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Why did Kaitlyn leave WWE?

Kaitlyn's friendship and her later feud with AJ went on to define her career
Kaitlyn's friendship and her later feud with AJ went on to define her career

Kaitlyn is a former Divas Champion and was the first and only winner of the all-women's NXT tournament back in 2010. Kaitlyn worked as a bodybuilder before she made her way to WWE and her unique look attracted her a lot of attention during her short stint in WWE and allowed her to make a lasting friendship with fellow diva AJ Lee. Following a stand out feud with AJ Lee back in 2013, Kaitlyn announced that she had requested and been granted her release from WWE back in January 2014.

Early years

Kaitlyn won the third season of NXT
Kaitlyn won the third season of NXT

Kaitlyn made her first appearance on WWE TV back in September 2010 when she was revealed as one of the competitors in the third season of NXT. This was the first and only ever all-female edition of the competition.

Kaitlyn was aligned with Vickie Guerrero and became known as her rookie. For the next few months, Kaitlyn was part of a number of competitions and matches alongside Vickie and Dolph Ziggler before she was declared the winner of the tournament and the "Breakout Diva" in WWE.

Promotion to the main roster

Kaitlyn was promoted to the SmackDown roster
Kaitlyn was promoted to the SmackDown roster

It was later revealed that following her win she was signed to the SmackDown brand by General Manager Theodore Long. She had her first match a few weeks later in a losing effort when she teamed with Kelly Kelly against Laycool.

AJ and Kaitlyn later came together as a duo and became known as "The Chickbusters" but after Kaitlyn turned on her longtime friend, she later stepped into a feud with Eve Torres that led to her first Divas Championship opportunity.

Divas Champion

Kaitlyn held the Divas Championship for five months in 2013
Kaitlyn held the Divas Championship for five months in 2013

Finally, on her fourth attempt, Kaitlyn won the Divas Championship from Eve Torres as part of the 20th anniversary of Raw back in January 2013. Kaitlyn later managed to defend her Championship against Tamina, Natalya and AJ Lee over the next few months before she stepped into one of the best feuds of her career against Lee.

AJ and Kaitlyn feuded for a number of months leading up to Payback 2013 with AJ using Big E to play mind games with Kaitlyn ahead of their Divas Championship match, which was the longest Women's match on a WWE pay-per-view for almost a decade when it lasted for more than ten minutes and saw AJ Lee become the Champion for the first time.

Kaitlyn then spent the next few months attempting to regain her Championship whilst aligning herself with AJ's former boyfriend Dolph Ziggler.

Retirement

Kaitlyn had her final match against AJ Lee in January 2014
Kaitlyn had her final match against AJ Lee in January 2014

After her feud with AJ Lee ended at SummerSlam, it seems that there wasn't a lot for Kaitlyn to do in WWE anymore because the Total Divas hype had taken over. She had her final match with AJ Lee in January 2014 before it was announced that she had asked for her release from WWE so that she could look at starting up her own company.

In the summer of 2014, she stated that she considers herself to be retired from WWE and wanted to focus on her marriage and creating her own clothing line in the immediate future.

Life After Retirement

Kaitlyn is rumoured to be one of the women making a return for the Royal Rumble next weekend
Kaitlyn is rumoured to be one of the women making a return for the Royal Rumble next weekend

Kaitlyn revealed that she had a number of reasons to want to walk away from WWE at that point, one of which was the fact that WWE had no plans for her moving forward, but she also had a wedding to plan, which wasn't easy and had started working for a nutrition company.

She went on to launch Celestial Bodiez, which was her own clothing line which sold leggings that included her signature inner seam that showed off women's figures much better than regular leggings.

Kaitlyn and her husband went on to open a smoothie bar inside Busy Body Fitness Center in Florida, but it seems that many of their business ventures came to a halt back in February 2017 when it was announced that the couple were separating. Their divorce was finalised back in September and Coastal Championship Wrestling announced that Kaitlyn was returning to the ring next month which has fueled speculation that she could be part of the upcoming Women's Royal Rumble match.

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