killeroflegends

I have been spending a lot of time recently talking about why Mickie James may possibly be getting buried, depushed, mistreated, or whatever you want to call it. In the interest of fairness, I want to analyze another possible reason for the push of Melina and Kelly Kelly. These two women, I am going to argue, must have the spotlight right now for the Raw face divas.

First, Melina is the Women’s Champion, so she has to have some of the major focus. Did they have to give her the title? Put yourself in the place of the WWE powers. Beth Phoenix got her second reign just to drop the title back to the returning Candice Michelle. If you doubt that still, there are just too many coincidences and circumstances pointing to that idea to make it easily be otherwise. I do not want to sidetrack by going into that here, but I will say that Candice’s return obviously flopped. Her return performance in the ring was sad. The WWE has lost faith in her since that point. She got one shot against Beth and that was it. The WWE still had other options. How about giving the title to Kelly Kelly, who did take a share of the spotlight since her first day as a Raw diva? She is not experienced enough to be given the title yet. What about Mickie James? Besides the fact that she was injured slightly for a few weeks, the WWE could have decided to give her another title push before or after the injury. But imagine how that would look in the title history section of WWE.com. The Women’s Championship went from Beth Phoenix to Mickie James to Beth Phoenix and then back to Mickie James in an entire year? That is just awkward. So Candice needed to improve herself again, Kelly Kelly was not experienced enough, and the WWE had already had Beth and Mickie drop the title to each other before. They needed someone fresh and decent in the ring. Melina was returning soon. She had faced Beth in a brief feud before getting injured, and she never beat Beth during that time. How about taking advantage of her return push by reigniting her feud with Beth and have it for the title? That is what the WWE did. It seems like one of the best options that they could have chosen with what they had to work with.

With Melina as a face Women’s Champion, who is she going to work with? Her face run got crushed fast due to injury, so she would have to work to get that momentum back for herself. I believe that if the WWE tried to pair her with Mickie James, which they did try, Mickie would be outshining Melina. That is not a Mickie fan trying to imply Mickie is better than Melina, that is a human being with ears to hear the pop the two women get when they come out and work in the ring. I am not saying that Mickie is trying purposely to make Melina look bad. On the contrary, look at Melina’s return match. Mickie pointed to the entrance to hype Melina more. Look at when they tagged up to face Layla and Jillian. Mickie was the one who made herself look like the weak partner in that match by taking that hard bump, which further strengthened their friendship relationship and helped to make Melina look like the strong diva in the end of that match. Mickie has used her skills to try to make Melina look good, but the fans were still liking Mickie James more. That makes Melina look like a sidekick, and this was before she even won the title. After she won it, they could not still have her looking like a sidekick in terms of reaction, especially when she is supposed to look like the leader in terms of who is getting pushed and the actual pin in matches. That is the problem of pairing a 3-time Women’s Champion that has not been face for long with a 4-time Women’s Champion who is very over. Some of that overness may rub off, but Melina really has to come into her own. So Mickie is out. Who is left? Candice? The WWE still never regained that faith in her, and besides that, there is a better choice.

Kelly Kelly is the woman to push as top sidekick. Unlike the other two face sidekicks, she has never been Women’s Champion. When Melina and Kelly team up, people can easily realize who the leader is here. There is also the key that Kelly Kelly still needs improving. She is the least experienced of the face divas. How is she going to get that experience? By watching Mickie, Melina, and Candice do all the wrestling themselves? The WWE is determined on getting Kelly Kelly over as a top face in the future. Candice implied that herself in an interview. Pushing Kelly fits perfectly with my idea that the WWE is looking for the next Trish Stratus. She needs the time to get over and experienced. Pushing Kelly Kelly and Melina in the spotlight kills two birds with one stone. Kelly gets the time to sharpen her skills in front of the audience further, which the WWE hopes will create a connection between her and the audience, and Melina gets to work directly above, and share the spotlight with, a diva who is not really in her league yet. Melina, in theory, should be able to get a better pop than Kelly Kelly based on her holding the title, better experience in the ring, and time in the WWE. Kelly Kelly, in the hopes of the WWE, should be able to get great exposure in the ring to impress the fans, develop her talents, and start getting really over herself. It is the dream team, right?

In all honesty, I would still rather see Mickie and Melina a lot more. To those who are always worrying that Mickie must have done something wrong to get depushed, or that she is being punished, this reasoning I just gave, which seems somewhat possible, leaves Mickie James in the clear. She did not do anything wrong. This is not a punishment, but an attempt to give Melina a fair shot during her face run, and to give Kelly Kelly a chance to get to the level of the other credible face women in terms of skill. As I have always said for a while now, if there were more credible heel divas on Raw, Mickie and Candice may have been used more. It would also help if the WWE regularly had room for more than one diva angle. Of course, there are holes in my argument. Why did they have to give the title to Melina at all? Why not keep it on Beth, turn Rosa face shortly after Beth finished her feud with Melina, and have Rosa win the title? Or wait for the draft to bring Beth a fresh opponent? My argument does not explain why Mickie never had a ending to her feud with Jamie Noble against Regal and Layla, as well as other pushes in the past ending abruptly. It may not satisfy some who did not enjoy seeing Melina/Kelly vs. Beth/Jillian at least four times in less than three months, or did not enjoy seeing four consecutive weeks of no one but those same four women getting booked in matches. I also did not talk about why the WWE just does not turn Mickie heel now to feud with Melina, although the answer is obvious when you look at what major event is near. There are probably more holes out there, but I still believe the analysis I gave is sound and possible. A depush may not always come as part of a punishment or being in the infamous “doghouse.” It just may not be Mickie’s time now. Fans who grew up during the age of Trish Stratus may not understand that easily.

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