Diva Dirt presents its third annual Writers’ Choice Awards, the awards that celebrate the year in women’s wrestling, as decided by the editors and contributors of Diva Dirt. The Diva Dirt team has watched hundreds of episode of wrestling television this year, followed a countless number of wrestlers and reviewed tons of matches. Now, as we come to the end of 2013, we have picked the best of the best to be awarded our Writers’ Choice trophies.
Best Feud: AJ Lee vs. Kaitlyn
Best friends turned bitter rivals is a concept we’ve seen happen time and time again, sure, but one that never feels stagnant or dull if done correctly. Thanks to some fun segments, memorable moments that allowed fans to become not only immersed, but genuinely excited to see what was going to happen next, we have selected the program between AJ Lee and Kaitlyn as our feud of the year for 2013.
While it may have reached new heights this year, the story between both women goes all the way back to 2010 in the days of NXT season three. Kaitlyn was a fresh face literally swooped up by the company for about four or five weeks before she was thrown on TV as a rookie looking to become the next WWE Diva. AJ Lee, on the other hand, had been fighting tooth and nail for much of her lifetime to make this childhood dream an adult reality. Nevertheless, while the two stories may have been polar opposite, AJ and Kaitlyn’s quirky, offbeat personalities provided them a bond that transformed into a real-life friendship.
Dubbing themselves the Chickbusters, the pair withstood three separate eliminations to stand beside another current Diva in Naomi a mere week before the winner would be crowned. Unfortunately for AJ, she became the third wheel of the pack and was cut after receiving the fewest amount of fan votes. That clearly didn’t stop her from going on to achieve numerous accomplishments, but it did halt her tracks on making it to the main roster for a good six months.
Kaitlyn on the other hand, went on to win the season and earn a spot on the roster. As soon as AJ herself was called up, both women continued to impress as they looked to shake the “rookie” moniker through each and every match they took part in. As time passed, AJ would, of course, begin to achieve new heights for a Diva that we hadn’t seen in some time, continuing to be involved with Daniel Bryan, but also mixing it up with the likes of CM Punk, Kane, Dolph Ziggler and even John Cena.
While Lee kept herself involved in the main event scene, Kaitlyn began growing rapidly with her ring work and burst into the title picture with a feud opposite Divas Champion Eve Torres. The two went at it for months, time and time again as Eve would manage to outsmart Kaitlyn. In the end though, Kaitlyn would get the last laugh as she defeated Torres back in January to claim her first championship in what was truly the definition of a hometown moment.
We now reach the point where things begin to intertwine between the two BFFs, as AJ, now turning heel in an alliance with Dolph Ziggler and Big E. Langston, would see herself as a different disposition than Kaitlyn for the first time in their main roster careers. They engaged in a few segments here and there, leading many to think they could be squaring off at WrestleMania in either a match or brawl of some sort. Needless to say, that didn’t happen, but what did take place afterwards was where a lot of the WWE Universe started to take notice of what the two women were capable of against one another.
In the weeks following WrestleMania, Kaitlyn would begin to receive packages and love notes from a “secret admirer”. Their identity may have been hidden, but Kaitlyn’s feelings were certainly not, as she began to grow infatuated with finding out who the lucky guy was, almost to the point of alienating friends in Natalya and the Funkadactyls. The night was June 10th when we would discover who was behind everything that had been going on. As Kaitlyn stood in the ring, vulnerable and awaiting her future love connection, some oh-so familiar music hit and out walked the one and only Big E. Langston.
Big E. tried his hardest to convince Kaitlyn the feelings were real, but she still seemed a bit taken back by the entire ordeal. As he leaned in and went for a kiss, he then decided to be spontaneous and dip her… right before dropping her and walking off to the sound of his own laughter. But while he walked up the ramp, AJ Lee walked – err, skipped – down it, right into the very ring where her once BFF lay embarrassed and humiliated.
AJ put everything she had out there that night, revealing that this entire “secret admirer” was nothing more than a catfish masterpiece set up by the pint sized princess herself. What would make AJ do this though? She let Kaitlyn know exactly why. You see, in AJ’s mind, while she was off getting her heart broken time and time again by some of the male superstars she had opened up to, her seemingly best friend was never there for her. Instead, Kaitlyn was off chasing the Divas Championship — a title that AJ felt was also the only thing of any value Kaitlyn owned. Lee vowed that come Payback, Kaitlyn would lose said title and then fall into irrelevancy as AJ would only propel herself even further to the top of the company and accomplish all of the dreams that were once put on hold when Kaitlyn emerged the victor of NXT instead of her.
That brings us to Payback, where Kaitlyn and AJ would look to settle the score for the first time on a Pay Per View level stage. They were given the time, the spotlight, the intrigue… and both of them took that ball and ran with it, delivering one of the most praised and lauded televised women’s matches of the year that culminated in AJ forcing Kaitlyn to tap out to the Black Widow and stand tall with her first WWE title reign notched in the record books.
AJ and Kaitlyn would continue to feud over the next two months, being involved in various segments like the first ever Divas Championship contract signing and seeing competition in both a rematch at Money in the Bank and a mixed tag at SummerSlam that put Kaitlyn teaming with AJ’s now-ex, Dolph Ziggler, to take down the skipping scream queen herself and Big E. Langston. Unfortunately, the feud basically ended that night and has only seen very minimal spotlight since, but we do have faith it can be always be rekindled due to the copious amount of backstory always ready and willing to be resurrected for future use.
Even though the somewhat abrupt ending wasn’t ideal, for all of the unique, well-delivered segments and matches that rocked us throughout the summer months (as well as coining the phrase “worthless, pathetic, useless, unlovable cow”), we stand by the decision to award both Kaitlyn and AJ Lee with our award for 2013’s Feud of the Year.
Stay tuned for more Writers’ Choice Award reveals over the next few days.
