Former WWE Divas Champion, April Mendez Brooks (aka AJ Lee), has recently released her new book, Crazy Is My Superpower: How I Triumphed by Breaking Bones, Breaking Hearts, and Breaking the Rules. During a recent interview, AJ revealed that at one point in her WWE career, she believed she was punished for refusing to go along with a storyline WWE creative had planned for her.
AJ, who in a real-life suffers from a bipolar II disorder, was often portrayed as the “crazy girl” in WWE storylines. But Brooks says it was a 2012 skit where she drew the line. AJ said she was “due to take part in a series of goofy skits in which her character hallucinated, kissed a leprechaun and danced with dinosaurs from outer space.”
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As a real-life secret sufferer of bipolar disorder, and the daughter of a mom with the same condition, AJ said she couldn’t go through with it.
“It felt like it disrespected both me and my mother,” says Brooks, who at the time was only public about her mother’s mental illness. “It was a joke, but, to me, it wasn’t something to laugh at.”
Brooks says as punishment for her refusal to do the skit, she was taken off television for two months. AJ retired from the WWE in 2015, less than a year after her husband, CM Punk, left the company under contentious circumstances.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that AJ’s retirement stemmed from fallout over WWE doctor Chris Amann filing a lawsuit against Punk. The report also noted that AJ likely had to call her exit a retirement to get out from under her contract with the company.
Now, with her new book, Brooks is opening up about her own struggles with bipolar II and challenging the stigma of depression and other mental health issues.
“It’s hard to not think you’re alone in the world, so it’s good to connect with other people who’ve faced the same issues,” she says. “I want to show that they’re not something that’s going to stop you.”
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