But let me start with giving them a little more credit. A week after she returned, they let Mickie James get some promo time to really put herself over, as well as explain her heel character. How often during her first run in the WWE did she really get a chance to stand in the ring and give a promo like that? It was a little refreshing.
As far as what I don't like goes, they had her give a bitter promo about the women's revolution. She talked about not being given enough respect by the female wrestling stars making noise in the WWE recently. This isn't based on real-life drama. I have said many times how much I am sick of angles like that. Mickie James has frequently shown respect to the women of this new era. She may joke about things here and there, but she has never shown any true bitterness to women like Becky Lynch. But it is still a bitter promo. What makes it worse, it is once again based on the women's revolution. Enough is enough with that. This has been going on for 2 years. It started as #GiveDivasAChance. It is now the women's revolution. You can treat these women better without mentioning it so often in promos and making storylines off of it.
Since that episode of Smackdown, all Mickie James has done is been on the losing end of tag matches. She hasn't been pinned. Alexa Bliss has been pinned by Naomi to further that title feud. Nevertheless, she just doesn't look very strong. As I said before, Mickie James coming back can help their depth. And that is how they are using her. They now have more options for tag matches.
Mickie James can offer a lot more than that, however. She was one of the most over female wrestlers of the previous decade. It is true that a lot of those fans are gone now. And the younger audience likely never saw Mickie James. She was gone from the WWE main roster for 7 years. Most of these fans don't watch TNA (Impact Wrestling). It will take time for her to connect with this audience.
Her current usage, however, is not likely to help her. A bitter Mickie James? Why is that a good thing? Even then, she's not really keeping it up in her matches so far. Why should she? That would just be burying herself. And the WWE should probably give her a new theme. It is true that she had that theme during her short psycho heel run, but she's not playing that character now. This heel character and that theme song just don't seem to go together. Her whole entrance needs to be upgraded. Looking at some of the entrances other women have these days, Mickie's entrance looks like something from the 1970s. If this is the "reinvention" of Mickie James, the WWE needs to actually handle Mickie James a lot differently.
Part of the problem is obviously the depth. If there were more women, Mickie James might be more free to have a better feud with Becky Lynch. She can go over some women to build some momentum. Alexa Bliss can tag with someone else. Naomi can be pinning someone else. Carmella can actually be feuding with someone on the roster. Right now, things are just spread thin. Mickie James is looking like a sidekick, even though she does have her own feud going on with Becky Lynch.
It reminds me of Mickie James going back to TNA in 2010. They didn't use her right. They treated her like all she was good for was chasing after titles and seeking revenge against heel sidekicks that were screwing her. They stifled her charisma. It wasn't until her short heel run that they let her show that charisma. This is the company that let her tie and break the record for most major women's titles, but they didn't use her properly to really deliver for them.
Let me bring up a recent example from TNA. Look at Aron Rex (Damien Sandow). When he debuted for them, he looked like an average guy they found walking down the street. He looked boring. This is a guy that got over in the WWE prior to his release. He did it by playing different characters very well. Aron Rex is not good enough as a wrestler to get over by that alone. I am not sure if he has the charisma to pull off being entertaining without a proper gimmick, something Mickie James could do. But he is this guy that can play gimmicks well. There is nothing wrong with that. He just wasn't working out as best as he could. Recently, TNA finally figured it out and let him play a more flamboyant character. I saw one fan say that TNA is terrible for doing this to him. No, this is TNA doing the right thing. This is where he is at his best. If this kind of thing got him over in the WWE, why would you not go to that in TNA?
Imagine a company that is looking to hire workers that have proven they can be successes. But when they hire these workers, they tie their hands and don't let them do the things that made them successful elsewhere. Why would you want to do that? Unless what they were doing is unethical or illegal, you shouldn't hire successful workers and do that to them. It is neither good for the worker nor the company. I am a believer of sometimes taking away what gets a worker over to challenge them to show versatility, but that's just me. But if you're company is struggling, you definitely should not do that kind of thing. And I don't think there is a major pro wrestling company in North America that can afford to act this way. TNA is trying to rebuild. The WWE is losing their audience and very sloppy. If they are going to hire workers that have shown they can be successful, they have to understand what makes them successful and help bring the best out of them. It is good for the worker and the company.
I had said that the WWE should not re-sign Mickie James. I saw the issues they had. They needed to fix their own issues before they bothered to bring anyone back. They bring back Mickie James, but then they don't really handle her right. Again, there were some nice gestures here and there in the last few weeks. Overall, however, this looks like it is going to flop. Yes, this is a botch. I am not saying they are intentionally screwing Mickie James. Mickie James has had to endure a lot of terrible situations throughout her career. She debuted in the WWE during an era where they were not pushing her to get over. She overcame that and had to endure some pretty terrible treatment from the WWE. That didn't ruin her overness. I already mentioned how TNA did not handle her right. That didn't ruin her overness. This toxic environment currently in the WWE might finally kill it. It is a shame that Mickie James has had to spend so many years not being pushed the way she really deserved. It's not about title reigns. It is about how you are actually pushed. And even though the WWE appears to want to feature her for better reasons than they did the first time she was there, they just are not doing it properly.
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