This installment of my analysis of Mickie's WWE career is supposed to last until roughly when her feud with Beth in 2007 starts. Aside from the title reign I just mentioned, what really happened for Mickie James that is worth note until then? She feuded with Melina after Melina finished with Ashley's Playboy push, but that seems to have been just an intermediary or filler feud for Melina's sake until the WWE started building Candice Michelle.
Candice Michelle. A sexy model-type who improved her wrestling ability while in the WWE. That is pretty much one of the chief qualities the WWE looks for when trying to figure out who they want as a centerpiece. I do believe the WWE intended to make her a centerpiece. Aside from the strong build she got before winning the title, the real evidence comes the following year.
If the feud with Melina was meant to do something lasting for Mickie James, her push would have continued in some clear way. It looks like they just fed Melina more credibility and momentum before eventually using her as well. While Melina was getting used to put over Candice, Mickie James got nothing worth note at all. She became a sidekick face diva. She would partner now and then with Candice. She would wrestle on Heat against heels even further down the ladder. Imagine Gail Kim for most of her time since she returned to Raw. Imagine how Melina is being treated right now. She is doing nothing meaningful now. The only time you have seen her in televised action recently is when she wrestles on Superstars, which is pretty much on the same level as Heat. See these instances of face tools being used weakly? That is what the WWE would have wished to turn Mickie James into. They did not completely toss her aside at this time. I do not think they realized how over Mickie really was or how difficult it would be for other women to get that overness, including Candice Michelle's fall from grace.
During this time, I recall a blogger writing that Mickie James was not getting pushed better because she was not pushing herself hard enough. Incorrect interpretation. She is a sidekick. In most tag matches in which she teams with Candice, it is Candice who is meant to really shine. The commentators will be talking mostly about her, not Mickie. If Mickie does too much to take the spotlight, that will not make the WWE happy. Moreover, her matches on Heat are minor, not seen by all the fans, and against women who do not have much development or story attached to them at that time at all. The WWE would toss these small bones which they know will not do too much in really building a diva. It is the hype from promos, major wins, and from the commentators, and any other source I am forgetting, which the WWE really uses to build who they want to push. Lack of this could potentially bury a very over talent.
Mickie James could not be buried. Summerslam 2007. WWE booked a huge diva battle royal to start the monster push of Beth Phoenix. Candice Michelle, Women's Champion, sat at ringside and just watched. Aside from the obvious silence Beth got after winning, what really surprised me was the reaction the fans gave when Mickie James was eliminated. Those boos were noticeable. No, they did not boo because they hate Mickie. They would be cheering at her being eliminated if they did. They were on her side. This was not a Richmond crowd or in an arena very near to Mickie's hometown. Mickie James was still over.
After that night, still nothing special arose right away for Mickie James. Candice feuded with Beth. Mickie was given an angle with Trevor Murdoch, who was a Tag-Team Champion at the time. Trevor saved Mickie from getting hurt, Mickie tried to thank him and be nice a few times, Trevor's partner, Lance Cade, got in the way, and nothing else really came of it. Failed angle. Never saw a legitimate finish. Meanwhile, Beth wins the title and Candice gets injured in the rematch. They still did not rush a feud between the two.
Cyber Sunday 2007 featured a costume contest for the divas. The fans decided the winner. Mickie James won, getting more votes than divas which included Torrie Wilson, Kelly Kelly, Maria, Michelle McCool (surprising, isn't it?), and so on. Was Mickie James the sexiest diva there? I am a Mickie James fan, but even I know that a lot of fans would find Kelly Kelly more sexy, especially with the costume she was wearing. Was Mickie's costume revealing enough or very awesome? That is somewhat subjective. Was Mickie still a psycho lesbian for the past few months? Aside from just her kiss + kick finisher she just started using around this time, no. Mickie James won because she was the most popular diva in the WWE. If the WWE did not know that for sure by the reactions Mickie would get, this had to be a wake up call.
The WWE slowly started building up Mickie by putting focus back on her as the main face diva. After about six months of nothing to keep her monster over, Mickie finally gets a push. Do not confuse the real reason the WWE did it. They did it because Candice was injured. Unlike what that blogger I mentioned before might like to believe, I do not see Mickie "pushing herself" more in the weeks prior to her push. She was working just as hard. They did not push Mickie because she won the costume contest either. Aside from being that popular, Mickie James was the most credible face diva on Raw to work with Beth. Sound familiar? Like the same rationale I pointed out as to why Mickie James worked with Lita in 2006?
Mickie's psycho gimmick had been gone for a year. She still maintained overness in 2007, getting consistently good reactions at events, and winning a costume contest which was basically based on overness. Some people make the argument that Mickie was only over because of that psycho lesbian gimmick. I already pointed out the flaw in that no other diva has ever become monster over from just a lesbian, psycho, or fan stalker gimmick, or any combination of that, in the past. Now you have the fact that many women were being pushed in Mickie's place. If sex appeal, what many people argue was the source of what made the psycho gimmick work, really was the key, why could Kelly Kelly not get those monster pops and win the costume contest? She came in second. With the way the WWE treated Mickie James, she was yesterday's news. What kept Mickie being over? Two things. First, the fans will not forget that easily. Thing is, many wrestlers have had great gimmicks that got them over, went through a depush and usually became more generic, and the fans just stopped caring. This is especially the case when the wrestler is treated as a jobber, not given the mic very much, and has other workers pushed ahead of them. Yes, Mickie James pretty much went through this stuff, but what really saved her? The second point, Mickie James was still bringing something the fans liked to see. They took away her gimmick, but they could not take away her charisma. They could not take her energy. They could not take away that she was an actual wrestler. She pushed herself. This is why Mickie James could not be buried.
2007 was not a remarkable year for Mickie James in terms of how the WWE pushed her, but you can learn a lot from looking at it. This was the year Mickie James got her first real depush. Why? The WWE was moving on to find a centerpiece. This was the first year after Mickie's psycho run, and she still remained over. How? Through her own doing more than the WWE's. The WWE certainly was not treating Mickie James as a major priority or centerpiece, and it didn't even matter. When they needed to push her again, she already had the overness to make the fans care, and they started to put the focus back on her. It did not last long.
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