Mickie James Reveals WWE Backstage Reaction To ‘Piggy James’ Programme
The notorious angle has been widely criticised
Mickie James has been involved in some memorable angles during her career, but one sticks out like a sore thumb: Piggy James.
During James’ feud with LayCool, James was fat-shamed, with her head photoshopped onto a pig. Fans hated it, and in conversation on the Kurt Angle Show podcast, James revealed she wasn’t a fan herself:
“I didn’t love the piggy James angle. I really didn’t,” started Mickie. “I hated it because I felt like it was like ribbing on the square,” said James. “It was meant to get real heat for Michelle and Layla. I kind of felt like it was cheap heat and it was a different way to go. At that moment, I was very torn. But I’m also of the mindset like, okay, they’re going to give me this thing that I saw, I felt in my heart at the moment they’re gonna give me this crappy storyline about calling me fat and all this stuff.
“I had several conversations with the girls too. It wasn’t like the girls were over the moon about doing the storyline, either. I think they were heavy in their hearts about it as well, and I’m just going to try to make it gold and try to get these girls over as monster heels because that’s obviously the end result of what we want is the girls need to get over as monster heels, and they weren’t at that time, but they were by the end of it, especially with Vicki Guerrero involved. I felt like it did achieve that purpose.”
However, in some form of poetic justice, James says she has seen that the angle had a positive effect on some portions of the fanbase:
“I didn’t love it, however, the amount of women now who have come to me since then, and we’re now 10 years removed from that story, and said that story empowered them because they felt very bullied, or they were very self conscious about their weight or their body, and they had body dysmorphia and all these things that it really empowered them is pretty remarkable.
“I never really thought of it that way when I was in it, but now to be removed from it and that if you can change one person’s life or the perception of themselves, then perhaps it’s worth it in the end. So no, I didn’t love it, but now looking back, it was a pretty powerful part of my career that happened and I know it’s like a kind of a mixed bag of how people feel about it.”
H/T: WrestlingNews.co