Courtesy JAMES WORTMAN WITH PHOTOS BY RICH FREEDA
UP AND AT ’EM, 9:02 a.m.
Shaking off the last remnants of sleep as Washington does the same, AJ Lee hurriedly navigates her bustling hotel lobby, pausing only briefly to snap a photo with a Dolph Ziggler fan donning the teal-and-yellow tee of her favorite Showoff. She tosses her bags into the cavernous trunk of a rented Ford Edge, all-too-aware that her four-hour New Jersey odyssey was missing an essential ingredient.
“Never trust anyone who doesn’t drink coffee,” AJ quips en route to one of D.C.’s all-too-numerous Starbucks locations, dispensaries of what AJ fondly calls her “comfort blanket” while she’s traveling. This java journey gives the WrestleMania-ready Diva a rare opportunity to explore the District of Columbia, which she still fondly remembers for playing host to one of her first-ever WWE television appearances on the Sept. 9 edition of “WWE Superstars” in 2010.
Caffeinated, AJ then locks in some familiar GPS coordinates, peering through dark-rimmed glasses at the road ahead.
ROAD WARRIOR AJ, 12:49 p.m.
“Sorry in advance, guys,” are never reassuring words, especially coming from a driver. But amid talk of her aspirations to one day write a book and what it was really like to try on her Raw 1,000 wedding dress (it gave her “goosebumps”), AJ offers fair warning to the WWE.com crew as her GPS drones that her old Union City stomping grounds were drawing near — streets she never had the privilege to drive upon even as a teenager.
“I started driving two years ago, technically,” explains AJ, whose family could not afford to get her a car when she reached the legal driving age of 16. “I don’t know how to drive in my hometown, since I either walked everywhere or took public transportation.” Pulled over at a rest area, AJ opts to relinquish the steering wheel for this final portion of the ride, content with re-entering her past, at least for now, from the passenger’s seat.
