Fresh off her controversial comments on Beth Phoenix, Michelle McCool has opened up about her controversial storyline with Mickie James, praising the former WWE Diva and current TNA star for her work in the touchy ‘Piggie James’ storyline in late 2009 through early 2010.
Speaking about the storyline to her official website, Michelle said: “It was tough on everybody, but obviously tough on Mickie, to say the least. She was the utmost professional in that situation. She never complained about the material that was being written. She never bitched, moaned, or tried to change it or get it shut down. She knew it was business — she knew it was going to help us.
“There were so many times, time after time, where we would go up to Mickie and apologize in advance. We’d be like: ‘This sucks and I’m sorry. Obviously, we didn’t write this. I’m just sorry… we don’t know what else to say.’ Like I said: she was always completely cool with it. I’m sure it hurt; things like that do. Obviously she’s not big — she’s one of the smallest people. There’s no way anybody thought she was really overweight or ‘Piggie James.’ Again, that was just our stupid, silly LayCool characters that we had. Like I said: all credit to her. It would have not progressed, gone as far, or had gotten over like it did if it weren’t for her. I don’t think any other babyface could have pulled that off.”
Michelle also addressed the lack of comeuppance she and Layla received, as the storyline ended with Michelle regaining the Women’s Championship from Mickie after briefly losing it at the Royal Rumble.
She said: “I don’t feel like LayCool ever got our butts handed to us by her enough. I never understood that… it was like: ‘Why isn’t she killing us here? Doing this or doing that?’ I think the story could have even gone further because the fans, week after week, wanted her to just embarrass us. At the Rumble we ended up with birthday cake in our face, and everybody loved that. Here we were embarrassed by her — that was great!”
The first ever Divas Champion revealed the work between LayCool and Mickie — particularly the ‘Piggie James Going Away Party’ segment in January 2010 — impressed several WWE higher-ups, especially Vince McMahon.
“Vince ended up loving the LayCool character as a result of that storyline. That’s kind of how things kind of kept happening for us. But, like I said: I give credit to Mickie James. She was fighting with us to get TV time, to get pay-per-view matches, to raise the bar… not many people will always do that. But she did, and I will forever be grateful for that.”
“Something to add: the night we smashed cake in Mickie’s face, during her send-off… she was just brilliant on her response! That was the point where LayCool finally got to Mickie James, she just looked humiliated as she ran off in tears. Nobody else could have done that the way she did it. As we all came backstage — and very, very rarely does this happen — Vince, Michael Hayes, and everybody in the gorilla position were standing up and clapping saying: ‘The girls just stole the show.’ That was a very, very special moment. I give her all the props in the world. So, thanks Mickie if you hear this — I really, really appreciate you!”
Listen to Michelle talk about Mickie below:
