One of the more controversial angles in recent memory featuring the WWE Divas, Michelle McCool and Layla's bullying of Mickie James riled up a fair few fans, who felt there was more than a touch of malice surrounding the storyline. Transferring to Smackdown from Raw in late-2009, James entered into a feud with the heel Diva tag-team Laycool, during which McCool and Layla would ridicule Mickie for her appearance. It was pretty standard stuff, until WWE started mentioning that James could shed a few pounds. To any average person, Mickie James has always looked incredible, but rumours surfaced that WWE officials felt she was carrying a little bit of excess baggage, and were none too happy about it. Naturally, the idea that this was then made into a story on-air upset a few folks, who felt it was unnecessary bullying from WWE to embarrass a talent on screen as they were. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9x71KoKiLY Wrestling is a strange business - on one hand, there was nothing especially wrong with the story, but it perhaps did feature a little too much real life needle from the company towards their talent, and the timing wasn't exactly excellent, given that news had leaked WWE weren't happy with how James looked.
Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.
