Welcome the 2009 edition of Diva Draft! It feels like just yesterday when I was putting together last year’s Diva Draft and what a result! I successfully predicted both of the Diva Draft picks as Layla moved to Raw and Maria moved to SmackDown. So this year there’s the added pressure of keeping my streak intact! Unlike last year, the Draft has moved up to April 13th from it’s usual late-June slot meaning it comes just a week after WrestleMania. So over the next few days leading up to the big Draft show, I will be predicting my picks for this year’s Draft. Like last year, I’ll be making six picks but this time, in six consecutive days.
MICKIE JAMES TO SMACKDOWN
She’s won more Women’s Championships than most Divas could dream to win in a career. Mickie James has been a huge part of Raw in the last few years, that she’s done all there is to do. She’s been a fan favourite, she’s been a psycho heel, she’s been a four time Women’s Champ in the process. She’s wrestled Melina, she’s wrestled, she’s wrestled Jillian and even Santino too. Mickie could use a change of scenery and the opportunity to have more title reigns – but this time holding the Divas Championship.
Over on SmackDown, there’s a fresh pool of talent for Mickie to work with including Gail Kim, Michelle McCool, Maryse, Natalya and Maria. The match opportunities on that brand should keep the Diva with her hands full while adding some star power to the Divas division of SmackDown. Maria, Mickie and Gail as the top faces and Maryse, Michelle and Natalya as top heels. It works.
Mickie taking on the likes of Michelle and Natalya, in particular are really exciting. I’ve been hankering for some McCool-James action since Survivor Series last year when these two put on an enticing engage in the Raw vs SmackDown elimination match. Then, just this past Sunday they slugged it out big time at WrestleMania too.
Mickie has been such a mainstay on Raw since Trish and Lita left, that’s it weird to think of her being anywhere else. But Melina and Beth Phoenix are more than capable of carrying the Monday night show post-Draft.
What do you think? Should Mickie find pastures… blue?
Check back tomorrow for Draft pick #2
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27 Comments
I like your opinions but i still think Mickie is a raw girl and should stay there. Maybe we reverse it and have heels from SD move to raw ???
=)
:L
I agree with this. Mickie is getting stale on Raw and I think a change to Smackdown would defintly help her.
Out of all the divas I hope Mickie is the one drafted.
Although itb woulf be abit weird, I thinks its the best for mickie… she IS a it stale over at RAW ..
Didn’t she wrestle against Victoria on Smackdown once?
I don’t know what the WWE should do with this women. She’s an incredible athlete, but it is almost like the WWE has put her in fued story-line with every Diva apart of the company. Where-ever the women goes, I just personally hope that we aren’t stuck watching Mickie go against someone who she has already gone against before. So if Mickie does go to Smackdown I would assume that the heel Divas such as Michelle, Maryse, Nikki Bella, and Natalya would stay on Smackdown as well. But I’m more than certain that Natalya and Maryse are going to Raw which basically leads to me believe that the heels on Raw such as Beth Phoenix, Rosa Mendes, and Jillian Hall would be shipped on Raw. Honestly, it’s confusing, but I don’t see Mickie being a Smackdown Diva, especially, since Smackdown has always looked like the weaker brand when compared to Raw. Eh, hopefully the women is able to display her talent in new fued story-lines whether she is put on ECW, Smackdown, or if she stays put on Raw.
there is no way wwe would send their most popular diva to smackdown since it would hurt raw in the process.
as long as samckdown is stuck on my net tv on friday nights in the usa, it will always draw crappy 2.2 broadcast ratings.
wwe is looking to strengthen raw this year and just keep smackdown and ecw as b level shows.
wwe is more likley to move kelly or candice or jillian to smackdown and move some sd divas to raw.
the only way michelle goes to raw is if taker moves to raw because wwe will not separate them.
mickie is the most popular diva in wwe and i think she will be champ soon because melina is bombing as a face.
the fact that melina played the face in peril and mickie got the hot tag and the pin on natlayla shows that wwe is going to give mickie back the top face role on raw soon.
Above everything else, I am most interested in seeing where the Divas may end up, and I happen to think this actually has potential of being smart draft pick. To be honest, Smackdown has been on a roll in terms of Diva action. Sometimes even outdoing its RAW counterpart. I thought moving Maria to Smackdown was an excellent idea, and I think it did wonders for her. I’ve enjoyed all the Maria/Michelle/Maryse interaction thus far. Now, with the addition of Eve and Gail as competitors, Smackdown has shaped up to be a ground for enjoyable female competition. Now taking the negatives into consideration, the constant combination of Maria/Maryse/Gail/Michelle matches have become pretty stale. So any flavor injected into that mix would be interesting. Thus, where Mickie plays in. Not only do I think she would make a great addition to Smackdown, but I think it could be an opportunity for her to actually be pushed toward the spotlight some more, as she’s been sort of pushed to the side on RAW for quite some time. This would also obviously open the door for a Michelle/Mickie rivalry. I say this because, I don’t really see Michelle going anywhere. Don’t hold me to this, but I imagine there would be some objection to splitting her and Taker up on Tuesday nights. Moreover, Gail receiving a push toward an eventual Diva Championship shot would keep her on the blue brand, as well as the Champion Maryse. So, right now, the most plausible move between the two main shows would be Mickie to Smackdown.
First of all i’d like to start by saying up until now i’ve been a long time observer of Diva Dirt and decided to make the jump to site member, Love the site as well as the many insightful comments of all those involved including those who post comments on a regular basis. All right enough of the sucking up, I agree with a few of the previous comments and the tone of the article, Mickie needs a change of scenery to refresh her character and to keep her on top of her game.
Raw’s treatment of the Divas in recent months has run the gamut between outstanding and outlandish, I find it rather ironic that WWE considers Smackdown the “B” show, yet ever since fully committing to the idea of a Divas division on the so called “B” show Smackdown in my view has more or less consistently outshined Raw in the wrestling department, whether it be the Divas or male wrestlers…
So put Mickie on the show that will best utilize her talents….maybe even some alterations to Mickie’s character might be in order as well.
Ted, I don’t think Divas count as part of the ‘strengthening up’ as much as I’d love to think that they would.
It seems to me WWE doesn’t wanna push her cuz of her 4 title reigns (i consider it 3 but whatever). To me it would balance out if Mickie was over on Smackdown. She has really become second to Melina.
I remember back when Raw was the women’s division and Smackdown was the entertainment divas. Now that the Divas Title has come into the picture, Victoria has left, and Michelle’s heel turn Smackdown isn’t as strong of a division. Mickie really could help the women’s division on SD and make it respectable
actually melanie, when i mentioned the term that wwe wants to strengthen raw, i meant that wwe wants to keep the major popular stars on raw.
there is no way that cena is going to smackdown because as long as smackdown is on my net tv in the usa, the show is a LOST cause as far as ratings go and they will stay in the low 2.0 range for good.
mickie is the most popular diva in wwe and she actually energizes and gets the crowd into the matches.
wwe will more likely send candice, kelly or other secondary divas to smackdown because with a taped show, wwe can play with the crowd noise.
gail kim is on smackdown and mickie would over shadow her on the show if she went there.
I do not see wwe moving gail kim to raw because wwe just signed her to get her away from tna and mcmahon is not going to give a major push to a wrestler who achieved their highest form of success in another promotion.
I know exactly what you meant the first time Ted lol. I don’t think WWE means strengthening Raw with major popular Divas. They’re an afterthought at best, when they talk of strengthening Raw they’re likely referring to top male Superstars like Cena, Triple H and so forth.
Thus, I don’t think it’s an implausability to see ANY Diva jump to ANY brand. I’m not taking anything away from Mickie, I love her dearly, but I don’t think that the reports that WWE wants to strengthen Raw with top-tier stars stretches to Divas.
Mickie to Smackdown would be great. I hope they draft her! :D
you have a valid point that strengthening raw will likley not apply to the divas but indirectly it may affect them.
for ex, I read somewhere that wwe is looking to move undertaker to raw; if taker goes to raw, then michelle mccool is definately moving to raw and wwe may do a mickie/michelle fued.
mickie is the most popular diva in wwe. the only reason why melina is champion now is because wwe does not want to make it seem like mickie and beth are the only women who can be champion on raw.
wwe is better off keeping mickie on raw and moving michelle, natalya or katie lea to raw so there will be heels who can compete with her.
the only reason mickie appears stale now is because melina is champion and raw does not have heels who can compete with mickie since jillian, layla, rosa are afterthoughts.
wwe knows that mickie is their safety net in that if candice or melina fails to carry the ball on raw, they can always move mickie back into the top babyface spot.
gail kim is not popular; she does not have a personality and the only reason she got over in tna was because she went up against a powerful opponent like awesome kong.
To call Gail Kim un-popular is an understatement. She’s just come back to the WWE, so we can’t expect for her to be the fans favorite babyface, but she isn’t un-popular. Go to a house show (I’ve been to one) where Gail is usually given huge props for not only being a brand new popular Diva, but also a talented one. To expect the fans to all of a sudden attach onto someone who was with TNA for a long amount of time and with the WWE for only a brief period of time (she played a heel gimmick then) is outrageous. For someone who wasn’t given much credit in her early years with the company I wouldn’t call her un-popular, in dues time once the women is given microphone time (which she eventually will be given) the fans will connect more with the women.
She just made her debut a few weeks ago and people are already criticizing, it’s incredible. But on another front, you making an argument about Gail Kim only ‘getting over’ on TNA because she went against Awesome Kong is an opinion which you are allowed to have, but I disagree with you on that front. Gail Kim was one of the only babyfaces on TNA at that time, she did well, she connected with the fans, and she did have a personality in my personal opinion. She is an incredible athlete, she deserves the credit, and the respect that an actual wrestler is given, because she had worked her butt off to be the incredible athlete in the ring that she is.
This is probably a draft picck that would really work out. I could see her having much more attention on SD then RAW she would also become a valid contender for a title. She could really become big on SD! I’m all for this, I htink it’s time that we all move on from Micke’s RAW days and accept that this could be a really good draft pick if WWE hears us out on this one.
maryse fan, you make a good point in that gail kim needs time to develop her character in wwe pn the smackdown brand which is why wwe would not move mickie there.
if mickie went to sd, she would immediately take over the top babyface spot and gail kim would be placed into a secondary role.
i read on pwpix.net that candice is hoping to move to sd in the draft because she is going now where on raw.
candice would do well on sd because she would be on a taped show and wwe could cover up her botches and bring her along with some kind of push.
raw is the top show so the most popular diva in wwe should be on it.
smackdown in its present state on my net tv would be a step down for mickie at this point in her career.
melina is not great as the top face and wwe could always push mickie again and give her a title run on raw again.
wwe can fix mickie’s staleness by adding new heels to raw like michelle, natlayla, or even katie lea.
the problem with raw is that there is only one top heel and the other heels like jillian, rosa, layla are just afterthoughts.
I love Mickie to death. But lately I have been feeling like Mickie is just in the shadows. I mean I dont want her to b com champion again anytime soon. I guess i get used to seeing mickie as top baby face for so long that I think they arent using her. But I do think Mickie getting drafted to SD would b great I dont want her to b cuz then she wont be with Melina who I also love to death.If you look at it Mickie has nearly pinned all the divas on Raw ?. She has pinned Melina,Beth,Jillian and Candice. Which only leaves out Layala Kelly and Rosa.So if Mickie goes to SD then she can start fresh work with Gail and kick some ass. I really dont wanna see Mickie go to SD but it would really help SD divas b cuz please Gail just came n da crowd isnt into her yet.With Mickie’s help maybe she can get there IDK.
I think wwe was gave Mickie those last two pins on Nattie and santino to show us that they are still using her and not wasting her talent. Maybe if Mickie leaves Raw then Jillian,Layala may get their time to shine.
Dont underestimate MYTV Network and the possibility it might not be around in September. The WGN show is seen as a lifeboat for Smackdown if that happens. Rey Mysterio is supposed to go back to Smackdown to try and recover the Hispanic audience that dried up when he was drafted to RAW, so the possiblity of Melina and the Womens title going to Smackdown is a possibilty. Melina was in the ring with Gail to start
the match Monday, and Champions have been drafted.
If Vince, as rumored, is high on Maryse…………………she’ll get drafted to RAW.
The beauty of “Santina”, is that it gets Beth out of the division for a while, working a program with “Santina”.
The tag match was pretty good because there was no “squashing”, it was competetive.
Mickie is the most popular Diva in the company, she’s their fallback, their protection, and she gets POPS.
She’s gotten a lot of high profile tv time and ring time the last month, its for a reason.
If WWE doesnt want her getting too close to Trish and Litas title reigns, they can put the Diva belt on her.
If Mickie is “stale”………………what is the ’5 knuckle shuffle”……….LOL
A move to Smackdown for Mickie would be an amazing thing to do. The reason for this is because Mickie needs more fighters that have different movesets. On RAW Melina Beth Kelly are capable to carry the show! With Smackdown Rising up, The Most Popular Diva Would Put The Cherry On The Top!
Uhm no Mickie is Red, not blue. also i bet once she starts going to smackdown and finishes wrestling everyone she will get just as stale there.
if mickie goes to SD im dead MICKIE IS A RAW GIRL THROUGH AND THROUGH PLUS RAW IS A BETTER BRAND
Either Mickie goes to SD or turns heel because her character is so boring and stale as it is on RAW. I’d love to see a Michelle vs. Mickie feud, the few short bits that they’ve been in the ring together have been great. They have some fabulous chemistry together!
I think moving Mickie to Smackdown would be a good move. I’d love her to become the Diva’s Champion at some point and if Michelle McCool stays on Smackdown a Mickie/Michelle feud would keep me happy. I think it’d be make sense to keep Michelle on Smackdown now because she seems to be the strongest heel diva on the show more recently (excluding Natalya of course, cuz I’m not actually sure which brand she’s supposed to be on) so unless they moved someone like Beth to Smackdown – which I very highly doubt – I don’t see why they’d move Michelle.
Okay, so I went slightly off topic there… Mickie on Smackdown sounds like a good idea especially since it doesn’t seem likely that the WWE are going to push her for a 5th Women’s Championship reign any time soon. Somehow I don’t think the WWE is gonna let any Diva beat Trish’s record of 7.
I’d pretty much like to see Mickie feud with basically all the heel Smackdown Divas, although Mickie/Nikki I could live without.
there is no way that wwe is going to move mickie to smackdown. she is the most popular diva in wwe and it would be pointless to put her on a second rate show.
michelle will move to raw only if taker moves to raw; the draft is scripted just like everything else in wwe.
i think wwe will move candice to sd because she is lost on raw.
beth will move to sd only if michelle moves to raw .
right now beth is involved in the santina/rosa storyline so wwe may keep her on raw.
as far as trish’s record goes, wwe is upset with her for not working mania so i think wwe will ALLOW mickie to get more women’s title reigns.
i see mickie getting reign number 5 soon and 6 and 7 could follow if she stays in wrestling for a few more years.
records are made to be broken and by the time mickie reaches trish’s record, trish may be raising her own kids with her husband so she will not care if wwe gave a fake record to someone else.
I feel great that Mickie Smackdown pass the league because I think the divas of today’s league blue are too loose. The trademark blue enhanced by Candice Mickie. as i said in my blog (wrestling-day.blogspot.com), will be a rivalry between Michelle & Mickie James.
at first, i thought mickie should stay on Raw, but i agree she should go to Smackdown. She’s been on Raw her whole career and seems to play second face behind Melina, Candice or whoever else is big at the time.