Mickie James got to her feet first. Something that I did not notice for a long time is that Mickie seems to point to her mouth. At first, I just thought she was blowing her fingers as a small unimportant taunt or something. The more I looked at it, listened to the commentators, and looked at how Mickie executed the kick, I realized that it might have meant a lot more. I honestly believe she was signaling to Gail to take the move in her jaw/mouth/chin. The commentators tried to sell it as Mickie hitting Gail in the jaw. When Mickie executed the kick, she was not aiming for a headshot or full-force smash into the face. Fans may criticize Mickie as if she missed the kick, but it took me a while to realize myself that she was never trying to give Gail a KO kick. She was relying heavily on Gail to sell it well. After the botched DDT, as I said before, it became apparent that Gail was hurting. Mickie knew that, but her desire at that moment was to come up with a finish that still had some credibility to it and did not actually put Gails well-being in too much further jeopardy. There were no doctors in the ring at that moment to diagnose how bad Gail was hurt. A kick to the head may not have been good for her, to say the least. People may want to argue that Mickie could have executed a slower and softer kick to Gails head. For that kick to even be executed right from Mickies end, there has to be some speed to it. And again, Mickie could not tell how bad Gail was already hurting to hit her with a shot right to the head. It makes me go insane how some fans actually expect Mickie James to not give a damn about a possibly-injured opponents well-being. Had Mickie worsened Gails injury, she would be in a lot more trouble, not just from the fan community, but possibly with the WWE and her own conscience. And people must not forget that a move like that relies on the opponent being in the proper position to take the kick where she wants. If Gail Kim wanted to risk further injury, she could have stuck her head out for it. Considering she even protected herself for the DDT, she did not want the impact that bad either from the kick. Mickie understood this. The fans do not. From the camera angle the WWE did use to support Mickie hitting a light kick, the kick did look credible enough to sell. It did look like part of it touched Gail in the face. The camera shot switched right after any impact, as Mickie was retracting the foot. You would have to argue even deeper than I am to say that kick was not credible at all. Problem is, Gail did not sell it as a KO. She reacted to it as a small smack in the face. She was still too stiff to react well. Mickie was already executing the move lightly for the benefit of Gails well-being, but Gail was simply still not all there to repay that kindness by selling it as a knockout. Mickie got all the criticism for that. People really do expect her to make sure Gail gets that concussion for real? Mickie tried to still give a respectable finish while taking Gails health into consideration. Was that her mistake? Should she have just pinned Gail after the DDT after failed? Should she have just hit Gail full force? Is that what some people wanted? I agree. Mickie James should stop caring about the quality of what she is expected to do in the ring completely. She should not give a damn about the well-being of her opponent. Her chief concern should be making herself look good and doing whatever she feels like doing in the ring. Not caring about giving a respectable attempt to do your job
not giving a damn about those you work with
thats the kind of person every little boy and girl should thrive to be, right? Back to business, Gail did not sell the kick as a knockout. I gave one reason why that may have been. She was still too out of it to react well. Maybe she was going for a delayed-KO selling. Maybe she did not feel it was credible enough to work. There are other possibilities out there, but I still feel the first one I gave is the strongest. Point is, when Mickie saw Gail not selling the kick she was already trying not to hurt her with, Mickie just had enough and knocked her down with the forearm. You could tell Mickie was upset from that point. That won her the match.