[2006-04-02-WWE-Wrestlemania XXII] Trish Stratus vs Mickie James

[Superstar Sleeze]

WWE Women's Champion Trish Stratus vs Mickie James - WrestleMania XXII

 

I had a massive crush on Mickie when she first started in late 2005 into 2006. Loved this storyline with the obsession leading to Mickie snapping and some really good brawls between the two. It felt like the first real blood feud in the women's division and the only real blood feud going on at the time between any two wrestlers. I had never seen this match, but always wanted to.

 

Mickie was awesome in this match. I have not seen a Trish match since she retired. She is exactly as I remember her sometime who tries really hard. I think it was great she spent most of the match selling because she was A+ at selling the leg. Her offense is ok, but Mickie made it looked like great at the beginning. Trish wanted to start off red hot pissed by the hell Mickie had put her through. Mickie was bumping, screaming and selling her ass off for Trish. Trish went for the Chick Kick on the outside and met steel. The leg work by Mickie was outstanding as was Trish's selling. Hope spots and cutoffs were great. Like Ligerbomb counter to Mickie's usual rana outta the corner or Mickie turning a rana attempt into a sick snapping of the leg over the ring rope. Mickie's demeanor and crazed facial expressions were so spot on.

 

So now we can get to what the match is famous for. Mickie grabs Trish by the pussy. Stunning Trish. Trish LEVELS Mickie, but kinda oddly eats a knee and then its the Mick Kick for the win. It felt flat. I think Mickie pussy grab followed by a swift kick to the head was the way to go. They wanted Trish to get some revenge for the pussy grab, but then did not have transition to get back to Mickie winning that caused the actual finish to be flat. The pussy grab ->Trish decks her was super hot, but the switch back to Mickie was too abrupt.

 

Still this has to be the best women's match between what 1996-2013 in WWE history. Is there anything close? Great heat segment. Awesome, awesome performance by Mickie character work, selling, bumping and offense. Trish was great at selling. Finish makes this fall short of being great, but definitely recommend this. ***3/4

[SmartMark15]

Haven't seen this match in full since I first watched it and followed the story in 2006 when I was entering my wrestling fandom. Rewatching it now, and wow, it's really really good. It was great. Also, way stiffer than I remembered. Holy crap, these two were really going at it. Mickie on offense against Trish's knee was fantastic. Then you had Trish putting on a selling performance that was nearly impeccable. By the finishing stretch, they had the crowd fully in the palm of their hands. You have the strange finish and the weak Chick Kick, yes, that's all there. But, in the end, you have an incredibly solid match that really holds up.

****

[Microstatistics]

Had reviewed this in the Top 100 matches of all time thread. Cross-posting it here.

 

 

The character work was interesting and Mickie's work on Trish's leg looked really good and Trish sold it extremely well. Also the finish is a good example for why penalizing matches for botches can be counterproductive as the messed up spot at the end can be seen as a positive by saying Trish's bad leg buckled (which adds to the match) instead of treating it like negative and saying they screwed up. *** 1/2

[DMJ]

Surprised none of the reviews above - aside from mentioning the "pussy grab"* - talks about how basically near-bottomless Mickie James is in this. Like, yes, there had been Bra & Panty matches and bikini matches in the WWE before, but this match is different because they actually wrestle a real, physical, action-packed match. I don't think there's any other match that I've seen, definitely not in the WWE but nowhere else I can think of either, that mixes the NC-17/almost X-rated vibe of WWE at their skeaziest to the physicality, competitiveness, and athleticism that the women's division would eventually highlight. 

This match isn't "ahead of its time" because, character-wise and storyline-wise and presentation wise, the WWE would never do something this outright vulgar today. (On Peacock, after Mickie delivers the Donald Trump Special, it cuts to the crowd, but IIRC, she actually licked her hand afterwards too and they showed it on the live feed)

But its also not "of its time" because, unless you caught a random good match involving Ivory or Victoria or Trish or Jazz or whoever, nobody was watching WWE to see great women's wrestling in the 00s. This match really had the crowd fully into it and seemed like a big deal and there was much more intrigue around it than, say, the Henry/Taker match that follows it (which isn't even all that terrible, but nobody on Earth thought Henry had any chance of winning) or the JBL/Benoit match for the US Title earlier on the show. 

To me, this is good enough to be considered a "must see" match, especially for people who may think "WWE + the 00s + Trish Stratus = overrated fanboy garbage." No, this match somehow features kick-ass action, a great story, awesome character work, and will also give you very impure thoughts and there's something to be said for being the only match that does all 4 of those things really, really well. 


* I'm going to go ahead and dub the move "The Donald Trump Special" because of, y'know, Trump's admitted penchant for grabbing women by the crotch.