The WORST Wrestling Story Every Year (1989-2025)

2009 - Piggie James

Under Vince McMahon, WWE was woefully ill-equipped to handle sensitive storyline material. This is true of pro wrestling generally, which has rarely and only very recently crafted stories about (for example) mental health to an extent one might label “sophisticated”. It was doubly true, at a minimum, about WWE.

In 2009, the unit of Michelle McCool and Layla mocked Mickie James - who, not that it mattered, did not even approach being overweight - for being fat. In various segments, all of which were scripted, produced, and performed with far too much in the way of glee, LayCool dressed up in inflatable pig costumes and smothered Mickie’s face in cake. It was impossible to shake the idea that WWE wasn’t exactly raging against the patriarchy here.

Witless and with no ambitions whatsoever to tell even a children’s television-level morality play, this might - might - have been justified, had James triumphantly prevailed over the bullying.

This did but also very much didn’t happen. While James defeated McCool for the Women’s title at Royal Rumble 2010, in a 20 second match designed as a richly-deserved humiliation, McCool won it back in less than a month. A meagre 25 day-long reign retconned so quickly that it might as well not have happened was hardly going to resolve the toxic culture of body-shaming.

Things have improved, but to only the slightest of degrees. When a wrestler of Mickie’s proportions turns up on NXT, Booker T is happy to objectify her.

Is that Paul Levesque talks about when he talks about change?