The summer and fall of 2007 had seen Candice Michelle make tremendous strides as an in-ring performer. She defeated Melina in June at Vengeance: Night of Champions to win the title and improved on a nightly basis, establishing herself as one of the best chances for a breakout star since Trish Stratus hung up her boots a year earlier. A plucky babyface type who had begun showing great fire in her comebacks and was working competitive and quality matches against Melina, Jillian Hall and the returning Beth Phoenix. In fact, her feud with Phoenix felt very much like the foundation of a stronger Divas division, the type of program that could bring prestige back to the Women's Championship. When they took to the ring for a Best Two-of-Three Falls match for the Women's Champion on the October 22 episode of Raw, there were lofty expectations given the talents of the two women involved. Unfortunately, a nasty spill and a gut-wrenching broken clavicle brought Candice's improbable run to an end. Forced to watch from the sidelines for months, she saw Maria Kanellis become one of the hottest stars in the division thanks to her Playboy cover and repetitive bouts between Phoenix, Mickie James and Melina. When she finally returned from injury, she looked somewhat hesitant. It was clear that she had lost some confidence and was worried about re-injuring herself. She did and that was essentially the end of her WWE run, which was incredibly disappointing considering the quality of her work prior to the ill-timed injury.