First of all, what is it that Mickie James actually did? I'm not going to use the regular "credible jobber" and "centerpiece" terminology. You sometimes might get so lost in terminology, you lose the feel for what the words actually mean. Let me try to spell it out. From the time the WWE diva division started over a decade ago, the WWE has liked to develop a beautiful, glamorous eye-candy diva as the chief star of the division. They don't have any true wrestling training and experience when they get here, but they develop it over time while in the WWE. Where does that leave female wrestlers, those women who do come with actual wrestling skill and experience? The WWE typically uses these women to put over the eye-candy diva. They frequently get depushed, get mediocre treatment when not being used to make the main star look good or act as filler, and always get phased out. Only a few female wrestlers get great careers, always consisting a lot of angles with the men and on the side of the main star. And none of these female wrestlers to get these careers ever started out like the others, became very over off it, then got raised up. This is the division that Mickie James came to. She came in at a time when the WWE had a successful main star, a successful female wrestler developed as a star, no female wrestlers used to put over the main star ever getting too over, and no real problems at all. In time, Mickie James became the most over diva on the roster. The WWE never stopped pushing her the same way they always push the majority of female wrestlers. They continued to go to eye-candy divas to develop that main star. Despite mediocre treatment and being treated even worse later on, Mickie James remained successful. All other things being the same, could Trish or Lita have come into the diva division at this time, taken this type of career, succeeded, and survived the mediocre treatment that should dry up that overness?
I can knock Trish Stratus out of this discussion easily. Trish did not come in with wrestling experience. She was an eye-candy diva. If she debuted in 2005, they would not have used a woman like her to put over the main star of the diva division in the same way they did Mickie James. You can talk about the possibility of Trish eventually becoming amazing in the ring and getting the kind of career Mickie James had, but while she is developing that wrestling ability, she is going to have a grace period where she is connecting with the fans just through her sex appeal. Remember Ashley? Trish probably would have gotten the kind of usage Ashley got on Raw in 2005. That is not the career Mickie James had. The diva division may be more open now to using eye-candy divas to do the jobs that those kind of female wrestlers used to do back then, but they weren't doing it that much back then. Trish would not even be in the position Mickie James was in when she debuted.
Lita was hired having had wrestling training. If she debuted in 2005, she most likely would have been used to put over the main star of the division. She is the kind of woman they like to use for that and she would be coming at a time when their division is pretty much set and solid. Could she have succeeded? If the WWE did not start treating her better, could she survive?
One of the things that helped Mickie James connect with the fans was definitely her charisma. Even when she was just being pushed as a generic face diva, her charisma helped her to still stand out more. What about Lita's charisma? You look at the career Lita did have, her character was always benefiting from rubs she got from the guys. She was aligned with a high-flying luchador, the extreme brothers, and a guy who was rated R. She also had that big storyline with Kane. Whatever gimmick her guys had, Lita got a little bit of that too. Take that away. Could Lita make it as a generic face diva? Hard to consider, right? Even if Lita did get over through the big debut angle she would get if she had debuted in 2005, I don't think she would have the charisma to stay connected with the fans when the WWE stops developing her character well and does not bother keeping it fresh.
Injuries are also an issue. The longest Mickie James ever was away in the WWE due to an injury or anything with her health was a few weeks. A lot of people did not think she would be able to perform at Wrestlemania that year. She came back and was a part of that diva match. Lita's history with injuries is larger. Lita's style in the ring has always been risky. Because she would not be getting all those angles with the guys, she would be called on to actually wrestle diva matches more often. Just like the character development she got alongside the guys helped to make Lita a star, so did her high-risk style. What if they took that away? People always talk about the WWE having their divas do less in recent years. Would Lita's style still connect her with the fans? What if they did not limit her? Would injuries have been an even bigger problem with Lita? If she was in Mickie's position, she would have to wrestle more often against the divas than she did in reality. And when the diva division started deteriorating and eye-candy divas started seeing more time, how well could Lita perform with these women? Injuries could become a real issue. And that could make it even easier to bury Lita.
Do I think Lita could have done what Mickie James did? No. Lita would be left as a generic face diva. It would be up to her own charisma to stay connected with a lot of fans out there. Maybe it is just because I find it hard to picture her character without matching her up to the guys she's worked with, but I don't think she has the charisma. Moreover, her wrestling style that helped her to connect with the fans over a decade ago may become limited by the WWE if she had to work in recent years. And because she would be seeing more ring time than she did in her actual career, that would open up the possibility for more injuries with that style. Because the WWE was frequently still developing her character, lack of wrestling did not have to bury Lita. She still stayed fresh through storylines. She could not count on that with the kind of career Mickie James had. Lita would follow the path of Jazz and Melina, two women who suffered some injuries in their careers. Both were also phased out and eventually released.
To succeed when circumstances are in your favor or even just fair and balanced is one thing. To succeed when things are against you, that is something else. You cannot take success for granted and you should pay attention to how individuals manage to succeed. Trish and Lita were successful, but you cannot take it for granted that it would have worked out in any situation they were put in. On the other side of that, Mickie James was successful, but you cannot make the assumption that her path in the WWE was similar to what Trish and Lita had. There are different roads to success.
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