WWE’s Mickie James on the lack of selling in pro-wrestling today

The art of selling is incredibly important in WWE and professional wrestling in general. Regardless of the company, selling in wrestling allows the athletes to draw the fans in and makes them to care about what they are seeing in the ring. For WWE Superstar Mickie James, she feels that the art of selling has been lost in wrestling today.

Mickie James, a former five-time WWE Women’s Champion and one-time WWE Diva’s Champion, has had a lot to say on the subject of selling as it pertains to the modern era of wrestling in 2020.

WWE’s Mickie James claims when wrestlers half commit to sell, fans half commit to care

Recently, WWE star Mickie James joined Sirius XM Busted Open Radio with hosts Dave LaGreca and Mark Henry to discuss a variety of topics.

When talking about how great the recent match on WWE SmackDown between Sasha Banks and Bayley was, Mickie James praised their efforts in regards to selling, while questioning the industry outside of WWE as a whole.

“Yeah, I think that’s super powerful. And I mean, honestly, like Sasha and Bayley, I mean, they’re probably you know, right, especially right now. Like, they’re probably the one of the two best that [WWE have] got, you know, like, and I think you say that about Sasha, that’s so sweet. Like, the one thing that I think also that I’ve committed on like, because I knew I wasn’t going to be the one to go out there and like, do like a triple moonsault off the top. I always try to commit and I see this a lot with both of these girls.

“So when you when you bring them up, I’m committed to the sell. I always wanted to make my opponent look good. It was never about my shit. And I wanted to make sure I got my s*** in. And I wanted to make sure when I told the story that the people believed that that person was kicking my butt. I wanted to sell I committed to the sell. I sold I was not afraid to sell. It didn’t think it made me look weak. I didn’t think it may help me tell the story. I think that’s a common misconception that’s happened across the board. In wrestling is people are so worried about getting their s*** in and looking strong and being strong and they’ve not committed to the sell.

“So now everybody is half committing to the sell. And what in turn is happening is the fans are half committing to caring because they don’t believe that you’re in jeopardy, they don’t believe that you’re hurt. They believe that you’re playing wrestler, and so they don’t think that you care. So therefore they don’t care. That’s the problem. That’s where this weird shift has happened. You know what I mean? Because everybody’s too much of a mark for themselves instead of a mark for the business and that’s the end of the story. 

“You know, it’s like a weird, and I don’t know what this is just like, the way the business is changing. And maybe this is where I missed the boat, because I never was that and that mentality has always made me insane. And I could see it start to filter in, you know, the business and as it slowed in I said, eww, that’s gross. But that’s really where it where it’s now it’s like really prevalent where I never thought that that type of mentality would take a precedent in our company, or even in the industry, but now it seems to be like, that is more than the people who have committed to the sell into the characters in my opinion.

“Like it used to be like you had to be money on the mic, and you had to be able to sell your butt off, especially as a baby face because I spent the most of my career as a baby face. Even [WWE legend] Shawn Michaels told me it’s not it’s not about the moves, not about the do like you look at me, you look at Hunter, we do the same five moves to everybody, anybody anywhere. He goes, I just sell. That’s what I do. And I’m like, that is what he does. And he’s like the best. I want to do that. Like that’s just my mentality. Okay, that’s what I’m gonna do. I’m just gonna sell and be the best at selling.”

Mickie James is currently sidelined from WWE due to an injury and remains a “free agent” in storylines, following the recent WWE Draft in October.

Published 19 Nov 2020, 04:01 IST