Femme Fatale

Femme Fatale #1: Mickie James

When an obsessed fan of Trish Stratus appeared on RAW on October 10^th, 2005, little did anyone expect that she would one day surpass her idol and earn her 4^th WWE Women’s Championship in less than three years.

Yet, on hindsight, who is really surprised? Mickie James is, after all, a femme fatale.

Hi, and welcome to the first edition of Femme Fatale, a column that appreciates the finer side of the wrestling world – the women. From WWE Divas to TNA Knockouts, from Joshi Puroresu to G.L.O.R.Y. Girls, I’ll feature the best from the past, present and I’ll even throw in some future predictions. But not every female wrestler qualifies as a femme fatale. No, for someone to be featured, they need to meet two major criteria.

Firstly, they have to be seductive. A true femme fatale is someone who can use her femininity as a weapon. She needs to be someone who is aware of how potent she can become in order to get what she wants, when she wants it. She is someone who charms those around her and uses them as she pleases.

Secondly, they have to be lethal. The femme fatale knows how to draw her targets into compromising, dangerous, sometimes even deadly situations. Moreover, she does it not in an obvious manner, but uses subterfuge to achieve her hidden agenda.

No one typifies the femme fatale more than Mickie James, the current WWE Women’s Champion. From the first moment we spotted her on WWE television, we knew she had what it took to achieve arguably the biggest prize in the industry. But let’s look at her six-year journey towards that first title reign.

Mickie Laree James was born August 31^st, 1979 and began her professional wrestling career at the age of 20 as a valet to the likes of Tommy Dreamer and Julio Dinero. Calling herself Alexis Laree, she wasn’t simply content to be eye candy at ringside, getting physically involved in one match after another. She even helped Tommy Dreamer win the KYDA Pro Heavyweight Championship. Eventually, her love for the industry led her to get in the ring and compete against established opponents like Allison Danger and Lexie Fyfe, until the name Alexis Laree became associated with fast-paced, exciting wrestling in Maryland Championship Wrestling and other federations in the East Coast independent scene.

In the years that followed, having proven herself more than capable of attracting fans to shows that she was booked on, Alexis Laree began to win titles and cement her popularity. In 2001, she won a battle royal for the Southern Championship Wrestling Diva title. Less than two years later, Alexis Laree was hot property, winning numerous titles across several promotions. In fact, 2003 was a watershed year for the young professional wrestler. She not only became the first Cyberspace Wrestling Federation Women’s Champion, beating the likes of Serena and April Hunter, but also beating Billy Reil to win the Impact Championship Wrestling Junior Heavyweight Title! All in all, Alexis Laree held six different titles that year, most of them simultaneously.

But even greater things were to come for the young femme fatale. In April of 2003, Alexis Laree went for a WWE tryout match against her good friend Dawn Marie. The very next day, she was scheduled to appear on an NWA:TNA pay per view with Julio Dinero as part of Raven’s new group The Gathering in a now infamous Clockwork Orange House of Fun match. It was this involvement with Raven on a national level that truly propelled Alexis Laree further into the limelight and into the consciousness of the wrestling fanatics.

Having spent several months with TNA, Alexis Laree finally took the most important step in her career and had a tryout match with Dawn Marie before signing a developmental deal with the WWE in August 2003. She was immediately sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling, where she quickly stood out among the other female hopefuls, including Jillian Hall and Melina.

It was in OVW that Alexis Laree began to evolve the persona of Mickie James that we are all familiar with today. Her high energy, in-your-face attitude was exactly what RAW needed to spice up their roster that was getting a little stale from the boring Diva Search. Of course, it was hard not to notice her ridiculously short skirts that hid very little when she bounced around the ring, pulling her hair. Often, it was difficult to determine where her real personality ended and her kayfabe gimmick began. One thing is for sure: Mickie James is a true wrestling fan, who counts former WWE Diva Lita as one of her all-time favourites.

On RAW, however, it was Trish Stratus who received the honour of being paired with Mickie James. On October 10^th, 2005, the future Women’s Champion made her first RAW appearance as the then-Women’s Champion’s biggest fan. In what might have been a subtle hint from the WWE to the many of its fans who can be a little intimidating when face-to-face with their favourite Superstars, the debuting Mickie James turned out to be too overwhelmed when given the opportunity to work with Trish Stratus.

Mickie James took her fandom to heights never seen before. At the start of the following month, during Fulfill Your Fantasy Diva Battle Royal at Taboo Tuesday, she dressed up as Trish Stratus (complete with entrance music and fake title belt) and then went on to eliminate herself and Victoria in order to help Trish retain her title.

In the months that followed, Mickie James began to use moves like the Trish Kick, which she renamed the Mick Kick, as well as the Lou Thesz press that were signature moves of Trish Stratus. Ironically, though, during a #1 Contender’s Match on RAW in December 2005, Victoria was able to counter the Mick-a-Rana (yet another signature move borrowed from Trish) but was unable to defend against a vicious Standing Tornado DDT that was very much a Mickie James original.

With the win over Victoria, Mickie James was now the #1 Contender to the title held by Trish Stratus. In the weeks leading up to New Year’s Revolution, Mickie James started to play head games with her opponent and idol. Outside the ring, Mickie James followed her idol everywhere, and in a now infamous episode – kissed Trish Stratus beneath the mistletoe during the Christmas RAW episode. The following week, Mickie followed Trish even into the shower room, where she strategically held up a towel in order to catch a glimpse of her favourite Diva’s naked body.

Despite all the psychological confusion between the two Divas, Trish Stratus was ultimately able to defend her title successfully at New Year’s Revolution. Nonetheless, Mickie James continued to subtly push for a lesbian relationship with the Women’s Champion, much to the indignation of Ashley, who considered Trish a mentor figure.

Ashley warned Trish about Mickie, calling her a ‘psycho’, which only led to a jealous Mickie executing a series of vicious attacks on her “rival”. This culminated in a match at the 2006 Royal Rumble, where Mickie confessed her love for Trish, who was the special guest referee. Ultimately, Trish was forced to tell Mickie in March that they needed some time apart. Despite Mickie’s broken heart, she persevered and became Trish’s tag team partner at Saturday Night’s Main Event.

However, that night marked the turning point of Mickie’s infatuation with Trish, when she turned on her idol with a Mick Kick and gave her a taste of her own Stratusfaction. Mickie later said that Trish had broken her heart, and now she was going to break Trish.

So it was that at Wrestlemania 22, on the grandest stage of them all, Mickie James once again challenged Trish Stratus for the second time that year. The Women’s Championship was on the line, and unlike the New Year’s Revolution match, there was no love lost between the two competitors. It was a brutal match that saw both women take out months of frustration and emotional turmoil on each other. Mickie played her psychotic role well, taking sadistic pleasure in inflicting pain on her former idol. Amazingly enough, midway through the match, it was clear that Mickie’s intensity was resonating with the thousands in attendance. They began cheering with each offensive move that connected with the Women’s Champion as Mickie James slowly won their admiration.

Finally, it all came down to a huge powerbomb by Trish Stratus that threatened to end the epic match, but Mickie James kicked out and then delivered her patented Mick Kick to the head, knocking Trish semi-concious and allowing Mickie to pin her and win her first WWE Women’s Championship, much to the delight of her new fans.

Mickie’s career in the WWE following her first title reign has naturally seen its ups and downs. She lost the title later in 2006 to Lita, but her rising popularity resulted in a face turn. Following the retirement of Trish Stratus, she would once again feud with Lita over the title belt, wrestling in a series of matches before winning the title for a second time at Survivor Series. This also gave Mickie James the privilege of wrestling Lita’s final match in the WWE.

In 2007, as Women’s Champion, Mickie James was involved in a feud with her OVW rival, Melina which climaxed in the first ever Women’s Falls Count Anywhere Match in March. The following month, Mickie won her third title at a house show in Paris, only to lose it minutes later to Melina. That would be the closest that Mickie came to the title for most of the year.

On November 26, however, Mickie James defeated Melina in a #1 Contender’s match for the Women's Championship, then held by “The Glamazon” Beth Phoenix, setting up a title match between the two at Armageddon, a match in which Beth Phoenix successfully defended her Women's title.

It was around this time that rumours were going around that Ashley was supposed to receive a title push after Wrestlemania 24. However, because she was injury prone (she has had several surgeries on her ankle) it was widely believed that this push would have to be given to someone else.

In a roster that prized both looks as well as athleticism, only one credible face could become a suitable replacement. This was none other than Mickie James, who ironically replaced her one-time rival Ashley as the next Women’s Champion. Hindsight proved that this replacement could not have been timed better. Less than a month later, Ashley received some bad press about her former involvement in an online escort service.

So it was that, on the April 14^th 2008 edition of RAW, held in London, Micke James defeated “The Glamazon” Beth Phoenix to win her fourth Women's Championship.

This weekend, at Judgment Day, Mickie James faces what might arguably be her toughest challenge yet. A triple threat match with Melina and Beth Phoenix with the Women’s Title on the line. Will the four-time Women’s Champion prevail against such dangerous odds? Only time will tell. Yet we can be sure of one thing, Mickie James will not go down without a fight.

This has been the first edition of: Femme Fatale.

Views: 1,925

COMMENTS

Comment # 1

Im not to crazy bout mickie but man yu shud right about Gail Kim now thats a female!Shes good looking and built with soooooo much athletic ability

Posted by KOD on Friday, May 16, 2008

Comment # 2

Wait..
What?
Mickie James over two beasts?
The Glamazon and Awesome Kong? They don't need gold to show dominance.

Posted by The Philadelpha Phighter on Friday, May 16, 2008

Comment # 3

Good work.

Posted by The Glide on Friday, May 16, 2008

Comment # 4

100% agree son, but, not the nÂ°1 femme fatale, Lita, trish, Kong even Victoria, Kim

Posted by Temblekoso on Friday, May 16, 2008

Comment # 5

It's an article C-Dawg, it's supposed to have a lot of words. Perhaps some pop-up pictures would have made you happy?

Posted by S. on Friday, May 16, 2008

Comment # 6

Comment # 5

TOO MANY WORDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by C-Dawg on Friday, May 16, 2008

^^ Too many Exclamation marks!!

Does more than 10 words start to fry your brain?

Good article, good read. :^)

Posted by Joe Bow on Friday, May 16, 2008

Comment # 7

Ring twas not made fer women.

Posted by Vince on Friday, May 16, 2008

Comment # 8

Great Article. Maybe the best I've read here so far and one of the few I've read entirely. :) Keep going!

Posted by Ginnungagab on Friday, May 16, 2008

Comment # 9

i thought that was very true and it was a good read :) keeep it up

Posted by smasho on Friday, May 16, 2008

Comment # 10

good article.

Posted by crazydude on Friday, May 16, 2008

Comment # 11

I personally think the 'seductiveness' thing has no place in considering how good a female wrestler is - it's merely a character trait, and those with other character traits will lose out just because they aren't a certain type of character (however good they are). BUT... it's your article and whatever criteria you want to use, comprehensive or not - fair enough. I like the article and I like Mickie. I wish they'd give her some less pathetic entrance music though. Something a bit more kick-ass (like Gail's for instance).

Posted by Jane Ross on Friday, May 16, 2008

Comment # 12

Strongg and like RYMYSTERÄ°O

Posted by defne-ceren on Friday, May 16, 2008

Comment # 13

No mention of ROH when she managed A.J. Styles as Alexis Laree?

Posted by Sonic Rocket on Friday, May 16, 2008

Comment # 14

Please tell me that you are gonna get some involvement of the SHIMMER ladies as that is all women's wrestling.

Sara Del Rey is the greatest every women's wrestler. Bar None!

Posted by Blayze on Friday, May 16, 2008

Comment # 15

nice work. this article was one of the best i ever read. you know your stuff. haha

Posted by sicnarf1989 on Saturday, May 17, 2008

Comment # 16

Seconded on the SHIMMER thing.

Posted by Ayumi Kurihara on Saturday, May 17, 2008

Comment # 17

Isn't SHIMMER where Awesome Kong beat the living crap out of Ms. Chif and put her in that awesome torture rack?

Posted by Hand Hanzo on Saturday, May 17, 2008

Comment # 18

Yeah, this was okay. You can write well enough, but this suffers the same problem that a lot of articles around here do. It's just a mini history lesson. You're essentially just paraphrasing a Wikipedia page. You should be giving more opinions and fewer meaningless details.

Mickie is the best total package in Women's Wrestling, but this really wasn't all that interesting.

It seems that all the article writers that are intelligent write history. The only time an opinion article is written, it's done so by a mark who doesn't know what they're talking about.

It's a shame we don't see very many good articles here. You seem like you could potentially write some.

Posted by ML on Sunday, May 18, 2008

Comment # 19

It was a good article but p dissagree with the idea mickie is the best total packag in wrestling comment above. Gail kim is always a show stealer and he bst total package

Posted by maddog on Sunday, May 18, 2008

Comment # 20

I agree. Mickie James is the total package and I won't be surprised if we saw her become an 8 time champion. However her chances are slim at Judgment Day. This match did happen before on RAW and that time Phoenix pinned Melina after she got hit with Mickie's DDT. Don't give Melina much of a chance though

Posted by The Renegation on Sunday, May 18, 2008

Comment # 21

KOD, Phighter, Temblekoso, Blayze, maddog, Ayumi : > *LOL* Thanks for your feedback! It's always difficult to choose the first person to feature in any column, and you can be sure that no worthy wrestler will be avoided in upcoming articles.

Glide, Joe Bow, Ginnungagab, smasho, crazydude, sicnarf1989, Renegation : > Thank you! This definitely encourages me to improve and write better articles.

ML : > Thank you very much for your suggestions. I hope you will continue to read future articles and continue to provide constructive feedback. It's what every columnist truly needs to improve.

Posted by Dominic Korgath on Sunday, May 18, 2008

Comment # 22

Wait..
What?
Mickie James over two beasts?
The Glamazon and Awesome Kong? They don't need gold to show dominance.

Posted by hughes on Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Comment # 23

I personally think it's sad Mickie has already won it four times. Not because of Mickie, but because of WWE just handing out the women's title now like food stamps. I remember Lita's first title gain. She was fighting Stephanie who had HHH and Angle in her corner, the Hardyz were in Lita's corner and The Rock was the special referee in a Raw main event. The second gain, she once again main evented Raw this time to defeat Trish. How did Mickie gain her title last time? On a small show somewhere abroad if I'm correct, it's so meaningless I have a hard time remembering where exactly it happened. Not to overuse Lita in my statement, but somehow it saddens me, Mickie has had just as much title reigns in her 2-3 year WWE career as Lita had in her 7 year WWE career.

Posted by El Valo on Friday, May 23, 2008

Comment # 24

Dude, I love this article, Everything right on the money, one thing I'd like to point out is the Wrestlemania Match against Trish Stratus has arguably to most lesbian mind games of the whole Storyline, The story itself came as a huge distraction to Trish at a point in which Mickie Countered a move by Cupping Trish's Crotch, Then the final Nail in the coffin to the Lesbian obsession with the Kiss of Death before finishing Trish off.

Of course personal Preferences suggest to agree with many of the people above Me, Gail Kim should have been first, a Former WWE Women's Champion(winning it in her DEBUT WWE On Screen Match), the first TNA Knockout Women's Champion (Best Move TNA did in a long time, Bringing that title in and front running Gail with the title) Gail is the purest of the pure Femme Fatales. Gorgeous enough you want to give her anything she desires without wanting to ask anything in return, Has such an air about her that you must Love, adore, and respect her, In ring ability in so many styles that she can out wrestle 98% of the Males on TNA, 99% of the Male's on WWE. Though a face due to the ultimate popularity that can never fade, the drive and determination she has to show her opponent defeat at all legal costs is unsurpassed...IF either company were to buy the other out, looking at the female rosters I'd say Elimination Chamber to merge the titles(keep the Knockouts title as the official belt and name) Gail Kim representing the TNA Knockout's Championship, with ODB and Roxie Laveaux as the two other TNA Knockouts representing(UNLESS TNA could Get a Contract for MsChif then Gail, MsChif, Roxy), Mickie James Representing the WWE Women's title with Victoria and Torrie Wilson Representing WWE(Sorry, if you disagree with Torrie Wilson being in the match, she has paid her dues in WWE and should have had a run with the title a long time ago instead of putting so much focus on Trish Stratus..but if not Torrie, then Either Beth or Melina seeing at they the only other two with talent at that level. Maria closing in, Candace is a GoDaddy Slut, nothing more, putting the title on her just embarrassed Women's Wrestling So Much More.)

Posted by Xexx Demone on Thursday, May 22, 2008

Comment # 25

El Valo, you are so right. I wish Mickie's third reign (for all of several minutes) never happened, but WWE.com has made it official on its title histories page, so I have to mention it. Nonetheless, I am glad that it's Mickie James who's holding the title and not someone like Kelly Kelly, so I have no complaints there.

Xexx Demone, thank you for your comments! I totally agree that Gail totally deserves to have been featured first, but I made the decision to feature the WWE Women's Champion first. Nonetheless, stay tuned for my next column, and I hope it lives up to your standards.

Posted by Dominic Korgath on Friday, May 23, 2008