killeroflegends

In my many years of being a wrestling fan, and with all due respect to Lita, Trish Stratus, Chyna, Sunny, and a lot of other great female wrestlers who have competed in ECW, WCW, TNA, and WWE, no one has impressed me more than Mickie James. I recognize a good match when I see one, and I know that a lot of divas can put them on in the WWE, but Mickie James brings a lot more and is unique in my eyes.

I first noticed something special about Mickie when I watched Wrestlemania 22. Her match against Trish Stratus stole the show for me. That is the first time a diva match stole any show for me, and the fact that it happened at Wrestlemania, where a lot of my other favorite wrestlers as Mick Foley, Ric Flair, and Randy Orton had big matches, makes it even more spectacular that I have to admit that. It surprised even me. That match between Trish and Mickie was very competitive, once again showing that women can be serious about match quality just like the guys, but Mickie’s demeanor and ring psychology in that match was just awesome. The crowd helped as well, and how Mickie seemed to draw off of their responses. I have had my eye on Mickie ever since.

I also respect Mickie James a lot because she did not get over by typical WWE diva antics, which is why I respect divas like Lita, Chyna, and Victoria. They did not do slutty romance angles, strip, or run around in revealing clothing. Mickie debuted as the obsessed fan of Trish Stratus. She started out a charismatic face that only seemed to annoy Trish, but to the fans, Mickie was cute, charismatic, and entertaining. The storyline continued as Mickie’s obsession grew stronger, turning into a lesbian character. But her portrayal was not as slutty as other lesbian angles the WWE has done, such as Dawn/Torrie. Mickie’s portrayal was PSYCHOTIC!Her promos were entertaining. The storyline itself was very elaborate and given time to develop, as it encompassed feuds with Ashley, Melina, Victoria, Torrie, and Candice for both Mickie and Trish, before Mickie finally did turn heel. After that, Mickie’s promos became even more evilly entertaining. Mickie would go on to win her first WWE Women’s Championship from Trish Stratus at Wrestlemania, becoming the only person to say that she won her first Women’s title at her Wrestlemania debut. It would have been great to see how much further the feud could have gone had Trish not gotten injured, and ultimately decided to retire that same year. A gimmick match would have been interesting, and anyone who knows Mickie James pre-WWE career knows she can handle some extreme matches. This diva angle stepped out the typical slutty segments, and even the typical jealousy plots where the diva is envious that the attention is on someone else and wants revenge. Mickie was not simply jealous. Mickie loved Trish, Trish did not, and Mickie was left with wanting to destroy her. It worked very well and caught my interest. Because of all of that, this is the greatest diva storyline I have ever seen. And that is not just because both divas were good workers in the ring, but because Mickie had the awesome charisma to make it work.

And Mickie’s charisma is amazing. It is arguably the greatest quality Mickie James possesses. It permeates into everything else about her, from her ring work to her mic skills and promos. She reminds me a lot of Sunny in how she can work the crowd, but it is different with Mickie. Sunny’s charisma pulled from her sexiness and using her body in a sexy way, much like most divas these days. I am not saying Mickie does not have a sexy body, especially when compared to the generic blonde stick-figure look of which many are getting bored, but Mickie’s charisma is not linked to that. Charisma seems to be natural for her when she is relaxed. She is a fun person. Her charisma comes off as being cute, almost like that best friend you have who is a girl and you can only wish with all your heart that it would be more. Some describe her as the “girl-next-door” type. She has the energy to work the crowd and seems to know that this is a business to entertain first, that the fans want to see a good show, and issues of having a record number of title reigns or longest title reigns are just insane. Mickie works to please and entertain. I simply love that.

Looking at her mic skills, Mickie’s charisma has allowed her to pull of some amazing promos. Her psycho runs speaks for itself. Some people complain that Mickie should go psycho again or at least turn heel because she is stale and boring as a face. She is over and loved as a face. Moreover, her promos are not entirely hurt just because she is a face. Her Cyber Sunday vote promo, which was the most recent promo she has had, proved how charismatic and cool she still can be. She did not have to jump around or make herself look foolish to be entertaining. That would not be a decent Lara Croft anyway. Prior to that, the last angle she really had that gave her promo time was the Cena romance angle. I liked it because it showcased the many personas one would have to take in a love angle like that. Mickie goes from being the nerdy, lovesick girl when she’s around Cena, to being the proud woman defending herself against allegations against Katie Lea, to being the intimidated damsel who is faced with the same allegations but this time from the tough JBL embarrassing her in front of Mr. McMahon. Mickie can handle a variety of roles, although I would like to see a heel run myself, just so she can destroy Candice and Kelly Kelly. My favorite promo to come out of the short-lived romance angle is the one in which Cena hands Mickie back her panties and it becomes obvious that something must of happened. Besides the fact that we got to see Mickie’s panties, the segment illustrated how Mickie can act a role to make it her own. The segment itself was designed to be slutty, as the whole angle overall, but Mickie played it well. She showed great embarrassment and tried to laugh it off when it happened. That was not a slutty response for me. She seemed cute to me. I can see some of the divas who are more proud of a slutty character handling that situation nonchalantly. I think Mickie did a good job of trying to make her character not seem like a slut, since the angle itself was trying to do that, but I don’t blame her for not wanting to continue it. The angle should have helped to propel her to the level of Cena, as a main-eventer, but it never got into the ring. Instead, it stayed backstage and was making her seem like a typical slutty diva. A slut is not what she wants to be. On the other hand, she has already earned my respect, as well as many other fans, by not getting over in a slutty fashion, so if she ever did choose to revisit a romance angle like that, I know she can make it fun.

Mickie is amazing in the ring. She is great at selling, ring psychology, and other less obvious parts of a match that make it great. She regularly works to put her opponents over and give the fans a fun show. During her heel run, for example, she would work a lot against Torrie Wilson, especially in tag matches at house shows. Back then Torrie would give her opponents a stink face. Not only was Mickie frequently on the receiving end, she would open her mouth when she was getting it just to embarrass herself more and entertain the fans. So don’t take it the wrong way when I say this, but Mickie would make an excellent jobber since she is so good at putting people over.

Not only is Mickie an awesome seller and good at putting talent over, much like Victoria, but she is dynamite as far as holding her own in a match. I love Mickie’s DDT and her Mick Kick, as well as a lot of the other moves she showcases. Mickie is good at high-risk moves, can pull off some impressive kicks with those educated feet, and actually has pure wrestling and mat skills. Mickie seems to actually represent the three major styles I see in her. Her agility helps her in the risk taking department, her martial arts background help her pull of a range of kicks, and her pure wrestling skill is powered by her charisma that even that does not seem boring. Her energy in the ring often amazes me. I think she has to surely botch many times and severely, but she doesn’t. She has mastered what she does pretty well. I also think that she has to injure her knees or something after those hard landings. She is lucky she has a good body for taking punishment.

Mickie has a large moveset for any WWE superstar, male or female. By my count, she has at least a dozen moves/variations which she uses regularly right now (I did not count moves she used before WWE, moves she used in the WWE but stopped doing, or stuff I only saw her use once). Mickie has never had a match where she used everything in her arsenal, or even attempted to do so. She always uses a combination. If Mickie picks just five moves for every match, plus the other two reasons I love seeing Mickie wrestle so much, and plus the fact that her opponent has to bring her own offense as well, the quality of Mickie’s matches can’t get boring that easily.

Mickie has a pugnacious spirit. That is what helped Melina get over when she turned face and was like a wild woman out to get Beth. The fans love to see someone who wants to fight. Mickie’s pugnacious spirit is very obvious in tag matches. She will take cheap shots at the wrestler standing on the apron, especially if they did it to her first, she will drag the illegal person in the ring and clean house of both enemies, she will brawl in her opponent’s corner if trapped there. In single matches, I have seen the ref have to separate Mickie many times because she wants to go at it with full force, whether she is doing the basic catfight, punching away on a mounted opponent, or beating them in the corner. Her pugnacious spirit even shines in that she is not afraid to attack male wrestlers. Mickie James is a fighter and I, as well as the fans in the crowd, love to see her fight. And that fighting spirit can take on a number of different altercations, so it does not get boring easily. There is a reason Cole calls her “The Gutsy Mickie James”.

The biggest reason I have never found Mickie’s matches boring as of yet, is that she is awesome at countering. She makes it a style in itself. For many wrestlers, a counter may be simply reversing an Irish whip or blocking a punch and just doing a simple one in return. For Mickie, her athleticism and agility allow her to counter a lot of moves when you would least expect it. The best example is how she won her fourth reign. Raw was taped that day and I knew she would win, but I did not see that finish coming when it did. Her countering also allows her to pull off some cool spots, like when she lands on her feet after flipping through a move. I have heard the audience gasp in shock at times when she does it. Momentum shifts are always exciting, and they allow Mickie’s performances to really be a spectacle.

The final, but certainly not least important, aspect of Mickie James as a wrestler is her look. She is beautiful. Sometimes she looks glamorous, other times more cute and less sexy. Her charisma just seems to add to her beauty. Her backside is pretty appealing as well. Probably most importantly, and I said it before, Mickie is not a blonde who is 99% bones and 1% skin. She is not super thin, but she is not fat either. She is sexy.

There are still other reasons I can give about why I love Mickie, including analyzing her struggle in getting to the WWE and her continued love of the fans, but I want to keep it to what Mickie shows when she goes out there on Raw, like I did for all the other divas on my list. But for whatever reasons I have for Mickie, a ton of people out there have their own reasons. Mickie has to be doing something right, as Cyber Sunday illustrates. She deserves nothing but happiness in her life and will always have my respect. And as always, I did not write all this just because I am a Mickie James fan. I am a Mickie James fan because I honestly believe what I wrote here.

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