Implementing The "Piggy James" Angle Was A Great Creative Decision

[Viola Moonlight]

Actually Mr. Eko, I for one am excited to see a WWE women's match for once since the Trish/Mickie match at WM22, because there is something worth noting about it other than being a challenger/champion shitacular. It's a match involving the best Diva today, and possible the most consistently great worker, Mickie... alongside a heel she has never/hardly faced off against with something to attempt to draw viewers in with a storyline. Quite frankly, it's more of a storyline than any other match at the Royal Rumble.

Rey Mysterio won a contenders match, Randy Orton won a contenders match and Ezekiel Jackson won a contenders match. All three have the same bullshit lead-up into their matches with storylines or angles outside of the match. Mysterio has Batista, Orton's got Legacy and Jackson had Kozlov, but where he is I have no idea. What is different with them three and the diva's match besides being women and any sarcastic comment that could be thrown my way? It has a storyline. If anything, Jackson probably has the most storyline because of the Regal/Christian feud... but it still doesn't directly involve both champion/challenger. There isn't anything other than a "I want title" storyline for any match besides the Diva's match.

I might be biased on this considering Mickie James is my favourite wrestler and I am interested in the Women's Division on a higher level than most, but by God we finally have a fucking match with some beef, or pork, in the storyline. The crowd is more active than they usually are involving anything related to diva's and wrestling in the same sentence.

 

[Dagger Dias]

If they're going to have Michelle insult Mickie, they could've at least used an insult that might actually hurt. Like I said, being called fat has to be the weakest excuse for an insult there is. Anything else could've been used.

It is.... but what other insults could they have used? "You're a terrible wrestler" doesn't work because she's top tier. "You're boring" wouldn't work either because she has more fans than most divas. All I can think of is her music career being made fun of or something, but WWE hasn't mentioned it since it's something she would be doing after she leaves. They went with this storyline since they didn't have anything else that could really have worked in getting the fans interested

If they followed what happened in this exactly, then they wouldn't stand up for themselves, because they'd just get beat up like Mickie has week in and week out.

People have to learn to stand up for themselves sometimes, Mickie did, and the fans can relate to it.

And I'm willing to bet an equal amount of people find Michelle more annoying than mean, and wonder why Mickie is losing to her so much.

What people find Michelle annoying? The same ones who refuse to give ANY divas a chance because "all female wrestlers suck" to them? That's a terrible stereotype because there are divas out there who are truly trying, let alone TNA's entire Knockout division. These people are the true idiots, not the people on the creative team who came up with the Piggy James angle.

And again, I have no issue with that, as long as it's done right. This hasn't been done right.

So far it has. Why hasn't it been done right, because Mickie has so little momentum? The face doesn't always win.

Sure they do. At least, Vince has a good reason, according to him anyway: She's leaving. Look at history and you'll see that Vince rarely lets anyone leave without being humiliated first. Just look at Lita.

My defense to that is that Mickie had her time at the top of the division. She doesn't have to leave on an "awesome" note. Michelle has more to gain from winning this feud than Mickie does, even if it really is Mickie's last one. Look at it this way.... all the fans who have sympathy for Mickie are going to be SEVERELY upset if Michelle wins, imagine all the heel heat she would get!

Well, besides the whole "crying over being called fat" thing that I've already talked about, it's her treatment in the terms of the feud itself. If you want any feud to be successful, you need to perpetrate the belief that either side could win. Outside of one instance where Mickie James stood up for herself, she's been buried in this feud. First the insults came, followed by her crying. Then the next week she stood up for herself, only to be beaten down by LayCool and have Maria, of all people, save her. Maria then fights Beth Phoenix once and disappears all over again, while Mickie gets buried some more. Then Beth Phoenix attacks Mickie after she gets beat down by LayCool again. The next week, Beth gets saved by Mickie, but rather than have Mickie go after LayCool, the source of her problems, she attacks Beth. This leads to a match between them the next week, which LayCool interfere in and Beth Phoenix leaves, so Mickie gets beat down AGAIN. And last night, she didn't even show up. Which left Michelle and Layla to act like total idiots with a fat suit. There's a fine line between sympathy and pity, and this feud isn't properly creating the former.

I'm not seeing what's wrong about it. They do give the idea that both sides can win. Did Mickie ever grab a mic and say the words "I quit"? No, she didn't. She is an underdog and has been in a handful of her feuds. She's not going to give up until she actually loses. Others who have been insulted remember what it feels like, even adult males, thus Mickie gets sympathy from us, and Michelle gets heel heat. Aside from maybe a little controversy (you might recall that the Attitude Era had FAR more controversy) there's nothing else wrong about this feud in my opinion. They are creating a story that so many people can relate to.

They didn't do their job. Their job was to create an angle that would make people tune in more often and drive up revenue. It hasn't. There's a good heat, and a bad heat. The good heat makes you want to keep watching to see the face get their revenge. The bad heat makes you want to stop watching because the whole thing is stupid. This angle has created the bad kind of heat.

No it hasn't. Divas feuds almost always result in some fans thinking "who cares?" whereas this has generated interest. It might have gathered "go away" heat from you, but it got legit heat from many others.

That's a lame excuse. If WWE wanted to truly market this properly, they would have Mickie fight back properly. That way, they would prove that anyone should fight back against bullies. Sexism is the wrong thing to promote, especially to kids.

And they will have Mickie fight back properly. At the PPV. She showed determination on tv, and will actually fight back on PPV. Agreed about sexism being the wrong thing to promote though.

I agree that Michelle's a good heel. I wouldn't call her the best heel since Lita, but at least the best heel diva today. But, again, I feel this feud has generated the wrong kind of heat, and I don't think fans are as interested in this feud as you say they are.

If she's not the best heel since Lita then who is? Melina was awful, Beth's better as a tweener, and Maryse isn't top tier yet. That leaves Michelle. I still disagree and say that this feud has gotten the right kind of heat. People legitimately hate Michelle's character. That's the kind of heat the heels should be aiming for. Plus.... recall how I mentioned the potentially HUGE amount of heel heat Michelle can get if she wins this feud. All the fans who want Mickie to win will be disappointed, bitter, and upset at Michelle. She'd get boo'ed out of the building. Something NO diva has been able to accomplish since Trish and Lita left. All she'd have to do is mention "what she did to Piggie James" and that's instant heat, that she'd be able to use for a while. This feud has done a lot for both girls and that's why it was a good creative decision.

 

[Tastycles]

I think the storyline itself wasn't a bad idea. Having a heel diva get her commupance after calling a rival who blatantly isn't fat fat for ages is by no means a bad idea in real terms. However, Michelle McCool has one of the most irritating accents I have ever heard, and I live in the East End. McCool having poorly executed speeches is shit and it was always going to be, and I'm not surprised that it was met with indifference.

It was good in the sense that it had a proper narrative and the sense that Layla El is a hell of a lot more entertaining than every single other diva in the company, but it was shit in the sense that it went on for ages, McCool is attrocious, and the biggest issue of all that nobody finds cakes in the face funny. In principle, a good idea, in actuality, it was a shitfest.

 

[MizisAwesome]

It has definitely worked how it was supposed to. Mickie now has a reason to leave to do her record, and mccool could even have a loser leaves smackdown match with her. Mickie is a bigger face from it, because fans will take her side as the victim, instead of mccools as the bully. McCool is a much bigger heel from it and Layla got a push from it. That part of it worked.

The piggy james thing went too far though. Mickie isnt fat just because she isn't as anarexic, however you spell it, as some of the other divas. They could have had an angle where they make fun of her for becoming a country singer, and make fun of her with country accents, and stuff. Beth could have been the one with the fat jokes directed at, and feud with mccool til mania. Mickie probably is really crying after some of the segments in the ring from it.

Good storyline, a little too far, and wwe better hope they finish it with mickie as the bigger face, or they are sending a bad message with mccool

 

[The Curtis]

i don't really care if this angle was distasteful or not, but i'm sorry we had the misfortune of having to deal with all the mic time that Michelle McCool got. She may be hot and one of the better diva wrestlers but that voice makes me want to jam sharp objects in my ear holes. Thought that bitch was never gonna shut up when she got on the mic before her Rumble match. Maybe being the Undertaker's old lady get's you as much mic time (despite having a horrible voice) as you want. Also, Layla is just horrible as far as ring ability and charisma is concerned. Her in the Piggie James fat suit did little to amuse me as well. I do hope that McCool and James have an actual title match though. The rumble match was just a segment more than anything. I guess it needed to happen that way. I guess after all the mental and physical abuse, Mickie James needed to come in and take down Layla and beat McCool so quickly as her payback toward them.