2. Team Mickie James vs. Michelle McCool
Participants: Mickie James, Melina, Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres, and Gail Kim vs. Michelle McCool, Alicia Fox, Beth Phoenix, and Jillian
The Match:
Kelly Kelly starts against Layla. Kelly shows off her athleticism here, which was nice, considering it was hindered for most of her career. However, it was short-lived as an ineffective leg drop to the back of Layla’s head gave her an elimination. This elimination did take me out of the match for a bit. Both teams switch opponents, with Gail Kim taking on Michelle McCool. This small exchange was one of my favorites.
I will go further in-depth below, but it was short-lived, as is a theme with these matches. McCool eliminates Kim, and in comes Eve Torres. McCool decides to tag in Jillian, and after some horrible offense from Jillian, Eve picks up the upper hand. She moves off of Jillian’s shoulders and hits a kick that…doesn’t connect! Jillian decides to sell it, and commentary even compliments it, what in the world!?
Eve eliminates Jillian after a botched avalanche Sunset Flip, as Jillian was standing too far from the ropes for it to look quite right
ht. Beth Phoenix then comes in, only hits her finish, and eliminates Eve. I hate this theme of people only being eliminated after one move, and I want it to end, but it doesn’t, yay!! However, it is shortly broken up after Beth hits an astounding two moves, and then eliminates Kelly Kelly. Way to go, Beth! Mickie James then enters the match for the first time, halfway through.
She uses her rapid, energetic style to pull off a shock elimination, rolling up Phoenix. Phoenix then uses her pent-up anger to attack Mickie with one move. The longest stretch of the match was between Mickie James and Alicia Fox. It was for sure sloppy at times, but not horrible. Mickie eliminates Foxy and then scores a hot tag to Melina after being beaten down by McCool. Melina then scores the win for the team after a Sunset Flip.
The Even Fewer Positives:
All ten women in this match share 40 title reigns, which I appreciate. Despite the low standard of this time, all the women were actual wrestlers with actual experience. They didn’t look great, but not as bad as you’d expect. This match happened in 2009, when both the original Women’s Championship and the Diva’s Championship were being defended. Seeing both titles here was cool.
As I stated above, Gail Kim and Michelle McCool had an actually good exchange. It highlighted Kim’s flexibility and McCool’s power, but it was short-lived. McCool eliminated Kim with a Faith Breaker, or a Style’s Clash. A dig at Kim’s TNA run, maybe.
Rating:
This match suffered due to its lack of time, and its over-reliance on the theme of ‘one move, and you’re gone’ trope. It’s overarching Piggy James storyline, which was a controversial storyline where Lay-Cool bullied Mickie James over her weight, left a bad taste in my mouth. Overall, a 1.5/5. It’s not worth your time, but here’s the full match in case you’re interested.
