Mickie James was a credible jobber. She was a female-wrestler credible jobber. Most people might say the WWE was pushing her well, but that ignores what other things were going on during that time in the diva division. During the time Mickie was there, you had centerpieces retiring, getting injured, flopping, needing to be replaced, and needing to be put over. These are the situations where you call on a credible jobber to be interim centerpiece or jobber to the centerpiece. Back then, the WWE was still giving these kind of pushes to the female wrestlers. Aside from Mickie James, Melina and Beth Phoenix were the primary credible jobbers being used. Gail Kim and Natalya were also used here and there to put over the centerpiece during this time. Fact is, Mickie James was frequently the only face credible jobber available when the need arose, which is why she got pushed so often. Let me give just one example. Remember when Candice Michelle got injured in 2007? That is the woman being developed as centerpiece. Who does the WWE push to take her place until she returns? The only other faces on the show were Maria and Mickie James. Maria was an eye-candy periphery diva and Mickie James was a credible jobber. It is not surprising that Mickie James got the push. Look at all the other situations Mickie James got pushed after that. She was frequently in the right spot at the right time to get the push. The WWE was not high on giving eye-candy divas those kind of pushes back then, although they did start to warm up to it near the end of Mickie's WWE run.
Even though Mickie James was getting pushed, this is not the kind of push that leads to success for the woman getting it, let alone lead to the woman getting it becoming the most over diva. Mickie James did that. What you witnessed the WWE doing with Mickie James in her final year is still be able to take advantage of her and hurt her overness at the same time. They were never pushing her as the true centerpiece, and definitely not as a periphery diva. But because they were low on options, Mickie James saw more time getting pushed, even though it was still credible jobber pushes.
Could Mickie James have endured the current diva division? As I said before, the WWE is not against giving eye-candy divas the pushes they usually only gave women with a lot more wrestling credibility. The two female wrestlers pushed as credible jobbers, Tamina and Natalya, have not had anything too important to do in a long time. Eve Torres is the current centerpiece. Layla and Kaitlyn have been used as credible jobbers. You can imagine Alicia Fox being used in this manner. The WWE does not even have to give a meaningful push to Natalya, the only face female-wrestler credible jobber. Now, what if Mickie James was still in this diva division? What if she still had the overness? Would the WWE have been successful in burying Mickie James in this diva division? There are two ways to look at this.
First, yes, they would succeed in burying Mickie James. Mickie was getting a lot of pushes back then mainly because the need kept on coming up to push a face credible jobber and she was often the only option. Things are different now. The WWE could get away with pushing Layla or Kaitlyn over Mickie James. They can just argue that they are giving these women fair opportunities. Without even being featured at all, except maybe on Superstars, large tag matches, and mediocre treatment that is always ending abruptly, you would assume Mickie's overness would dry up. She would become an afterthought, much like Gail Kim did.
The second way to look at this, what if not giving Mickie James even the usual credible jobber opportunities fails to bury her? This woman was not supposed to get over in the first place. They were never pushing her with the proper consistency, hype, and character/storyline development after she did get over, but she maintained the overness of a diva you would think was being pushed well. They treated her even more poorly, but she survived that. Keep in mind that Mickie went through 2 periods where they were not pushing her for at least 5 months. The first came when they started pushing Candice Michelle as centerpiece. The second came after Candice Michelle had flopped as centerpiece. They did give Mickie mediocre storylines during both periods, but they all ended abruptly without a proper finish and did nothing for Mickie James. It is comparable to how the WWE has recently been using Natalya. If Mickie James was in this current diva division, you would probably see her getting those mediocre opportunities again. Remember how fast Rosa's angle with Del Rio ended? Have any faith in Natalya's angle with Khali? That's what Mickie would be in for, and was even the kind of thing happening to her during those 5-month dry spells. Mickie James survived those periods and maintained the overness. It's not hard to imagine she might maintain the overness if she was being overlooked in this current diva division where it is even easier to overlook female wrestlers than it has ever been. If she did, the WWE would be in some trouble. Back then, because the WWE would still push Mickie James, everyone thinks they loved her and wanted her to succeed. They don't pay attention to the circumstances around those pushes and realize those were not the kind of pushes that lead to the woman getting it becoming that successful. In this diva division, if Mickie maintained the overness, people would definitely know something is wrong. Your most over diva is being blatantly under-pushed for the sake of models lacking that overness? The WWE would be on the spot a lot worse than they were back then.
What do I think would have happened? Would the WWE have had an easier time burying Mickie James in this diva division or would she have beaten it and put the WWE on the spot? A lot of it depends on whether or not these other women are getting over. You have AJ Lee around. Could a successful diva created by the WWE help them get the fans to forget Mickie James? If this was the diva division they had back then, I believe they would have had the best chance of burying her. But after Mickie had solidified that overness, I don't think the WWE could get away with doing this to her without people wanting to know what happened. It wouldn't be as sharp as humiliating her like they did, but it would still stand out to treat a woman that over like this.
One last thing I want to say. Prior to this current development of giving eye-candy divas the kind of pushes you would give female wrestlers pushed as credible jobbers, you had eye-candy centerpieces getting injured too much and deteriorating in their wrestling ability. What does seeing eye-candy divas not working out in the ring motivate the WWE to do? Push them even more in the ring! Well...okay. I would agree that you shouldn't condemn all eye-candy divas too fast after a few bad results, but to hand them even more opportunities and to give real female wrestlers even less, and still not developing any of them to be centerpiece, just seems like a crazy decision to make after the bad luck they have had recently. Layla has improved very well in the ring and I do not consider her injury-prone, even though she was out for a year with an injury. She doesn't seem to be getting injured often. In general, however, I do not have that much faith in a lot of the other eye-candy credible jobbers. Who cares if I have faith? The WWE has faith, and that is what matters.
No comments:
Post a Comment