10 Times Vince McMahon Was Too Obsessed With Sex

8. The Not-That-Hidden AJ Lee/Paige Subtext

vince mcmahon trish stratus
WWE.com

It was in the summer of 2014 when both Paige and AJ Lee tried in vain to reboot the main roster's Women's Division in the same image as NXT's burgeoning scene. It was within a year that one of them had left the company outright.

Arriving from the developmental brand the night after WrestleMania XXX, Paige was expected to sharpen some of the skills shown in her run as the maiden NXT Women's Champion within WWE's relatively barren Divas division, but her feud with one of the only other credible competitors got sucked into the company's creative sinkhole.

Under the catch-all excuse of "mind games", the two longingly stared at one another and tenderly embraced during their largely dull trades of the fading Divas Title. The more ambiguous WWE thought the angle was, the more obvious the overtones were. That barely mattered - the whole thing was scarcely believable anyway.

Not only did it hamper the 'The Anti-Diva's initial progress, but it grossly devalued the work AJ Lee had done to reestablish the league nearly a full year before the company-mandated 'Revolution' the following summer. The 'feelings' got neither woman anywhere, and the pair were a team in time for a 2015 WrestleMania 31 victory over The Bella Twins in what proved to be Lee's penultimate match.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett