10 Early Predictions For The 2019 WWE Hall Of Fame Class

6. Michelle McCool

Michelle McCool
WWE.com

In recent years, in an attempt to reinforce the commitment to the Women's Evolution, Vince has opted to usher the Divas of yesteryear into the Hall of Fame - even though the central premise of the Women's Evolution seeks to move away from the Divas of yesteryear and their marginalised, regressive, sexuality-driven role on WWE television. From Ivory to Beth Phoenix - commendable by the standards of the time - it translates as WWE picking names out of a hat.

In this case, the hat is a Stetson.

This results in meaningless platitudes like "Diva X truly broke new ground!" and "Diva X truly paved the way for the women that followed her!", which is understandable. WWE is hardly going to cite Michelle McCool's Extreme Makeover Women's Title loss to Beth Phoenix as specific evidence of her legendary credentials. But, and here's that faint-praise refrain again, McCool was better than most of her rotten peers. At Night Of Champions 2009, she bested Melina in one of the scene's better efforts, in which the women sought to wrestle a match as dramatic and violent as their male counterparts, resulting in barricade DDTs and a brutal spot in which McCool knocked a split-legged Melina from the apron to the floor with a baseball slide...

...actions for which they were scolded by road agents. They were allegedly too good "for girls".

Platitudes it is.

Michelle McCool was one of the more passable Divas, and she married The Undertaker - which is more than Manami Toyota ever did.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!