender equity in Hollywood. Lee tweeted the then WWE Chief Brand Officer’s retweet back at her. AJ added that Steph should use her voice to advocate for female members of the WWE roster who were receiving a fraction of the screen time and pay their male counterparts were getting, despite generating better ratings and merchandise sales.
And that’s the one we were most interested in when the new What’s Your Story? dropped today (Nov. 24).
Lee set the scene:
“A long time ago, the women’s division was in a different spot. It felt like an uphill battle a lot of the time. I was one of the first people really fighting for it — quite vocally. When you are the first to do something, you get hurt storming the gates. It’s a little rougher. I think it’s worth it because it opens the path for people that come behind you.
”There was an incident on Twitter in which you had posted about equal pay. I retweeted it, and I was like, ‘We’re talking about Use Your Voice. We don’t get equal pay, essentially, yet we’re bringing in more eyeballs than a lot of the men.’ It was probably pretty fiesty [all laugh; Steph says, ‘It was, but that’s great’ and reads AJ’s tweets].
“That to me felt fairly direct. I try not to be rude. I think a lot of people are like, ‘I have no filter,’ and that’s an excuse for being rude. I think you can be direct, but very — practical. I felt it was coming from a practical place, but direct. I was also a bit like, ‘I ain’t got nothing to lose right now.’”
McMahon reminded Lee that while she may have been ready to leave in her mind at that point, she still had a stake in the game, so to speak:
“You were champ, so you did have a lot to lose… but the courage that it took to fight for what you believed in. And the fact that you really were a different character than any type of stereotype. You came out of nowhere, and the audience loved you from the start… They connected with you in a special and unique way.
“And I appreciate your directness. I’m a direct person as well. I’m sure some people think I’m rude, but I don’t mean to be… I hate all the BS, like ‘let’s just have the conversation.‘ And it’s funny, in preparing for the interview, I read all the backstage gossip about what happened, and I was like, ‘I don’t remember that at the time.’ It’s so interesting because people never really know.”
She went on to say that the only thing she didn’t like about AJ’s tweets were that she was tagged in them. McMahon says that she didn’t have any power to change things, and hints at other “executives” preventing a different presentation of women’s wrestling:
“I was actually happy that you posted that. I wasn’t happy that it was directed at me because it wasn’t anything I had direct control over, but I was really happy that you did because the whole women’s evolution in the WWE, it didn’t happen because of executives — maybe along the way, people voicing their opinions — it really happened because of the women who paved the way, all the way back to the beginning of all of these incredible women who have been inside the squared circle no matter what promotion they were in.
”Then, for our audience, when they started ’Give Divas A Chance’ at that time, that’s what couldn’t be ignored. The audience would never have gotten behind the movement if it weren’t for people like you, who actually stood up for women publicly and took on the machine a little bit. It was a big deal, I thought.”
The two seemed to bond over that, and their mutual acknowledgment that backstage at WWE in the mid-2010s was an… interesting… place to work:
AJ: I appreciate that. And I feel like change doesn’t happen unless there’s sacrifice. You have to be willing to lose everything to get what you want. I feel like in every aspect of life — playing it safe might give you a safe life, but I don’t know if it gives you an exceptional life. And so I felt like that was worth it, whatever backlash was going to be. But I thought you were cool after. Like, everyone was pretty chill. It was business and I appreciate that. But, you know, it was a rough time.
Stephanie: I mean, there was a lot of things happening at that time [both laugh]. So I’m sure everyone could read into it however they wanted. But it was so important. You know, it was a really important public-facing step.
Lee retired from WWE in 2015, and has mostly pursued a career as a writer — including leading GLOW-reboot WOW’s creative for a time — before returning to the company a few months ago. McMahon resigned from WWE in 2022, returned just a few weeks later when her father was temporarily ousted, and resigned again in 2023 when he returned for the sale of the company, then returning to the fold in her current undefined/public relations & promotional role last year when it became clear Vince wasn’t coming back from his ongoing sex trafficking scandal any time soon. Reports are that women’s pay has improved since AJ’s tweets, at least among the top stars in the division. Their screen time waxes and wanes, as does the debate about that and their placement on the card.
You can listen to AJ Lee’s entire appearance on Stephanie McMahon’s podcast here.
