WWE TLC 2017: Why Mickie James Should Defeat Alexa Bliss

WWE TLC 2017 will feature a dream match between AJ Styles and Finn Balor, as well as Kurt Angle’s return to the ring when he teams up with Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose. The fans will also be treated to Asuka’s main roster debut, yet the match with the best build is the Raw Women’s Championship match between Alexa Bliss and Mickie James.

For the most part, Raw’s storylines within its women’s division are either non-existent or idiotic. Take, for example, Sasha Banks’s rivalry with Alicia Fox, which just suddenly happened. It’s the second time they’ve done something like this, and there’s no room for emotional investment from the fans when something like this is thrown together so quickly.

Or how about Nia Jax’s teased tension with Alexa Bliss? The WWE simply forgot about it when the storyline was no longer convenient, and this type of booking also makes it difficult for fans to take a story seriously. Why invest in something that will just be thrown out like old Chinese takeout?

All of this is why the feud between Mickie James and Alexa Bliss for the Raw Women’s Championship has been refreshing. WWE TLC 2017 is a pay per view that has been sent into a tailspin by a viral infection that forced Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt to pull out of the proceedings. It’s also a pay per view that won’t feature a title defense of the Universal Championship. As such, the WWE has scheduled AJ Styles, who is on SmackDown Live, and Kurt Angle, who hadn’t been cleared to wrestle, to have big matches on the show.

The entire pay per view wasn’t exactly built-up well before the illness hit, but the James vs. Bliss match has been one of the highlights to this point. While the constant “old” references are tiresome and more than a little bit insulting, James and Bliss have been absolutely tremendous on the microphone. For the first time since she dazzled the Raw audience with her verbal takedowns, Bliss finally has someone who can match her on the mic, and it isn’t a surprise that James, who is one of the most decorated wrestlers in history, is the one to do this.

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Over the past month, James and Bliss have traded barbs, and James nearly defeated Nia Jax before Bliss prevented her “friend” from actually eating the pin. James “still has it” both in real life and in storyline, though the WWE took a frustratingly long time to take advantage of this on the “Red Brand”.

Since Bliss has been on Raw, she’s had feuds with Bayley and Sasha Banks, neither of whom went anywhere after these programs. By being too afraid to use a “Kendo Stick” at Extreme Rules, Bayley was essentially buried (“This Is Your Life” didn’t exactly help either).

Meanwhile, Banks had some great moments, namely a Raw Women’s Championship win for the first time on pay per view at SummerSlam, before being sent to the back of the line.

The same fate cannot befall James, whose history with Bliss started on SmackDown Live. Bliss said she brought James back out of respect for the six-time women’s champion, but she obviously brought James back in order to take advantage of her help. She used James to defend the SmackDown Women’s Championship against Becky Lynch, but the two-time PWI Woman of the Year saw right through her plan.

Although the WWE should have capitalized on this feud from the very moment both competitors were traded together to Raw, “better late than never” is the cliche that comes to mind here. On a card that features Asuka, Kurt Angle, Finn Balor, AJ Styles, Kane, Braun Strowman, and other big names in tantalizing matchups, this Raw Women’s Championship bout between Bliss and James doesn’t seem lost in the shuffle.

James has been talking a big game in promos. She’s been discussing her status as a legend, her chance to make history with a championship victory on Sunday, and she keeps reiterating that she “still has it”. When babyfaces show this type of confidence, it’s great to see (contrast her promos with Bayley’s this year to see what I mean). And when they show this type of confidence, they had better win.

Since her latest stint with the WWE, James had paid a lot of dues. She’s taken losses, she’s been off of television, and she’s been in a strange program with Emma that benefited nobody. I doubt James came back for any of these crowning moments, so it’s high time they have her set a record and put that belt on her. She might not be champion for long, but this feud with Bliss has real legs to it and can hit that next gear if James becomes champion.

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I know the Raw Women’s Championship flip-flops around too much (Banks really shouldn’t have won it at SummerSlam), but this is one of those few times where a change would actually make sense. Bliss makes sense as someone to build the division around, until Asuka starts climbing up the ranks, but it might be hard to take James seriously if she keeps coming up short in big spots now that she’s a veteran in WWE.

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