killeroflegends

Raw’s diva match at Night of Champions will feature Maryse defending the Diva’s Championship against Mickie James. I have spent time talking about this feud in relation to the grand race to make history, how it was unique from Smackdown’s diva feud, why it was structured how it was for the benefit of Maryse, and so on. All that is left is to look at who may win.

This whole feud was built on the fact that Maryse was afraid to face Mickie James, who had pinned her twice. Maryse was the one with something to prove. Could she beat Mickie? She did pin her in a tag match. If this was a math problem, that victory may negate Mickie’s own tag win over Maryse. However, Mickie still holds a pinfall victory in a singles match. Mickie is still one ahead. Could Maryse get the win in the title match to even things out? If the purpose of this feud is to get Maryse over, it will look good for her to overcome Mickie James. Does the victory she already hold against Mickie make that impossible? Look at Dolph Ziggler’s recent feud with The Great Khali. Ziggler actually lost a match by pinfall to Khali, but the WWE still pushed the feud past this point. The reason for that was obvious. In the continued build, Ziggler got wins by DQ and countout, but never pinned Khali. That was the only thing left. Sure enough, at the pay-per-view match, thanks to Kane, Ziggler finally pinned The Great Khali in a singles match. Going back to my main point, what is left for the two women? Mickie has proven she can pin Maryse in tag matches or singles matches. Maryse has yet to prove she can beat Mickie James in a singles match. If she does that, she would have totally proven everyone wrong about the negative assumptions the WWE was pushing in this feud. Will The Miz play a role? He has his own business at the event, but a power couple can be formed if both these heels walk out with gold. If the WWE really wants to get Maryse over, I would not be surprised if they stacked resources for Maryse.

People have incorrectly talked about the momentum being on Mickie’s side for too much of the first portion of this feud, as I have discussed before. But Maryse did get momentum by costing Mickie a title shot months ago and by getting a win by pinning Kelly Kelly in a tag match that also included Mickie. Mickie did not gain momentum there. Over the last two weeks, Maryse further gained more momentum at the expense of Mickie, once again utilizing the hairspray trick. Why do I bring this back up? Because I do not believe Maryse will look weak if she does lose to Mickie James. Maryse has had the moments I just mentioned, a brief program over Kelly Kelly in the midst of it all, and continually got promo time to help her character get over. Unlike the Ziggler/Khali feud, there is a title involved here. Maryse won the Diva’s Championship before Melina won the Women’s Championship in January. Maryse still holds her title even after Melina lost her title recently. I am counting 7 months in Maryse’s reign and I cannot believe it. She has had four official title defenses, outside of house shows. Many fans are not happy with the quality of her reign. It may very well be time to end it. It looks as if the WWE may be building up Alicia Fox, a heel. Mickie James, a face, can win the title and feud against Alicia down the road. Maryse will not be left with nothing if paired with Miz. If Maryse retains, Gail Kim may be the likely choice to feud with her. She pinned Maryse on her first night on Raw. Problem is, this feud already happened on Smackdown a few months ago. In terms of freshness, I would like to see Mickie/Alicia. Gail Kim already has a lot of credentials to her. Alicia could use the push.

Not just speaking as a fan of Mickie James, I believe she will win the title this Sunday. Maryse has the momentum going into the big match. Maryse has already proven she can beat Mickie James. I brought up the Ziggler/Khali feud, but I do not see what is going on here as completely the same. If the WWE was going to build Mickie up as a challenge for Maryse to eventually prove she can overcome, they would have done better to have Maryse prove that by having Maryse pin Mickie in the big match. After that, Maryse pinning Mickie in any match would not have to be as epic. Momentum can shift from Mickie to Maryse by having Maryse cost Mickie matches. Have her help Rosa or Beth pin Mickie. Bring out the hairspray more often. Toss out more promos berating Mickie. It would make Maryse look good. Instead, the WWE already had Maryse pin Mickie. That takes some of the edge out of it, should Maryse win. Some may call feuds like that predictable, but the unpredictable does sometimes happen. Batista mowed over Triple in 2005. With all the momentum Batista had throughout each stage of the feud, it seemed like he should not defeat Triple H in the big matches. Of course, he did beat Triple H over and over again, and it was done to build Batista up fast. There are other reasons to have a  “one-sided” feud like that, but my point is a person who is undefeated against another person may not automatically lose at the big match coming up. Had the WWE spread momentum smartly, Mickie could have remained undefeated against Maryse, yet not seem like the obvious winner or loser in the coming title match. I do not see Maryse winning this match after she has proven her part. As for match quality, it would be best if Maryse dominates most of it just for Mickie to battle back to win. I would love to see a great match, but I do not believe it will be given time and I do not believe Maryse can work best with Mickie James. Mickie might do best to just make Maryse look strong during the match through her selling. Will Mickie James become the second woman to have held the two female titles in the WWE?

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