The Eulogy

I am done with my blog devoted only to the women of pro wrestling. I am now going to switch to just focusing on wrestling in general. I am going to enjoy being able to talk more about TNA. But right now, I want to do two things. First, explain exactly what the last straw was. Second, give a eulogy.

The diva match featured McCool/Layla vs. Eve/Maryse. On a normal night, I would be talking about how interesting it is to have the two Raw enemies going at it. But I was looking for absolutely nothing crappy. I was sick of it for so long. First, most of the action of this match was just too basic. If it was a short match, I may have been able to overlook that out of fairness. But this match just dragged on too long for me. Almost all the matches with the guys were better than this. The only exception was Hornswoggle/Ziggler, which was not given time to be anything but a joke anyway. The diva match was given time to be something, it failed. As I was trying to concentrate on the action, I kept getting annoyed by the infernal screaming. I am not talking about the fans. I am talking about whichever of those women would not shut up. I do not mind battle cries or anything like that, since it does sometimes put emotion into the match, but this thing was just too continuous, not even done to further selling, which would have been another good reason, and just did nothing. Things like this make me lose interest. I thought that would be the final kicker. I was wrong.

Smackdown won Kelly Kelly. If people they really plan to push get drafted on Raw, this means Kelly Kelly may get a real push on Smackdown? They want to push her as being so important? If a Raw diva had to go with hype on them, I would have rather it have been a woman who knows how to wrestle solidly, consistently, and with the experience and credibility. If not that, I would have rather it been one of the eye-candy divas they have already been pushing. I talked about Kelly Kelly being sent to Smackdown, true, but in the supplemental draft. I did not view her as a potential big deal. I do not think she should be in the same class as Edge, Big Show, and Morrison as people who get their moves hyped on the Raw special. I know she is popular, but the changes for the women may end up not shaking up anything at all. And if the only shake up is Kelly Kelly potentially becoming Women's Champion, I am glad I am quitting this now.

When Mickie James was released last week, I said that I would not write an eulogy. I am not. I am not going to write a eulogy for Mickie James. She is not done. She still has a lot of life left in her to live. Whether she chooses to follow music or get back in the ring just one more time, that is her choice. However, speaking for myself, please do return to the ring. Do not let it end like that. You deserve better. The WWE quit Mickie James. That does not mean Mickie James must quit wrestling. She watched the WWF as a child, not TNA. I understand that. It was her dream to work to get into the WWE. She did it. It is a shame the WWE treated her like they did for so long. Her spirit is not beaten yet. The WWE could not do that.

But I am going to write a eulogy for something else. Time to say goodbye to my hope and desire to see the WWE use their women better.

For those few who have followed my blogs from today.com to blogdog.com to here, you know most of this story already. I have been watching pro wrestling devotedly since 1998. For years, when it came to the women, I could appreciate them for making me drool and putting on a good match at times, whether because they are putting it on as solidly as some of the men can or rolling around in their undies. I did not always care about great wrestling from them. Some of my "favorites" have been Sunny, Chyna, Lita and Stephanie McMahon. Only two in that group was treated as tough wrestlers. I think you know who. Fact is, my interest was only casual. I never watched any wrestling show just for a female wrestler or eagerness to see a female match or segment. If it happened, it happened. Whatever happened, happened. I will admit it, looks really were the main factor for me. There are very few WWE divas that I have ever found unattractive. No one could simply really grab my interest to make me really invest in them or wanting to see better from the divas. As you can tell, that changed.

I was not a Mickie James fan before her WWE debut in 2005. I was not a fan after she debuted in 2005. I was not her fan in 2006. I did not hate her. I just never had an interest to really care for any of these women before, so I did not make too much of her. Wrestlemania 2006. I watched it. I was eager to see matches involving Ric Flair, Mick Foley, and Randy Orton. These guys are three of my all-time favorites. In all honesty, none of their matches stole the show for me that night. Mickie James vs. Trish Stratus was the match I enjoyed the most that night. I was not a huge Trish fan, as if to say she made me so interested in the match. Same goes for Mickie. I respected both, and I was liking the psycho angle and Mickie's character, but I still was not ready to invest.

For most of 2007, I still just went through diva matters casually. Summerslam of that year. The match that I was really interested in was Orton vs. Cena for the title. There was a diva battle royal. The action was not interesting at all. Two things did interest me. One was the deafening silence Beth Phoenix got when she won. The other was the noticeable boos when Mickie James was eliminated. I do not know if I had never noticed Mickie's regular pops before or what, but I noticed that. What the hell happened? She was not being pushed very well at the time. She was not even in the final three of the match, as if to say the story of the match was building up anticipation for her. Smark crowd being smarky? I was still surpised. I did not immediately jump on her bandwagon just because I got the idea she was popular. I have heard pops for pushed superstars before and never made them one of my favorites. Austin, Jericho, The Rock, and many others. I knew why they were popular, I could respect that, I could respect them, but they just never did it for me all the time. Point is, I actually started to consider this woman, Mickie James. I paid more attention. She was sexy, which had seemed to be my top criteria for liking divas, but there really was something special about this woman. I liked her charisma. I liked her energy in the ring. I liked that she was actually a credible wrestler who can still have that kind of spirit. She was refreshing. She got me to care.

After that, Mickie James had become my favorite diva. I came to the dance late, but I liked what she was as a wrestler. I watched her get pushed, depushed, pushed, and depushed. I read a whole bunch of rumors. I saw what the WWE was doing with her. I smartened up and decided to really look at this more critically. I realized why things were going on. It was often clear that dirtsheets really were full of crap that the fans buy. I saw mistakes the WWE was making in how they treated their women, not just Mickie. It did not seem like they were really interested in giving the fans what they wanted at all. That is when I started writing a blog about it.

Less than two years later, my interest is dead. For a long time, things I have been seeing have just been getting more frustrating. Eye-candy divas were being treated too well. Maybe the old me may not have minded. The old me may have complained about the lack of skin and too much stupid crap. But it just killed my spirit. In the time since Mickie James became my favorite diva for what she could do in the ring and everything else during kayfabe, which is where I look to decide who my favorites are, I also learned more about her as a person. She really did have a good heart in her. Her spirit was not just an act for kayfabe. She was serious about putting on a show for the fans, but very nice to the fans and would not have her spirit broken easily, despite how the WWE treated her and the division. She really was enthusiastic about doing her job. She was loyal to the WWE.

The WWE was not loyal to her. I will not even mention how they released her while she was promoting THEIR Draft. What really showed her character for me was her infection a few months ago. She was willing to risk a lot for the sake of going out there for the WWE and the fans. She had two surgeries in one week. Two weeks of recovery. She got the stitches out. A few days later, she heads to the airport already. Her first stop out of Virginia is Arizona, not Tennessee. She wanted to be at Wrestlemania. That is loyalty. I had my doubts about her coming back so fast. I know many Mickie fans did. She proved me wrong. She did not do much in the ring, but she did something. She got physical before, at, and after Wrestlemania. No problems. THAT is a reason to respect Mickie James, not how many title reigns she got handed.

And they released her. People want to say she missed a bus more than once? Please! They made it sound like she did it just out of arrogance. Not the Mickie James I know. If she did miss a bus more than once, keeping people waiting, I want to know why she was late all those times. This may end up having as much credibility as CM Punk's loss to Taker at Hell in a Cell last year being due to a dress code issue. Seriously, stupid reasons that make the WWE look childish. And then people want to say Mickie had an attitude problem. Funny. Very. I know very well that Mickie James has friends in the WWE. So Mickie did nothing but make friends with people who could not help her and enemies with officials and those with influence? Sounds like a retarded version of Robin Hood. Either there are a lot of details missing in that story or the story is garbage and false. That is the thing, rumor makers often leave a lot of connecting dots missing, making a lot of things awkward if you really think about it. Why was Mickie released? I am not sure. I have ideas. I sure as hell am skeptical about some of the crap out there.

I tried to be fair. My interest in the divas being treated right did not have to rest on Mickie James. But being hopeful when crap never changes gets old. I gave WWE a few more days to see how they can pick things up, knowing they lost their most over diva and a great worker. I gave Extreme Rules the benefit of the doubt. Raw was the end. It is over.

Thank you, Mickie James, for making me interested in the women of wrestling for something more than just sex appeal. Thank you, WWE, for ruining it. I am going to still enjoy writing about diva matters. Yes. I am going to enjoy ripping it to shreds. No more need to be hopeful and nice.