Mickie James To Turn Heel?

Aside from her involvement in AAA last year, Mickie James has not been heel since 2006 in the WWE. On Impact last week, Mickie James played the heel role during her face vs. face match with Velvet Sky, including doing the heelish act of attacking Velvet during a handshake, and acted very upset after losing the match. With TNA also pushing issues between Gail Kim and Madison Rayne, there very well might be a heel turn coming, especially if one of the two women I just mentioned turned face.

I am not usually one of those wrestling fans who says that turning someone heel/face is the way to make them interesting again. I can especially list examples from the WWE where a turn did not lead to anything great. But this is TNA. This is Mickie James. TNA and Mickie James. TNA typically tries to treat their workers better than the WWE attempts to do, and Mickie James is definitely someone they value. They do use her. She does support things that are going on in the company. She went over to India for TNA's Ring Ka King. Problem is, even though they value Mickie James and have reason to, are they using her right? Are they using her in a way that can really make her over, potentially have her be a draw, and make money for them? Just because Mickie James is over, is sometimes in a segment that draws the highest ratings on Impact, which is continuing in the tradition the KO division already has, and has sold some merchandise that TNA has put out for her, you cannot take it for granted that TNA is actually handling her in a way to help her deliver. As I have said before, her feuds have been repetitive and dull. They put her into situations where she has to play a serious face chasing after a title, seeking revenge, saving other KOs, always getting attacked, and is just not giving her storylines to let her play a character to let her charisma out. It still surprises me that Mickie remains as over as she is. But how long could that really have lasted with how TNA handles her?

I want to make sure that no one believes I think TNA is intentionally doing this to damage Mickie James. TNA just does not make good decisions a lot of the time when it comes to developing characters and progressing feuds and pushes, not to mention their product is not too fun in general. Look at Rob Van Dam. This guy was a World Champion in TNA. He got screwed over by an injury. When he returned, did they ever give him back the title? No. He never held anymore titles. But that is fine. I'm not a believer that someone always has to be hunting a title to get a push or be used right. RVD came back, was pushed regularly, won a lot of big matches and feuds, and continued to be a great worker. But I never did like the decision to never give him back the title. It's not like he screwed himself. It's not like TNA was trying to punish him, since I just said they still pushed him regularly. You have a good, over worker, who lost a main-event push due to an injury, but you never give him back that same level of a push? I am aware he got rematches, but he was never pushed as hard as he was before. I didn't even mention the storylines revolving around him. Kind of dull there too. I am aware of the reports of changes in who is doing the writing in TNA, so we'll just have to see where things go.

A Mickie James heel turn has potential. But if TNA continues to hand her dry storylines or booking that consists of her winning three matches in a row, losing four matches in a row, and then beating someone in a cage match before going back to losing again, they are not going to help her deliver for them and may inadvertently be damaging her overness. I sometimes come across fans who say they like Mickie James better in TNA than in WWE. Congratulations, but there are reasons that TNA Impact Wrestling still cannot beat even WWE Smackdown in the ratings. It isn't because TNA has no stars. It isn't because the stars have no good workers to work with. It is a problem in how they are used. The worst thing I can imagine TNA doing is turning Mickie James heel to be Gail Kim's new sidekick. If you want to team them together, that is fine, but wasting Mickie James as just a sidekick?

Would I rather Mickie James still be in the WWE? Let me repeat something I believe I said once before. Gail Kim deserves to be in a TNA that will pay her what she deserves, while Mickie James deserves to be in a WWE that will treat her like she deserves. Believe it or not, TNA is actually treating Mickie James as they would someone they value. That's the scary thing.