WrestleMania 29: Homecoming for Jersey's tiny 'Diva' AJ Lee

Just to see her Sunday in front of more than 70,000 screaming fans at WrestleMania 29 wouldn't do justice to how far AJ Lee has come.

When the sold-out event hits MetLife Stadium, the Union City native and World Wrestling Entertainment Diva will be the only hometown performer. She'll also be the smallest: Lee is billed at 107 pounds and a diminutive 5-foot-2 -- sometimes 5-foot-3.

"Well, I'm 5-2!" says Lee with a giggle. "I have a joke with our dot-com department, who lists me as 5-3.

"I'm like, 'No, I want to make sure I'm the shortest girl on the roster.' It's just kind of funny to me to be so miniscule."

Lee, 26, whose real name is April Jeanette Mendez, calls this her "Cinderella story." The Jersey girl is a pint-sized ball of determination who has fought every second to achieve a dream she has held since she was 12 years old.

Her family lived where they could, moving constantly. They bounced from friends' houses to motels. They lived in their car.

"I would definitely say my whole childhood until I was able to get out there and take care of myself -- it was rough," she says.

"It was one of the hardest things I could ever imagine to grow up (like that)," says Lee, a 2005 graduate of Memorial High School in West New York. After six months, she dropped out of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where she was majoring in film and TV production. "Given the choice, I would not change a thing. I would do it all over again and live that way because it made me who I am today."

As soon as she was old enough, Lee began working any job she  could so she could pay for wrestling training. In 2009, she was plucked from obscurity at a tryout camp for the WWE's developmental promotion Florida Championship Wrestling.

Pro wrestling has always been a constant in Lee's life. She has her brother to thank for that. As a child, she idolized him. When he sat down to watch pro wrestling, so did she. When he left for military tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Lee would sit down and write him detailed accounts of what happened on TV every week. Not surprising, then, she's worn camouflage outfits in the ring.

In 2011, she made her television debut for the WWE. Her story and quick rise to stardom bucked a trend of glamorous bombshells as "Divas." Lee calls herself a tomboy with no athletic bone in her body and "the biggest nerd on the planet." When she's not in the wrestling ring, she loves playing video games and reading comic books. She was unique, and perhaps because of that she was an instant hit with fans. In 2012, she was named the WWE's "Diva of the Year."

Last year she made her WrestleMania debut, playing a key role in a bout in which her then-storyline boyfriend Daniel Bryan dropped the heavyweight title in under 20 seconds. It was exhilarating, but hardly enough time to savor the moment.

"I was waiting over a decade for that WrestleMania moment and it was only 18 seconds," Lee says. "It's like, 'Wait -- no! I just came out here!' I wanted to stay out in front of the crowd a little longer."

This weekend, Lee will be part of another love angle. This time she'll accompany storyline boyfriend Dolph Ziggler and Big E Langston as they vie for the Tag Team Championship title. In front of her home crowd, she promises to soak it in. "Everything has worked out so amazingly, especially for it to be after this whirlwind year that I've had," she says. "To have WrestleMania literally 10 or 15 minutes from the motel I used to live in with my family is kind of insane."

Lee's family has moved back to their native Puerto Rico, but the audience will be littered with people who understand how far she's come -- friends and classmates, former co-workers and training partners.

She's wrestled in front of New Jersey crowds before, but this is WrestleMania, the Super Bowl of pro wrestling. This is her homecoming.

"I want people to know where I come from," Lee says. "I think I have come really far from that and I did it on my own. It's sort of the American dream to come from absolutely nothing and to succeed while still doing something that you love. Not compromising yourself in any way. I hope I'm making Jersey proud in that way."