10 best storylines involving WWE female wrestlers
Today’s WWE fans will be used to a much high calibre of women’s wrestling, but WWE has not always been in a position to give its female athletes the best storylines. Often portrayed as managers or love interests for the male wrestlers over the years, it is rare when two or more women managed to wrestle the attention away for themselves.
There has, however, been the occasional personality that was simply too talented to remain in the background. WWE is in the reaction business, and sometimes the wisest thing for their creative team to do is follow what the audience is asking them to do, even if this means changing course and shining the spotlight elsewhere.
Here are 10 examples of when WWE women have put together memorable storylines to rival the men’s.
#1 Mickie James and Laycool
Wrestling’s most impactful storylines are often those that challenge the boundaries of acceptability in terms of what we find socially acceptable. We might not always like these kinds of feuds, and in the long run, we might look back on them as examples of where WWE Creative went too far, but at least they make an impression on us. With so many storylines blending into one most of the time, it is refreshing when we come across something that challenges us at our core.
This was very much the case with the rivalry involving Laycool and Mickie James from 2009. Mickie scored a pinfall victory over Layla shortly after being drafted to Smackdown, which prompted a stretch of time in which the heel pairing of Layla and Michelle McCool set about bullying James because of her supposed weight gain. They gave her the nickname ‘Piggy James’ and started coming to the ring in fat-guy suits dressed as Mickie before their matches.
They would also run video packages editing James’s face onto a pig and essentially went about breaking her down psychologically. The viewing audience was clearly uneasy, and while this angle did help garner a lot of babyface sympathy for James, nothing about it felt acceptable or right, especially considering the rumours that this was Vince McMahon’s non-kayfabe way of punishing James for not being in shape.
One thing to note about the rivalry was that it lasted through three of WWE’s signature PPVs, beginning with a women’s Survivor Series elimination match, a one-on-one bout between James and McCool, in which Mickie picked up her 5th Women’s Championship, and a 10 women tag match at Wrestlemania 26.