Opinion: AJ Lee Should Be Inducted into the 2016 WWE Hall of Fame

Yesterday, Sting was announced as the first inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2016. There are few in this industry that deserved to be honored as much as “The Franchise of WCW”.

He’s a great first selection, but there will be more to come over the next few months. Another major star will come, and I think The Rock is the perfect guy to partner with Sting. You have a WCW star and a WWF star in the same class. Not to mention, it’s The People’s Champion and The Icon. That’s fair to me.

However, we’re also going to see at least one great Tag Team and one great female performer of the past. For tag teams, The Hardy Boyz would be a popular choice and so would a team like Harlem Heat.

In my opinion, there is only one choice for the WWE Diva to be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year: AJ Lee.

Admittedly, this wouldn’t exactly be easy to pull off. Her marriage to CM Punk has already caused WWE to diminish her accomplishments from their WWE Divas title history.

No offense intended whatsoever to Nikki Bella, but when AJ Lee held the WWE Divas Championship for the longest reign in history, it was because she was the absolute best in the division and no one could touch her at the time. Bella may have history on her side now, but she was never as over as AJ was at her peak. Not even close.

Back in the spring and summer of 2012, AJ Lee was without question the hottest thing in wrestling. She was the most over performer in WWE right in the middle of CM Punk’s historic 434-day title reign and the very beginning on the “Yes Movement” catching on with the WWE fans.AJ did that without wrestling a single match, and she got over on her own.

Sure, you could argue she “kissed her way to the top.” The flaw in that argument is AJ did all that before she ever went after the Divas Championship. She proved herself a versatile performer and she knew that she had to make a few sacrifices and was comfortable with them to continue rubbing elbows with main event talent and guarantee herself good TV time.

That was smart because she knew she had the respect of the WWE Universe to transition into being the face of the division and the Divas Champion. She wasn’t the best wrestler ever, but she sold very well, had NO problem putting others over and told good stories in the ring on a really consistent basis. She is also the best female talker of this generation.

Her career speaks for itself, and it says that she is more than deserving of a Hall of Fame induction, and she may never get that opportunity if it doesn’t happen soon.

Yes, Punk’s relationship is extremely rocky with WWE. It doesn’t appear like AJ’s current is as bad. It’s basically for one night, and Punk still had friends within WWE. He doesn’t have to sign anything or appear on camera. Sure, AJ may mention him in her speech, but WWE always edits those down as they wish anyway.

To me, AJ Lee doesn’t deserve to be neglected from WWE history. In 2012, she was more over than any WWE Diva ever has been, and she did it in an era where women’s wrestling wasn’t anything more than a “bathroom break”.

I credit AJ for starting the change for women’s wrestling in WWE, and there may not be a Divas Revolution without her. In my mind, that makes the era of AJ the Renaissance of WWE.

AJ Lee deserves to put her name in WWE history with Trish Stratus, Lita, and others to be recognized as one of the most important Divas of all time. As a person, she followed her heart. I knew that as a fan, and that made her special. She earned this honor and she deserves to skip into the Hall of Fame, give her final farewell. It’s the right thing to do.