AJ Lee Says WWE Pulled Her Off TV Because She Refused a Storyline

AJ Lee was interviewed by the New York Post and said that she refused to do a storyline in 2012 and WWE pulled her off TV for two months as a result.

In 2012, Brooks (aka AJ Lee) 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. But, as a real-life secret sufferer of bipolar II disorder, and the daughter of a mom with the same condition, she couldn’t go through with it.

“It felt like it disrespected both me and my mother,” says the 30-year-old, 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.” As punishment for her refusal to do the skit, she was taken off TV for two months.

She was promoting her new autobiography, Crazy Is My Superpower: How I Triumphed by Breaking Bones, Breaking Hearts, and Breaking the Rules, which was released on Tuesday.