10 Live Observations From WWE SmackDown In St. Paul

9. Mickie James’ Lack Of Reaction

The thought of seeing Mickie James back in WWE was pretty exciting a few months ago. She had a great match with Asuka in NXT, but her main roster run doesn’t seem to be going so hot at the moment. That's probably due in part to how she’s been positioned on TV.

While Becky didn’t get as strong of a reaction as Sasha Banks and Bayley did at the Minneapolis Raw show I saw in Oct., the crowd seemed to be more into her as the match went on. Mickie, though, didn’t get any sort of star reaction when she first came out, or throughout the course of the match. People in the arena just didn’t seem that invested in her.

Part of the problem could be due to there being so many new fans since her last run, and they may not recognize her contributions to the company. Another issue is that she had already lost to Alexa Bliss at Elimination Chamber, and only won the rematch by cheating. A sudden 2-out-of-3 falls match felt unnecessary. It seems that fans in the arena didn’t feel like she posed much of an actual threat. Even when she picked up that first pinfall, they weren’t biting.

It’s a bit of a shame that someone with such a great career isn’t getting over in the way many of us had hoped.