First, Mickie James was disrespected a little by Alexa Bliss. That led to Mickie James kicking her in the head. Going by the interview Mickie James gave later on to explain herself, they are still keeping her heel.
I have said many times that I would not have brought Mickie James back the way the WWE did. I do not like her being heel. I do not like her playing this heel character. I do not like her being a sidekick. But if you are going to do it, there was potential to do a really great job with it. They could have built up a great feud between Mickie James and Becky Lynch, which Becky would have eventually won. They could have built a great relationship between Mickie James and Alexa Bliss, which would have really helped Alexa's character further shine. And the WWE just seemed to have ruined everything. The feud between Mickie and Becky was not built up to be as great as it could have been. And now the partnership between Alexa Bliss and Mickie James ends in a very mediocre fashion.
You can say all this is because Naomi got injured. The WWE obviously cannot do what they had planned with Naomi gone. She was supposed to be holding the Smackdown Women's Championship right now. The blame goes on the WWE, not Naomi. They were the ones that were wrong to rush the title on Naomi and they were the ones that chose to handle things like they have in response to it.
And with Naomi out, the WWE loses a face. You would think the smart thing to do would be to have Mickie James finally go face now that the depth issues in the division obviously call for it. But they still want her to be this bitter heel character. That is just incredibly stupid. Nikki Bella is getting an angle with John Cena. The only free face on the active roster right now is Becky Lynch. So are we doing Becky Lynch vs. everybody that's a heel in the next few weeks? Is it Alexa Bliss vs. everybody that's going after her title? Or is this just going to be a jumbled mess because there are not enough faces to run proper storylines and matches?
Let me talk about Mickie's heel character. First, her promos. Some fans hate her promos. She is dragging out her words. I can see what she's doing. She's trying to play a bitter, condescending heel. You look at how she talked during her 2006 heel run. She didn't talk like this. You look at how she talked during her 2013 heel run. She didn't talk like this. It's because she was playing different heel characters back then. She was a psycho heel in 2006 and playing a more delusional heel in 2013. And that's the difference, the character. This character she is playing now is just not good. It's not that Mickie James doesn't know how to talk, or whatever else some fans are saying. She has proven herself before.
There are also some fans out there I see that enjoy her promo work since coming back. She is putting that emotion into it that a lot of workers don't. They just talk. And that might be a reason why some fans don't appreciate what Mickie James is doing. This is not something she has done before and this is not something the other women on Smackdown are doing. It just looks weird in comparison to other women's promos and Mickie's own promo work in the past. I see mixed reviews on The Usos' promo work. Some people think they are botching their promos. Some people love it because they are trying to stand out. Same kind of thing with Mickie James.
Mickie James wasn't in the WWE when the Reality Era started. That's where a lot of promos just became about these self-righteous rants. It is a shame that some fans view the value of promos more on what is said than how it is said. All you really need to do is talk. If you say what the fans agree with, they will cheer. You don't need to put that extra work in to make your promos unique for these kind of fans. Mickie James is trying to be different, but she doesn't need to be. Of course, the promos the WWE wants her to do aren't even based on reality. She's not bitter. That's another reason this whole heel character is just not good for her.
In the end, if a lot of fans can't appreciate what she's doing, is it worth doing? Why try to stand out? Just talk like everybody else. I don't like saying that. Mickie James is a woman that got as over as she did because she stood out. She took a character and a type of treatment in which she should have just gotten a mediocre connection with the fans and did better than the WWE wanted. If she loses her drive to stand out, then that would just be terrible. The WWE is already failing on their end to use her properly. Personally, I do not like these promos, although I can appreciate what Mickie is trying to do. But the problem isn't Mickie James. The WWE needs to give her a better character.
The second thing I want to talk about her heel character is her emotion outside of these promos. She is still showing that charisma I have brought up before. And that emotion just does not match the character the WWE wants her to portray in terms of her booking and promos. If anything, I would say that charisma just screams to turn her face. This is a person fans enjoyed watching back in the day, and without the hype and creative investment stars would get. That is because she had the wrestling ability to connect with wrestling fans and other attributes to connect with other fans. And that includes her charisma.
Again, I am not saying she should never be heel. Turn her heel when her character gets stale, when there is a great storyline reason for her to go heel, or when a depth issue calls for a heel turn. There wasn't any of that when they brought her back in January. The depth in the division at the time called for her being face. Her character wasn't stale. She was just coming back. Fans were eager for it. And there was really no good storyline reason for her being heel. Instead of having her say that the women of today are not respecting her, just have her come out and say she's here to throw her hat in the ring and remind the women of today what she is about, without sounding like a heel. Now that the WWE is back where they were before Naomi returned in January, that is even more reason to turn Mickie James face.
There are some people that might say someone is a child stuck in a man's body. I was often told I was an old man stuck in a kid's body when I was younger. Regardless of that, when I look at Mickie James, I see a face stuck in a heel character. And it is a bad heel character. To make matters worse, the WWE has not even handled this bad heel character properly for the sake of those she is working with. You can talk about being out of touch, but it means more than just not knowing what your fans want. How about not even knowing what you have right under your nose? How about not being able to properly evaluate your own workers and properly utilize them? The WWE is just doing what they want and not doing things right.
Onto the Smackdown women's match for Wrestlemania. Essentially, just take every woman that has nothing to do and stick her in this match. Terrible. Mickie James vs. Trish Stratus at Wrestlemania 22 was the last great Wrestlemania women's match that wasn't a tag match, a triple threat, a battle royal, a lumberjill match, or some other match that involved sticking more people into the picture that really belonged there. Where are the personal feuds for Wrestlemania between two women? The WWE could have had one last year between Becky Lynch and Charlotte. They stuck Sasha Banks into the picture. Having a valet or manager at ringside is one thing. But this kind of booking is just terrible. And it has gone on now for over ten years.
Even ignoring the comparison to previous years, compare Smackdown's women's match to Raw's women's match. Smackdown has everyone being thrown into the match without much fuss over it this week. Meanwhile, Raw actually did more work than that. They had that promo this week that led to Sasha Banks defeating Bayley to earn a title match. It looks like it might be a triple threat. Regardless of whether or not Nia Jax gets added, there are less bodies involved than Smackdown's match, there is actually some development to building this match, and it was not just thrown together as lazy booking.
Let me just do a quick aside about the women's segment on Raw. Some people have criticized me in the past of undervaluing the overness and ability to draw of Sasha Banks and Bayley. These two wrestled in the third hour this week, which had that large third hour drop some fans have been talking about. Not only that, I was watching the end of the match on Monday, and Sasha Banks didn't get that great of a reaction when she won. That's because them Chicago fans never react to anything, right? Let's just be realistic. Face it, all these women can do better. In most cases, the fault goes on the WWE for mismanaging them. But I don't think I was wrong to question the overness and ability to draw of Sasha Banks and Bayley. There is a toxic environment in the WWE right now that will ruin the potential of a lot of workers. These two women have potential, but they are not there right now.
Back on track, let me continue to compare the Smackdown women's division to the Raw women's division. I would obviously say Smackdown has gotten the short end of the stick for Wrestlemania as far as the women go. But this is nothing new. Look at every major PPV since the brand split came back. I am talking about the big ones that featured both brands. Summerslam had Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte as Raw's women's match. Smackdown had a multi-woman tag match. Survivor Series had Raw vs. Smackdown, which was won by Raw. The Royal Rumble had Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax and Charlotte vs. Bayley for Raw, while Smackdown had another multi-woman tag match. And now Wrestlemania will have Raw's Women's Championship match be featured better than Smackdown's Women's Championship match.
This is terrible. It is becoming a theme. You might forgive them for Survivor Series, but this is still three PPVs since the brand split where Raw's women are being featured better than Smackdown's. And is there an end in sight? Okay, so the WWE wants separate women's divisions. I can even agree with running them with different philosophies. But these divisions are separate, but not equal. The WWE has to be able to spread the spotlight better than this.
While Raw is featuring certain women as elites and prominently, Smackdown is just juggling multiple women around. I think that is one of the problems. Smackdown doesn't have anyone being pushed properly as a star should. And if the WWE looks at the women on Smackdown and don't respect them as elites in the same way they view some of Raw's women, it is no shocker to see this questionable booking for the last few months.
The WWE needs to start developing stars out of the women they have on Smackdown and stop juggling them. If this was their preseason to assess what they have, okay, time to make the tough decisions. I would build around Becky Lynch, Mickie James, and Alexa Bliss. You have a woman that has the potential to be the centerpiece of the division now, a woman that earned it ten years ago, never got it, but can still be featured as a star now, and a woman that may not be a great wrestler, but could be a great character. Carmella and Natalya can be supporting players. What about Nikki Bella? If she sticks around, send her to Raw. Send Emma or Nia Jax to Smackdown. For all the respect Smackdown gets over Raw, they still do some terrible things on the blue brand. There is room for improvement.
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