Another Year Of Mickie James In TNA

It is a shame when you look at how TNA is using Mickie James. She has not won a singles match on Impact since January. Her few victories on the show since then have all been tag matches. TNA loves to cycle people in and out, and everyone becomes a victim of that. No one ever really gets anywhere. Even if they do get those KO tag titles back to some level of prestige and give them to Mickie and a partner, I don't have confidence in them handling this well. They are beyond that point of giving them the benefit of the doubt, which is something I usually like doing.

Mickie James is not going to make it. Not only is TNA not going to treat her in the manner that she has earned and to really get good value out of her to help themselves, but why would the WWE want her back? I can picture a one-night appearance down the road, but I think the majority of Mickie fans who want her to return to the WWE want her back for another run, not for one night. The WWE diva division has collapsed. The WWE continued pushing the same goal for their diva division that they were for years before Mickie James debuted. With Kelly Kelly not being reliable, since she is obviously not committed enough to be a true centerpiece, they were left with no one they were willing to build as centerpiece. That caused the collapse. Had they legitimately gone with Mickie James in 2008 or 2009, no collapse would have happened. They would have had a centerpiece who was dedicated to the company, not as prone to injury as other divas, solid in the ring, and most importantly of all, this was the woman who was the most over diva on the roster. Instead, they used her as filler when Candice Michelle was injured in 2008 and as a credible jobber for Maryse and Michelle McCool in 2009.

Even though the WWE diva division has collapsed, they are refusing to give it up. They are sending mixed signals. I am aware of that report about Triple H not liking diva wrestling and wanting to get rid of it. On the one hand, they did hire another female wrestler around the time of that report. On the other hand, they also released a female wrestler who was in developmental. Moreover, it isn't a female wrestler facing Layla for the title. Either Tamina or Natalya could have been developed for that feud. Fact is, the WWE could have 11 out of 12 of the women on their roster be true female wrestlers, but as long as that woman left over is an eye-candy diva being pushed as the centerpiece, the diva division still stands. The WWE is having success with AJ. When Sara Del Rey comes on board, they can easily push her to appease the angry fans of women's wrestling. Even though the division has collapsed, they can still wait it out and rebuild to what they want it to be very easily.

And it is nearly impossible to have a good conversation about Mickie's WWE career with most people. Well, it is for me. If you talk about the treatment Mickie got over her run, people will bring up what her ex said. She slept her way to the top in 2008, then screwed herself. I have spoken about her push in 2008 many times. On my old diva blog, I even wrote just about that reign once. It was a blatant filler push. The WWE lost their centerpiece to injury and had to fall back on Mickie James as interim centerpiece. Mickie was the most convenient and qualified option to push. Convenient? She was the woman pushed against Beth Phoenix when Candice got injured the first time. That push got cut the very night Candice returned. Qualified? The only other two face divas on Raw at the time were Maria and Ashley. Mickie James was more qualified to carry the division for 4 months than those two. Honestly, going any other way would have been more strange than giving Mickie James the push. And Kenny makes it seem like Mickie's career was just jobbing on Smackdown. She won a lot of matches, got an elaborate storyline, and did win the title. Problem is, it was all for the same reason as her debut storyline. She was being used to put over a centerpiece. If you actually read some of the things Kenny said, it looks like he is copying dirtsheet reports and what the Internet was saying. This isn't even a matter of whether the chicken came before the egg. He said what he did after dirtsheets already made it available to the world. His analysis of Mickie's career is not new or precise.

What will it take for Mickie James to be given another great opportunity? Being completely honest, I can't think of anything. TNA does not know how to develop stars and properly treat the ones they have to develop them more. The WWE is fine with allowing their diva division to fall to pieces, so they can get by with anything. Hopefully, Mickie James will one day get back some of what was taken away from her.