How so? If anything Trish led most of their interactions and promos. It was Trish's reactions to Mickie actions that led the fans to view her as a psycho. Her reactions were very realistic, Trish did everything from watching over her shoulder to keep an eye on Mickie during their matches to walking behind Mickie as they walked down the ramp, and she was the champion at the time. These little things really helped sell Mickie as a weirdo.
There wasn't anyone else on the roster that had the kind of attention and reaction to details that Trish did, there was no one else that could have made Mickie look any better.
Leading the promo's in what fashion? The focus was always on Mickie & her being the psycho character. Trish was the sub-factor who just had to stand there & react to everything. Some of her reactions were basically placed by the creative to make Mickie more believable where any diva could have pulled off. Walking behind Mickie... wow, that contributes a whole lot to her character moreso than the expressions Mickie was able to pull off when something didn't go her way.
The audience only got so wrapped up into the promos because Trish was so wrapped up into it, the audience was connected to Mickie through Trish.
If someone else, say Victoria or Lita had done those promos they would not have been as good, or as memorable.
It takes to tango Ech, you can't have the initial character that Mickie James portrayed to be flawed otherwise the crowd would not buy it. Sure, Trish did help Mickie get the crowd to understand the nature of her gimmick but it was Mickie that made the job better by diversifying with her charisma. All Trish did was react any other diva would do & the likes of Lita/Victoria would have worked if they had different characters at the time. Maybe if Victoria the same as her WWE face run she would have pulled it off.
Michelle is the heel, in all honesty she's not supposed to be the one carrying the match. The heel is supposed to control most of the offense, making the face look good as they catch their second wind. The only times when Michelle carries the match is when she's up against an inferior performer playing the face, which unfortunately happens most of the time.
As the great Michelle you speak of, it does not matter if ther face performer is inferior to her & should be pulling off a great match. As of now, none of her matches exceed anything to reach the level of greatness but they still do the job. Mickie knows how to pull around the matches & thats one reason to her face run, albeit she may get a little boring.
Wrestling ability & heel psychology aren't the same. The heel psychology I refer to is the make-up of the character that involves becoming & executing the character. Wrestling is wrestling, heel psychology is something that can be intertwinned with the wrestling.
Both Michelle and Melina do a better job with they're roles than Mickie and they both make their opponents look stronger than Mickie does. I can count more instances in Mickie's feuds where her opponents go into the feuds looking stronger than they did coming out.
vs Trish Stratus
vs Melina
I can name several feuds for both Michelle and Maryse were they've elevated their opponents.
vs each other
vs Gail Kim
vs Melina
Maryse has even made Mickie look stronger after a feud than she was before.
I remember that Michelle McCool & Melina got their name in the business an entirely different way to Mickie James. James was placed into a feud with Trish to earn a name & Stratus had to get Mickie over as a legit competitor & after her title win needed to defeat the challengers to become solidified in the division. So, she didn't make anyone look good because of the circumstances, even though as a heel she elevated Trish Stratus as you put it. After that, every match Mickie has put on both come out great as long as the opponent stuffs up like Gail Kim did a few weeks ago after he concussion.
Melina was a manager of a very successful tag team & earned her name by helping them win all the time. So, she doesn't count here. As for Michelle, when she first started... she didn't do so well. It is only recently she has been able to do something. Considering that she has been on the SmackDown roster for a lot of the time, she has shown herself to be the best & the creative had no choice but to use her to elevate the division. When Natalya becomes her own wrestler, expect her to take over.
Maryse made Mickie stronger? Very little. Mickie made herself look stronger as well as Maryse. Maryse only aided Mickie.
What do you mean connection? I have seen the crowd so irate with Michelle that I honestly believed that they would start throwing garbage at her. It's obvious that the crowd despises Michelle.
Why would Maryse need to expand her moveset? It's fine how it is, doing a bunch of random spots is not going to elevate her in the eyes of the crowd, if anything those spots will only bring her down.
No, that crowd connection that Michelle delivers is the booing of her boring character that definitely needs a tweak or something. They would become so irate to throw garbage at her as they know she can do better & they don't want to see her becoming another statistic in the stereotypical diva column.
Maryse's moveset would not benefit from spots, which I did not suggest. She needs to incorporate moves that would suit her as the heel she plays, like more impactful moves & takes her time in executing for the crowd to be sucked in to her evilness.
