41 Most Disgusting Promotional Tactics In Wrestling History RANKED

18. 2009 - The Piggie James Angle

Not that it would have been justifiable were this not the case, but Mickie James has never approached being overweight throughout her entire wrestling career.

Because she had the temerity to be more curvaceous than the body type WWE preferred at the time*, she was basically called a fat pig in a vile storyline. Bullied relentlessly by Michelle McCool and Layla, this was a particularly mean-spirited take on the company’s painfully unfunny catalogue of tropes. McCool appeared in front of a green screen depicting a farm on the TitanTron as Mickie’s face was superimposed onto a pig; Mickie’s face was smothered in cake; Layla wore a fat suit and pig nose mask to taunt her victim.

This might have been somewhat excusable - somewhat - if the bullies got theirs in the end. They did and they didn’t; McCool’s deserved humiliation at the 2010 Royal Rumble, at which she was squashed in seconds, was erased when she recaptured the Women’s title just over three weeks later.

If you’ve ever struck up a friendship or relationship with a woman that grows confident enough around you to share their insecurities, it is almost guaranteed that they will not feel comfortable with their body. Women are constantly bombarded with the idea that they do not look good enough. Imagine being a young girl and being told that Mickie James was fat and undesirable. Some women develop serious physical and mental health issues when they feel they do not look a certain way - even, not that this matters, when they do.

*Both Athena and Cora Jade, following their releases, have alleged that they were body-shamed in the post-’Diva’ era of WWE.