TNA's Poor Booking Of Mickie James

Is there a clause in the TNA contract of Mickie James that says she can never win at PPVs?

From the time Mickie came to TNA last year, they have beeen having her push the idea that she was out to make history my winning the Knockouts Championship. They give the title to heel Madison Rayne, who has Tara as a sidekick, and sets them up as a strong obstacle for Mickie James to overcome to reach her goal. Fine? Boring. But I'll get back to that.

They have Mickie fail at two PPVs to defeat Tara, then have her get the win in a cage match on Impact. They have Mickie fail at two PPVs to win the title from Madison Rayne. This too is fine. Look back at Lita's first path to the Women's Championship against Stephanie McMahon. She failed on the first two attempts to beat Stephanie. Tori cost her the match the first time. Kurt Angle laid out Ltia the second time. In the third run, which saw Lita win the title in the main event of Raw, Angle, Triple H, and The Rock himself were all involved in the match. Not only did the WWE raise the bar in terms of the roadblocks Stephanie was using against Lita, the rubs Lita got during this feud was just one of the advantages the WWE gave Lita to help connect her with the fans within just her first year in the WWE. This helped to get Lita very over.

Back to the future and down to TNA, they are prolonging giving Mickie the title. If they were actually building the stakes higher, I would see no problem in this. I love how the issues between Jarrett and Angle and between Bully Ray and Devon are being built up. Angle got brutally attacked by Jarrett at last months PPV. This month, Jarrett got a win against Angle in a match with interesting stakes. With Team 3D, Ray turned on Devon last year. Last month, Devon could not get proper revenge at Genesis. At Against All Odds, Devon had to watch his own sons get destroyed. The heels are looking strong. When they get what is coming to them, that can be a moment the crowd can really be built to appreciate. Moreover, this is all personal stuff that can get people talking. With Mickie and Madison, you have Mickie losing the same exact way at both PPVs. She is close to winning, Tara causes a distraction, Madison uses a foreign object to win. Unlike the situation with Lita and Stephanie, Mickie James is not getting rubs from main-eventers. More obstacles are not being put in her way. It is the same thing again and again. Unlike Lita in 2000, Mickie James in 2011 is already very over. She has connected with the fans through something that goes beyond booking and rubs and hype from the company for which she works. That does not mean I am going to say she does not deserve some of this stuff. Prolonging the feud like this is not helping Mickie James.

That was an understatement right there. TNA is not even pushing Mickie James every week. If TNA's booking of Mickie James injures her overness, I must congratulate them. They would have accomplished what the WWE could not do. You know what is really ironic? The WWE was trying to damage it, while TNA is actually the promotion who wants Mickie James.

The issue is not even just Mickie James. TNA is flopping all over the place with their women. The clearest example is Velvet Sky. Who is she supposed to be developing a feud with? Winter or Sarita? They are just moving across back and forth. Which are the fans supposed to connect with? Which are the little girls on Youtube supposed to make feud movies for? Which are the perverts supposed to be expecting when they get ready to exercise their left hand over? If the two feuds were somehow linked in an interesting way, I would not complain. They are not. And it should be possible to push to different knockouts feuds in one impact in some way. Who does TNA really want their fans to connect with? Mickie James? TBP? Sarita? Madison? Tara? End of the day, there is not one woman they are pushing consistently well. This hurts many of the knockouts from connecting with the fans, whether TNA wants to push them or not, and doesn't make fans of certain over women happy.

What would I do? Either give Mickie James the title already, keep it on Madison and push both women in separate directions, or, if the feud must continue, bring in more elements to make the moment really worth something for Mickie James. Right now, TNA is not helping Mickie's overness. I do not believe the payoff will bring that much more value than giving Mickie the title already would have done. Most importantly, I think they ruined the ability of this possible title change to really be a worthy draw that people want to see. It is getting stale. "Serious Woman Who Wants To Accomplish Something" Mickie James is fine and well for her first title hunt, but this is not the Mickie James TNA should be pushing after this current feud. The Mickie James that can really draw the fans to her is the one who can show her charisma and face women better than Madison Rayne. You need to give her more interesting storylines. If that means Mickie James can never win a title, I would not cry too much. The true goal is overness. If a wrestler is really over, people will want to see them. There you have entertainment. There you have a draw. Until TNA goes down this path, they are not using Mickie James correctly. Worse than that, they are killing Mickie's true accomplishments in pro wrestling.