A random thought about RAW last night...

Last night on RAW, Beth Phoenix & Jillian Hall took on Candice Michelle and Kelly Kelly. This was a match designed to hype up and give momentum to the title bout between Phoenix and Candice at the No Mercy PPV on Sunday night. These two divas are supposed to be- at the moment- the centerpiece of the entire division, the biggest female stars on the show. Despite this the fan reaction during the match was pretty lukewarm, what one would generally expect from a women's segment.

Let's take a second and rewind to earlier in the night.

Jamie Noble, unable to find a partner for his match against Paul Burchill and Katie Lea, made his way to the ring to a fairly lukewarm response. I found this to be a bit of a surprise, especially considering one of the best heels in the company sitting on the stage, applauding for Noble's defeat. Then again, he was facing Burchill, one of the more poorly pushed mid-carders as of late. Just as the match is about to start, music plays, and the crowd suddenly becomes very excited. Who came out? Micke James.

Mickie James never, ever comes out to anything less than a wild crowd. She is consistently a good performer and excites the fans, no matter how boring or mundane the opponent. Yet Mickie is consistently overlooked in favor of 'the next big thing.' At first it was Ashley- someone who is boring and half-reckless in the ring, and only fairly interesting outside the ring. Since Ashley essentially departed it's been Candice Michelle- who despite the insistence of the announce team has never been interesting in the ring, is borderline reckless, and is about as interesting as watching grass grow outside the ring. Neither Ashley nor Candice have ever incited anything more than short-term excitement with fans and neither have really ever done anything of note.

When Mickie does hold the belt, it's usually just to create some short-term excitement in the division, or just as a belt pillow. Why does she keep getting passed over? It's simple; the powers that be think Candice and Ashley are more attractive than Mickie. We've seen time and time again that WWE is more interested in style over substance in their Diva's division. The very fact that Kelly Kelly is wrestling proves it- the girl is a twig who can stand there and look cute smiling cluelessly. That's basically what she does- not that this is a bad thing, its worked for female valets for years. I'm just not sure why WWE thinks there can be no distinction between valets and wrestling anymore.

It's not that I think Mickie should dominate the division. I think RAW has some great female heels in Phoenix and Melina (when she returns) and having them dominate the division has generally worked better than any other strategy used to get people interested. It's the mentality that management seems to hold toward James- that the next Trish Stratus hasn't been found and thus they should continue to shove these mediocre female stars down our throats and hope they catch on. Lita and Trish became legends because they worked hard and put on great matches, and fans could get behind them and respect the work they were doing. Mickie has done just this, and I'm fairly sure most people actively realize that Trish passed the torch to her in their Wrestlemania match.

And that's my rant for today. Shame on you for WWE for taking Mickie James for granted.