10 Times WWE Embarrassed Their Own Stars
6. Mickie James
Sometimes, you just have to admire WWE for their brazen hypocrisy. Despite being public partners of the anti-bullying campaign Be a STAR for almost a decade, the company have unfailingly presented their characters - and not always their villains - as on-screen tormentors, more often than not played for laughs without even a sniff of redemption for the abused.
It's simply a habit they cannot break, no matter how much it undermines their much-vaunted charitable concerns. Two years before pretending to help rid American schools of playground provocation, WWE made the blameless Mickie James the centre of an angle in which she was viciously ridiculed for being overweight.
For several weeks, the heel tandem of LayCool mocked James for her weight gain, making lame porcine puns, most notably coining the put-down 'Piggy James'. The fact her figure was scarcely different to the rest of the roster was not the issue, but that there was nothing remotely inspirational about the arc. James eventually beat Michelle McCool for her Women's Championship, but lost it back within a month. Ultimately, as always seems to be the case in WWE, the bullies prevailed.