TNA's Birthday Gift To Mickie James

Yes, I know Mickie's birthday was August 31st. I know this week's Impact was taped before this week. Nevertheless, Mickie James has regained the Knockout's Championship on tonight's Impact.

First, Winter. Tears for her? Her reign only lasted a few weeks and she did not have any successful title defenses. Fact is, TNA has done much worse. They have had people win titles in boxes. They have had people win titles by DQ, then have the title taken back because losing a title like that is stupid. Of course, my favorite one is when the WWE handed Dolph Ziggler a World Championship on Smackdown after he never beat Edge at all, then had Edge win it back the same night. But this is about the stupid stuff TNA does, right? Or was I talking about Winter? Winter actually won a title in TNA before Mickie James. Winter and Angelina Love won the tag titles. They held those titles for a few months, having some successful defenses. By winning the Knockout's title, Winter has actually held both of the women's titles in TNA before Mickie James. That is an accomplishment too. Because I have seen worse than this and Winter does not look in horrible shape as far as titles in TNA goes, I will not cry for her.

Time to celebrate! Just a bit. 2x TNA Knockout's Champion. 1x WWE Diva's Champion. 5x WWE Women's Champion. That is 8 total female titles from major promotions. That beats out the record of Trish Stratus, which is set at 7. Trish will forever hold the record for most WWE Women's Championship reigns, since that title is retired. How can I still say Mickie James beat the record? Without getting too much into it, Triple H did not win 13 major World titles with the same title. The same goes for guys like Cena and Orton, whenever the WWE mentions their World title counts. Ric Flair, the man whose official 16x World title record everyone talks about and speculates who will be the one to break it, did not win them all in one promotion. His title count actually gets more convoluted than that, but you get the idea. Fact is, Mickie James, as far as title reigns go, is finally starting to step out of Trish's shadow. This is what the WWE did not want to do for her.

Also, this is a sign that Mickie James is being booked as a centerpiece in TNA. The fact that she is making in the $100,000 a year range, while other women in TNA are making less than half of that, is another sign. TNA must have learned a little after they lost women like Gail Kim and Awesome Kong to pay issues. Fact is, a centerpiece who has been solidified in that position by the WWE is probably making at least $300,000 a year. Face it, midcarders in the WWE make more than $100,000 a year. I am saying this to illustrate that it may sound like Mickie James is making a lot, but the WWE would have still paid better, if they valued the results she was bringing and wanted her to bring them. And what did I mean when I said Mickie James was being booked as a centerpiece? Title matters revolving around her. Consistent pushes. As centerpiece, they will be upward with her treatment. Most importantly, they are not doing this because the woman they would rather push is injured, retired, or just flopped. This booking is meant for Mickie.

Let me say a little about what I do not like about all this. I think TNA should have spent more time actually developing a storyline or built up the momentum better. Make things more interesting. Obviously, they are not ignoring doing this because they do not value Mickie James. They are not doing this because they do not value their women. I see some storylines going on. Winter and Angelina still have an angle going on. I wish there was better development there too, but it leads to some segments and opportunity to portray a gimmick. If they made things more entertaining in general, I believe they would be able to draw a wider audience. Mickie James can very much help them there. But if they stifle her, like I see them unintentionally doing, it can hurt her overall overness, not to mention hold the TNA product back.

A very happy birthday to Mickie James. This is her year. Life still isn't a luxury cruise to her, but she has earned what she is now getting. She has shown she could bring results, she is working for a company that needs people who can bring results in order to even try to compete with the WWE, and she is receiving the type of booking that I am happy with. If they get better writers, it could only get better for her.

Telling Too Many Stories In The Ring

TNA continues with the same booking scheme when it comes to the title reign of Mickie James. She faces off against two heels, gets beaten down, the heels start to break up, Mickie overcomes. There are even more heel pairings on the sidelines for TNA to continue this.

This is all holding Mickie James back, in my opinion. Not just her character, but also potential match quality. Match quality is not determined by how good an individual wrestler is alone. Who are they going against? How much time is given to the match? Is there any story the workers must tell that may take away from overall match quality? People may not understand what I mean by that last one. Let me give an example from this past Raw, just to also show that TNA is not the only company that does this. Remember that CM Punk vs. Kane match? It was definitely not match of the night. It was not a botchfest or full of sloppy or awkward spots, but it was not that awesome. Why is that? CM Punk is definitely a strong worker in the ring. That is an understatement. Kane is no slouch. In fact, he dominated most of the action. The match was not given too much time, but I have seen shorter matches in the WWE that were more exciting. The match suffered in quality because of the story being told. Not just the finish, which consisted of CM Punk walking out to sell the idea that he couldn't handle Kane and didn't even need to win this match, since he would be leaving the WWE and already had his title shot. The way they were able to get to that finish was through the story of the match itself. As I said, Kane dominated. That created the whole story of the match, from the start, through the bulk of the action, and to the finish.

Back to Mickie James. Go back to her recent match with Winter. They fought all the way from the backstage area to the ring. Just when the action was getting hot in the ring, Angelina interferes, Winter wins, and that is all. Two problems here. First, not enough time given to the match. Second, the story between Angelina and Winter influenced match quality. Let me go back and correct myself. Angelina getting involved really is no big deal. Storyline has to get furthered. The real thing I do not like was how short the action was. Nevertheless, both of these factors still had a major influence over the match you saw last week. Given more time and a cleaner finish, you may have had a better match. I strongly believe that.

This week, 6-person elimination tag. Let me give TNA some credit. If that was a WWE diva match featuring many women, the majority of women would not have even seen any legal time in the ring. I have even seen some 2-on-2 diva matches where at least one woman was never tagged in at all. Miss T., Tara, Mickie James, Madison Rayne, Angelina Love, and Winter all saw some time in the ring. There you see a little trouble right away. First, Miss T. and Madison are not the greatest workers in the ring. They did not do too much wrestling, but that still impacts the match. Second, given the amount of time the match was given, having so many women also impacted the action. Did each woman really get to show their best? Or just a few spots and storytelling each? After Miss T. and Tara were eliminated, then the real storytelling took over this match. Angelina and Winter turned on Madison, unhappy that she stole a pin. They let Mickie eliminate her. Winter and Angelina then teamed up on Mickie for the rest of the match, having her beat at one point. But Winter refused to let Angelina get the pin. Mickie managed to recover and beat Angelina, then Winter. Mickie eliminated all three heels. As a Mickie James fan, excellent! But I can understand how many would not like this. You tune in for total-nonstop action, but you get storyline advancement in the ring taking the place of wrestling action.

Of course, only a moron, or the average pro wrestling critic, would blame Mickie James for this. Since I would like to believe I'm more of an analyst than a critic, I understand more that there are some things that are just out of her hands. Match time? Advancing the storyline TNA is pushing? She's doing what she has to. One way to fix this would be to give more time for actual promos. Separate wrestling from storyline development more. That would improve KO matches a lot more. Of course, I am still waiting for TNA to develop better storylines for Mickie James. Take better advantage of that charisma she has.