On Friday, WWE tweeted that A.J. Lee (real name April Mendez) has chosen to retire from in-ring competition.
BREAKING: AJ Lee (April Mendez) has decided to retire from in-ring competition with WWE. We wish AJ the very best.
The tweet comes five days after the popular WWE Diva competed in a tag match at WrestleMania, teaming with Paige in a match against the Bella Twins.
A.J. Lee made headlines back in February after publicly calling out WWE executive Stephanie McMahon over the unfair pay of female wrestlers in WWE.
@StephMcMahon Your female wrestlers have record selling merchandise & have starred in the highest rated segment of the show several times,
@StephMcMahon And yet they receive a fraction of the wages & screen time of the majority of the male roster. #UseYourVoice
Since the announcement of her retirement, fans have taken to Twitter to express their disappointment:
@WWE :( @macgillivray514 @BagelofDeath Hopefully more female competitors get a chance but dang.
@WWE Now what are you going to do? AJ was one of the top Divas I hope you give another Diva a chance to be a top Diva
@WWE @FreddyInSpace May she skip into the sunset never to darken the doors of this awful company again.
@shumiley @WWE did she literally just come back to defeat the bellas at wrestlemania and then decide to retire
@WWE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
CM Punk (A.J. Lee's husband and ex-WWE superstar, who had a bitter falling out with the wrestling company back in January 2014) also commented on Twitter.
#ThankYouAJ
The 28-year-old wrestler garnered several accolades throughout her eight-year career, including PWI's Woman of the Year, the WWE Slammy Award for Diva of the Year, and the WWE Divas Championship.
You guys, I'm 2-0 at Wrestlemania. I'm pretty much going after Taker's streak.