Beth Phoenix is currently having a whale of a time as the WWE Women's Champion on RAW, as she's hamming it up along with Santino Marella, being part of what's largely one of the better things about RAW in recent weeks. Sadly, it doesn't appear that the Women's Division is one of them.
Currently, RAW has three face Divas who are challenging Phoenix—Candice Michelle, Kelly Kelly, and Mickie James. The problem WWE has at the moment is that out of those three, only Mickie James is over with the fans, and the company has already done the Beth/Mickie rivalry to death this year.
They've had no other choice, as Candice Michelle has been injury prone, and despite her attempts to improve, is still an awful worker. Kelly Kelly is one of the fastest improving workers in the company, but no-one currently buys her as a threat to Phoenix's title, and she isn't being booked as one.
Most of her wins over Phoenix in non-title matches have come via some sort of distraction, which does not really put Kelly over.
So that leaves Mickie as the only real alternative. Until now.
Back in June, Melina injured her ankle in a tag team match with James against Natalya and Victoria after taking a tumble from the top rope—a move which was ironically responsible for sending Jim Ross to SmackDown.
Melina, at that point, was fresh into a face turn, having dissolved her friendship with Beth Phoenix after Phoenix accused her of costing the Glamazon the Women's Title whilst James held it. Melina and Phoenix then had what may well be the Divas match of the year at One Night Stand—an "I Quit" match, which Melina just came up on the wrong end of.
Melina still had momentum coming out of that match going into the Draft Day tag team match, when the injury occurred.
Melina was originally projected to miss six months due to the injury, which would have ruled her out for the rest of 2008. However, on Thursday night at the Florida Championship Wrestling taping in Tampa, Melina made a shocking early return to the ring, teaming with Tyler Reks against Alicia Fox and Jake Gabriel.
Reports suggested that Melina was right back on form, not showing any effects of ring rust whatsoever. Some now say that this will allow Melina to return to RAW as soon as the show after Survivor Series, possibly even at Survivor Series itself.
And that's good news for Melina's fans...and for Mickie James.
Since Candice Michelle was originally injured at the end of 2007, with the exception of WrestleMania XXIV, when the Bunny Mania Match meant that Maria and Ashley had to be pushed, Mickie James has carried the face side of RAW's Women's Division on her back.
Originally, Kevin Dunn suggested that Ashley Massaro carry out that role, but Vince McMahon overruled him, stating that Massaro was unreliable, and that only Mickie could connect with the fans—a rare occasion where a Vince McMahon overrule proved the right move.
At the time, Mickie was the only option, as Melina was still a heel, and the move to turn Melina face was in some ways designed to lighten James' workload. But then Melina went down, and the roster moves had already been made. Kelly Kelly's move from ECW to RAW went some way to helping James out, but Kelly did not quite have the same connection to the fans that Melina did.
Now that Melina's back, this gives James the chance to catch a breather, allowing her the chance to possibly renew her lower-card feud with Layla, which seemed to be developing a couple of months ago, before the failure of Candice Michelle required another promotion to the title matches with Phoenix.
The Melina/Beth feud was getting good before Melina's injury, and they should pick things up right where they left off with a few matches for the title, leading to the fans being ready for James to come back in and not feel like they've seen it all before.
Heck, if Melina wins the title, they could go back to the 2007 Melina/Mickie feud, which was always a fun match to watch. This could also allow WWE to allocate Gail Kim to SmackDown, and help the Michelle McCool problem I wrote about in a previous article.
I for one can't wait to see Melina back on RAW, and for her to put a spark back into the RAW Women's Division.
3 comments Last one added 7 months ago — Leave a Comment
Joe Burgett 7 months ago
I don't see this to be a huge deal right now at least, Melina will no tbe back on WWE TV until Januar, I am hearing and trust me, I have sources. Melina is a great performer, but not as good of a wrestler as Mickie, that is why Mickie got the puch instead on Melina. Melina turned somewhat face, andis after Beth, which she will return and do again. She is a former Women's Champ and might get it again, but Kelly Kelly is also like you said improving so they may put the title on here for a while. They could do that and then Melina would come back as a face for a small time to take out Beth and then turn heel to get the Women's Title, which seems likely because Melina is a better heel than face. This return could be importanat, but not in a short time period, it also depends on who is champ when she gets back that might determine how she does. the WWE will keep her in FCW for a little while onger, but only to get ring rust out, they made the mistake of putting Candice back in without extended time in FCW, luckily her first match on RAW was taped and not the usual live. But it could be with Melina so they don't want to take chances
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Ronnie Bryce 7 months ago
Melina has a bad record as far as backstage attitude. So much so that that's why they moved John Morrion to ECW to get him away from the bad influence that Melina is. That's how much high hopes they have for Morrison, and how low they think overall of Melina.
Not to mention she doesnt mind being the other woman when Batista cheated on his wife at the time who had cancer with Melina.
Mickie James is an allround great talent. She in my opinion should be the only diva close to matching Trish Stratus's woman's title wins. Mickie James by the fans is always voted most popular diva, and she is a great wrestler. She can outwrestle every diva on raw and smackdown combined.
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Sugar Cane 7 months ago
What does her relationships or attitude have to do with her wrestling ability? Nothing. Melina is one of the few divas that can actually wrestle and that wasn't brought into the WWE because she was modeling bikinis in a catalog.
As far as her backstage attitude goes, I have heard the same things, but that still has nothing to do with her skills in the ring. If these stories are true, she has acted no differently than any of the male wrestlers have acted in the past and probably still do act.
As far as the Batista thing, Batista was the married person, not Melina. Also, it was not Melina whom he cheated on his wife with; it was a whole slew of women, including a diva search contestant.
The bottom line is that the Divas division is suffering for talent right now and Melina is ripe to return. Yes, Mickie James is popular, but she cannot carry the whole division herself as a face. Melina was getting good pops from the crown as a face before her injury and I think that her and Beth Phoenix will have an excellent feud. Mickie James needs new heels to face off against, and they should continue her with the Layla feud. This will also give Layla some more ring time and she can improve her skills as well.
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Jeremy 7 months ago
wow i thought i was in to wrestling you guy sound like pros, i like it!!!! lol
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