Why No Periphery For Mickie?

Why didn't the WWE choose to develop Mickie James as a periphery diva back in 2010, instead of releasing her? The diva division is a women's division that revolves around this idea of pushing eye-candy women who develop their wrestling ability in the company as the centerpiece. The only female wrestlers the WWE has developed to be successes since the diva division started have been developed in the periphery of centerpiece matters. The WWE obviously did not want Mickie James as their centerpiece, which is not surprising at all, but why not develop her as a periphery diva, since she had made herself into their most over diva through being a credible jobber?

I already gave an obvious reason a while ago. Having a centerpiece is worth more than having a periphery diva. The centerpiece is the most important diva in the division. Back at the time Mickie James was there, after Trish and Lita left, their main focus was recreating that centerpiece. Seeing as they were having trouble doing that with the women they wanted to do it with, taking away resources to build a periphery diva might not have been too likely.

Resources are another key issue. Take a look at what the WWE is doing with AJ Lee to see how much work goes into a periphery diva. Behind the scenes, there has to be time and energy devoted by the writers. On the other side of the camera, segment time on the shows has to be devoted to developing the periphery diva. Because periphery divas usually rotate around the men, you would have to find a well-pushed guy you are willing to pair the diva with. Right now, AJ is working with John Cena. John Cena. He is the centerpiece. Even if the WWE had a change of heart and decided to give Mickie James the better career she had earned and decided to ease down on trying to create a new centerpiece so hard, there would still be a lot of work and resources to get the periphery treatment started. It might have ended up being easier said than done.

Let's say that the WWE did decide to develop Mickie James as a periphery diva, were willing to devote all the resources and work, and had a good plan to do it, how easily can they make that transition? From the time she debuted in 2005, Mickie James was always a credible jobber. She was getting pushes to put over the centerpiece and act as filler when the centerpiece was not around. With this kind of career, and with more issues with their centerpieces than the WWE could have imagined, Mickie ended up winning 6 title reigns in less than 5 years. You don't want a credible jobber to tie or break the record you set with the greatest centerpiece you ever had and you don't want her in the way of your new centerpiece, but how do you explain to your fans how a woman who won 6 title reigns in less than 5 years will never win the title again or will no longer be a regular in the actual main diva feuds? Better yet, how do you explain that to Mickie James? I can't think of an easy answer to that. I guess they could have just started the periphery angle without making it clear to Mickie that she would never be winning the title again and not be given as many true diva feuds, but it would look blatantly suspicious after a while.

Finally, even if they did start pushing Mickie James in the periphery, what if issues arose in the actual heart of the diva division that would require her to be given another title feud? Impossible? Keep in mind that there were two women's titles at the time Mickie got released. The brand split meant more back then. Remember what happened shortly after Mickie was released? Beth Phoenix, who took her spot as face credible jobber on Smackdown, got injured. After that, Tiffany was soon suspended and released. Kelly Kelly almost suffered a serious injury at a house show. If Mickie James was still on Smackdown as a periphery diva, is it hard to imagine that the WWE would be put in a position to push her? And what if McCool and/or Layla were injured or had some other issues right then? You are pretty much put in a position to put the title on Mickie James. With the titles unified and brand split dead, you no longer have to worry too much about an issue like that. Back then, however, a fragile diva division would have made the possibility of periphery diva Mickie James still seeing a lot of action as interim centerpiece or credible jobber to put over the centerpiece.

In the end, would pushing Mickie James as a periphery diva have made it that much easier for them to fix their centerpiece issues? They wanted Michelle McCool over. Mickie James still being there would mean fans still talking about her. And after a while of being pushed in the periphery for too long, and especially if the women pushed as centerpiece still continued to fail, how long until the fans wanted to see her back in diva feuds? It would be almost like the situation you have with Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow. Mark Sanchez is the starting quarterback for the New York Jets. Tebow is backup and not used too much. Because Sanchez is failing to deliver consistently, you can hear fans sometimes chanting for Tebow. The coach for the Jets, Rex Ryan, has not folded easily. Tebow isn't a great quarterback, but Sanchez isn't winning enough, either. Mickie James proved her worth at her job. Pro wrestling is all about pushing the performers the fans want to see. With a diva as over as Mickie James and a diva division as fragile as it was back then, simply pushing Mickie in the periphery all of a sudden would have been no easy answer.