My Fallout with Michelle McCool

the mistakes. We haven't spoken about the learning process and the hard lessons and things that I wish I could have back. So today's episode is all about that. Today we're gonna focus on one wrestler in particular, and that's the former Diva's Champion Michelle McCool. A situation that I had with her that I just really wish I could have taken the whole thing. But I had been at the company about four months, and in that amount of time, I had written a few promos that the company really liked.

I started getting assignments that were larger than just hey, we need you to do a promo for Wrestler X on Tuesday Night, which was our SmackDown episodes when we would record them. And so I got tasked by Stephanie McMahon to write uh Diva's story. They called it the Diva's title, and the female wrestlers were divas then, which I always thought was so stupid. So this was the story I was writing, and she said, I we're signing Awesome Coong, which was this female wrestler named Kias Stevens.

And to see her is to just be an awesome cong. I mean, she's my height and she's huge. And when she wrestled in t NA, she had an amazing story with Gail Kim. It was where they would just throw these matches together. Gayl could spin around, was small and light and awesome calm. Kia Stevens could just be a tree and and it was like watching a tire swing swinging around her. It was. It was really cool. So we had signed her and we had another wrestler named

Beth Phoenix. Beth Phoenix actually wrestled in high school on the boys team. She lifted weights. She is buff jacked, not like shredded, like like like a Bruce Lee kind of shred like a buff woman who could go in there and pick up anybody and smash them. So those two were the ones I was assigned to create a WrestleMania match for. This was all the way back in two thousand seven. Now, this wasn't a request from Vince

or from Kevin Dunn. This was a request from Stephanie McMahon, who was working on the women's division and making it means something all the way back then with incredibly limited success. But you can look at where it is now and she's had her her thumb print on each and every one of those those steps to the top, which is

where I feel they're at right now. So my WrestleMania card was gonna be Awesome Kong, who they hadn't named Karma yet, which was what they tried to debut her as before she mysteriously left the company and the whole thing went to pot. It was Beth Phoenix as the baby face, and it was Awesome Kong as the heel.

So how do you bring this woman in? Well, the way they brought her in or tried to, were these vignettes where you would just see this like Barbie Doll and the head get ripped off, and the philosophy behind it was here comes this monster who they were gonna call Karma, hate all the pretty girls, and want to destroy all the pretty girls because Barbie doesn't represent what a real woman is. It's a it's a fraud, and

all these women have been deceived. And they took pieces from my story when they actually tried did their vignettes, but I never had any of the Barbie doll stuff in there. This was more Kia could talk, so I thought it would be good to to allow her to tell her story. I like when heels tell their story more than when baby faces do. I feel like baby faces someone else should tell their story. Otherwise they're talking

about how great they are. But a he'll can give you their philosophy and you can hate them for it, or you can get behind it. And in this case, I thought we could get a little bit of both. So you have this woman who wants to destroy all these perfect Barbie dolls. And and these are the girls like the Kelly Kelly's that they had there, whose real name is Barbie. Like her real name is Barbie born Barbie. They called her Babs, I think was her nickname. She's

super cool. This was gonna be like her first victim was Kelly Kelly, and as she sort of started to come through and destroy all of the girls that weren't really going to compete for the championship. These could be squash matches for her. We'd be holding act the first challenge that she was really gonna have, which was an Italian Nightheart, and Daddy was going to give it a

good go. But Naddy would eventually lose to her as well, which brings us to Gail Kim, who had the history with her in t NA, and the company had also just signed and this was gonna be the first test that our awesome Kong had and Gail would get some serious offense off but eventually would fall, and that's when Kong would call out for Michelle McCool, the Diva's Champion, I want to say Women's champions, that's what she was. She would call her out and say, I'm coming for

that title. I'm writing this story up and all I've been told is, hey write me this WrestleMania story. And it's not just for Kia and Beth, it's you know, I want you to include all of our divas in there. So that's kind of why you get the long back story. So I write this up and I give it to Steph and she really likes it, and Freebird really likes it, and it goes all the way to the top. It goes to Vince and uh, it's approved, but not my

The WrestleMania match is not guaranteed. That's the goal, right, So I have Michelle losing the Diva's Championship at the Royal Rumble, which happens a few months, just a few months, but a couple of months before WrestleMania, and I have her losing with Dignity, and I have her given us a real match. I said this at the beginning of the podcast. I had been in the company maybe four months, maybe four months. I didn't realize the belt meant so much to so many different people. It didn't mean that

much to others. If they had the the Intercontinental title belt, they weren't really in on when they were going to lose it or not. It was it was the company that decided that. Same with the United States title, same with the tag team titles. And I'm green as all hell, I'm a complete rookie. I have no idea the politics of it. Michelle never came to the promo class, so I didn't really know Michelle at all. And I go

to work. We're on the road and somewhere in the area, you know, backstage, and Michelle says, Stephanie said, you wanted to talk to me about the women's storyline. And we sit down at a like a cafeteria table that's where we work, where everybody's eating. So we're off to the side, and I start pitching it to her what it was gonna be, which was it wasn't right on my part.

I get to the Royal Rumble and I explained to her that she'll be you know, the suggestion is that she drops the title at the Royal Rumble, and then I keep telling the story of where it finishes, because she deserves to know the whole story. And it gets all the way to WrestleMania, which would be Beth and Kia, and her face just goes pale. All the color just drops right out of or just literally right out of her skin. And right away I know I've done something terrible.

I just don't know what it is yet because I didn't This is hindsight, right, and I was in the moment, so I look I go what what, what's wrong? What's wrong? And her eyes well up and I'm like, oh my god, what did what did I do? What did I do? And she said I didn't. I didn't think i'd be

losing the belt before WrestleMania, and I didn't. Again, I didn't understand how much that title men to her because the only other sort of interaction I had was on the men's side with the I C in the U S belts, which got traded quite frequently, although not when it was on M v P. So I just didn't. I didn't think it was a big deal, I said. I said, Yeah, I was. I was asked to make Kia Stevens and Beth Phoenix for WrestleMania, and this was the best way I thought I thought we could get there.

Is is there a problem? She's not here to to give her side of the story, So I'm not gonna say all the all the stuff that she said, but she was, she was upset in hindsight, rightfully, So let me kind of paint a bit of a picture of the women's division. Back then, they did not have anywhere near the respect that they have today. And I mean that in every sense of the word. They weren't treated fairly, their matches were not treated fairly, their characters were not

treated fairly. Nothing about it, well, hey, life's not fair. No, it was beyond that. It was simply there was no opportunity period. I never forget about the Mullahs or the Leta and and Trish generation, like they all they all

unlocked the door for these next generations. But Michelle fell in this void in between Lida and Trish and in between the Bella Revolution that happened, where there was just nothing there and everything that was written for her and everyone else, at least when I was there, on the women's side, was just a brick wall, constantly running into a brick wall and planning matches that you know, we're gonna get cut matches that were promised to not promised,

but promised to them. Hey, you're gonna have ten minutes at the pay per view, and then it would get cut down to five minutes, and then after the production meeting it was just the dark match that didn't even make it to the pay per view. So they were struggling. Michelle was getting five minutes to tell a story in the ring. That's with her entrance that was one minute, and her opponent's entrance that was one minute. So now they have three minutes to have a wrestling match three minutes.

That's crazy, that's crazy. And she was good. She was somebody who constantly tried to bring reality to her to her matches. She tried to bring in real mm a with heel hooks and jiu jitsu submissions. She she had a passion for that, as did her husband, the Undertaker. So she was constantly battling in a in a time where the company just didn't blink. They just didn't blink

when it came to the women's division. So so here I am with the champion and she's crying because of me, because I didn't talk to her first to say, hey, we're thinking about taking the title off of you at the Royal Rumble so that we can get this other Matt. I mean, that just sounds horrible even saying it now.

So I screwed up. I screwed up. I should have before I got the story approved, I probably should have shown it to although when you hear the end of the story, it probably wouldn't got it would have gotten killed even sooner. I don't know what the right move was here, but I know that I screwed up and she deserved better than that. She's probably the most underserved champion, the at least women's champion the company's had as far as resources available and resources used. I don't know what

to do. And while I'm talking to her, I worked out a way story wise with her to turn WrestleMania into a triple threat between Beth Phoenix, Kia Stevens awesome cong Burma, choose your favorite, and and Beth Phoenix. I haven't even gotten this match approved by by Free Bird or anyone, but I'm trying to. I'm just trying to help right or not backpedal. I'm trying to move forward. I'm trying the front pedal. I take it back to to Michael and the Bellas. You gotta remember we're just debuting,

so i'd quosed. I just did this documentary for Annie about the Bellas and their debut and sort of their contribution to the business. And I don't know who all they had on there. Hopefully they got Finley because he was sort of the champion for all the women wrestlers back then and when they were called up. I mean, this was the guy that was trying to let them do the same techniques and moves that the men do

every single production meeting. Hopefully they get free Bird on there, because he was the one that ran into the room when we were about to lose him because Breebella called John Larneitas and I was like, look, our contracts are up. You put us on TV or we're gone, and John larn It is called Freebird ands like, you're gonna find a way to get the Twins on television right now, and Freebird runs in the writer's room. He's like, we

got twins, we gotta get him on TV. And all the writers are like, what, we're not even am I allowed to watch the fc W tapes you said, I wasn't. Like everybody was so confused, and it was all because of Brie and Nikki. But Bree is like behind the scenes jaws of the two of them, right, like whatever the killer whale one was, orca that one that's Nikki because she's more hardcore like in the ring, but in life, Breeze like, nah, dude, I will cut you. So that's

why they accomplished all they accomplished. But before the Bella's and before the women were getting commercial breaks and ten fifteen twenty minute Oh I'm sorry, here's an Iron Woman match for you between I think it was Sasha Banks and Bailey like that. Sick that all happens because the Bella's had a reality show called Total Divas and Total Bella's and it was getting higher ratings than Monday in Hira.

So they started bringing their storylines or creating storylines on their reality show and allowing those to motivate the matches, which was such a sick, next level business move, Bribella, thank you very much. But before they existed, Michelle McCool was having to hold down this fort. It was all

on her shoulders. And here comes this jerk writer from l A who doesn't know where at all and has been there not even half a year, and he's gonna take it all away at the Royal Rumble and there's gonna be a Women's WrestleMania match, and and she's not going to be in it. When she's been holding the fort for this not even PG brand that she's been forced to hold. It was borderline g rating the storylines

that she was doing. She had to put up with a lot, and I think I'm just thinking out loud now, but I think maybe that might not have been the biggest slap in the face, but it was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak. Or maybe it was just a tremendous slap and and and I was an idiot. I mean that's how I feel now looking back at it. There's an aftermath. I talked to Beth and she is gung ho as all as all hell.

I mean, it's the storyline of storylines. We had two versions, one where she overcomes all these odds, all these obstacles and she gets kiss Stevens up in the glam Slam, and we talked can you get her up? Can you get everything? And she's like, oh, yeah, I can get her up, don't worry. And she could. I mean she could deadlift a million pounds. So it wasn't it wasn't.

That wasn't an issue. And the other was Kia needed to win and we were gonna have a healed champion, and she was going to destroy the Diva's Championship and turn it into the Women's Championship, which is what she wanted to do, which then would obviously turned her baby face. Beth is super gung ho for it. Kia's all in. I even had them do a promo like off of each other, which was going to be a part of

the story. I think I touched on in another episode where Kia is just circling Beth just like a like a lion about to play with its food, but instead of trying to kill it, it tries to covet the gazelle, so to speak, Beth being the figure of gazelle. So instead of saying I'm gonna destroy you, she says, no, no, no, no, I want you to join me because you're just like me. You're not these little you know, Barbie doll bar And this was all her freestyling. This is I didn't even

write this. This was just let me yeah, let me give props. Like Kia just off the dome was like yo, I got this, and she's just walking this circle. She's like, I want you to join me. All I said was trigger. That's all. That was the only note that I gave her.

And she starts going in on how beautiful Beth is and it's not sexual, but it could be borderline sexual, right, but it's more just impressed and you're gonna shower them with compliments so they know you're not their enemy, even though you're really just gonna stab him in the back. And she walked around her three times, nice and slow. I mean it was like a Shakespearean play. And this is in front of all her peers, like all the

other wrestlers are sitting in there, misses in there. I think he had this guy named Alex something was his like protege coming up for medics. Every everyone was in there. We were like thirty deep at that point, and she's just no fear. This was her well, by the way, her very first promo class kids like, she was, Oh, Hi, nice to meet you. Don't worry, baby, I got this. And I'm like, oh, it's got step part right on. And she killed it. And she protects Beth in that

moment because Beth wasn't the strongest on the mic. So Beth is in this segment that would get over huge, at least in my mind, would and all she's having to do is look strong and be the baby face hell no, and then get her at the very end with like yo, like whatever her line would sound good coming out of her mouth, whether it's that's not gonna happen or I'll never join you, or you know, bet or just a punch in the face, maybe Batista style,

you never know. So we had all this and I'm feeling good man and I talked to her about a triple threat and that's like, yeah, the more than Mary. She just wants everyone to get paid, right, So she's like, am making it making an eight an eight woman madagine, everybody can get their check. And Kei is down like she she's ready to go. She's gonna be She's gonna probably be the champion. So we shoot that episode that night, that's smack Down, and I get to work. Wednesday was

our travel day back. I get to work on the travel day. She's always lovely. So we we land in White Plains. I go into the Stanford office and I'm about an hour into my day. I'm trying to like sneak a promo off to Brian Kendrick so he can kind of get a head start on it. And uh, and this guy Ezekiel Jackson, they called him, his real name is Rickland. Michael goes, uh, Bretty, let me talk to you, all right, go into his office. He shows

he shows me this. He goes, he says, you probably got some crazy fans, right, I said, yes, you know, I've had my fair share. He goes, let me fucking show you something. He opens a drawer. He goes, look at this ship I got, and he holds up a picture and it's this big leg with a tattoo of him on the leg. And I go, what, man, what do you what are you showing? He goes that's me. I go, well, no, but did you get that too

that tattoo? Goes funck No, that's just on some crazy fucker, and I just started I die laughing, right, and so I'm disarmed now and he crosses his arm and leans over the desk. The dude is a lifelong pro wrestler. He's not management, right, but he's trying to be a manager. After about six months, he and I were just cool, like he would go, Freddie that sucked or Freddy that was good, and it was just real shorthand with us at that point. But this was when he was still

trying to be super professional. He crossed his hands and goes, Freddy, there's a problem with your diva's storyline and we need to talk about it. I said, what what, what's the problem. He goes it's gone. I said, what do you mean it's gone? Man? And he goes, it's gone. I said, what happened? He goes, well, Michelle said that you and her talk and she didn't really like the story, so it's gone. I said, I did. I was I supposed This is when I first said, was I supposed to

ask her? Like? Oh? This? He goes Freddy. She talked to undertaker. Undertaker, talk to Vince. The story's gone. Now. Probably the color in my face dropped, right. I don't know. I wasn't looking at myself, but this had never really happened to me before. Like I it wasn't getting chastised, but it was like, hey, your idea is gone. Be you screwed up so bad that this person wasn't comfortable

telling you that this wasn't gonna happen. They went and spoke to someone else to make sure this wasn't gonna happen. Like she didn't feel comfortable being open and honest with me in that moment, or or down that down that road, and again in in hindsight, yeah, I get it. She she had to do that. She had to protect the foundation that she had laid down, regardless of what you

think of that championship run. That's not on her. She doesn't get to pick when the studio is too afraid to say the word asked on TV, they're not afraid to show one, but they won't let you say it because of stockholders or because we were changing from one channel to the next. So it was a thankless job. And here I come in just sort of reckon someone's dream. You know, it's not it's not on me, but it's not something that I'm proud of the way I presented

it to her. The I should ask more questions. I think it was reasonable for me to assume that that championship meant a lot more to her than just a part of a storyline. I think that's if that was her expectation. I think that's reasonable. But yeah, man, I screwed up. I screwed up, and I didn't I didn't like that feeling. Man. It was tough working with the girls because I can't I can count on one hand

how many dudes right in front of me. The women there were much more emotional because their opportunities were far, far less, so if they got anything they liked, they had to hit a home run. Imagine getting one at baddest season and if you don't hit a home run, you won't play again. Ever, that was the position these women were in. It was It was crazy to me, so I I cared a lot. Michelle and I weren't really the same after that, so there wasn't I don't

even remember if an apology happened. I'm saying on my end, she doesn't owe me an apology, but yeah, things things were different. Things were for sure different after that. And then I I left the company for a little while, and they have brought I think another Hollywood writer who created the lay Cool which was Layla and Michelle McCool is kind of a team, even though Michelle was the champion, and then they sort of had a promise that she would drop the title to Layla when she was done

with the business. And when I came back my second time, as that guy was leaving, I wasn't. I wasn't a fan of the Lake Coal thing. I'm not trying to trash it. I just didn't. I didn't think that was the right direction for for women in their thirties to be to be acting like that. It just didn't click to me. I know, they were looking to get like teenage girls, and that's important, but that was the wrong time to pursue the role model female wrestler when you're

calling them divas. It just wasn't It wasn't the right time. It wasn't the right time. It wasn't until I think the Bella's kind of blew up the women's division, at least in w w E. It's not to say there wasn't women killing it all over the world and other promotions, but the biggest promotion I didn't say best, that's the biggest promotion where you had the biggest opportunity in the most eyeballs on you was the w w E. And when the Bellas came in there with that reality show,

it genuinely changed the business. And it's so strange when you find these people that that got middled right, like a throwing quarterback in a running quarterbacks league, if they would have only been born ten years ago, or with the rules quarterbacks have, if Dan Marino was drafted today,

you know you'd have all the records. If Michelle McCool was coming up now and the same age as Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, knowing what she knows, knowing what she's learned from some of the best wrestlers in the business. Her relationship with fit Finley was always top shelf. He had her act so much. He was the one that got her the heel hook and got her to allowed her to not allowed her, but got permission for her to use it, only to have it taken away again.

So stupid. I want, I just I wonder, I wonder where she would be as far as top girls, right, top guys and top girls. She was underserved when I worked there. She wasn't taking care of the way you should take care of a champion, and that that part is partially on on me to blame. But the company didn't appreciate women the way they do now, and it isn't because the women are so much better. They had some legit, straight up athlete gangsters on the roster Eve

Torres or Eve Torres. Graci can do moon salts, and then some they just don't allow her to do it, and she got to do it a couple of times. But they had they had some monsters on there that could work, they just weren't allowed to work. And it was you know, you hear frustration in my voice. Imagine being one of them. Imagine not commentating on it. Imagine trying to live that. A lot of you probably can male or female. You a lot of you can relate

to being in a job where, damn you're contributing. You know, your work is valuable, and you just not even looked at, just not even not even looked at. And had she not been married to undertake her, what happens then? What happens if undertaker isn't in the picture and says, yo, man,

you gotta get this. My girl worked too hard to have you, you know, take it away like this, and Vince going, now, yeah, you're right, I up sorry, which is probably all that happened, right, It's just it was a it was a tough situation all the way around that that shouldn't have happened. She wasn't appreciate it, and and I guess you know the other way is he?

That's that show business, right. There's plenty of actors and musicians that were born in the wrong gen ration and not appreciate it until, you know, after their their active contributions were were gone. But watch some of her stuff, man, she she does some UFC moves in there go on YouTube and and deep and deep dive. I know she's not a household name, but it's an important part of w w A history because she was a champion. It's certainly an important part of my short time there, which

and I should have shared this story sooner. I think I just blocked it out. And she held the line for a couple of good years there before the Bellas were able to do what they did. And I promise you, not me, not Vince, not Fit, not Freebird, not anyone in the w w E was ready or prepared or could predict what the Bellas we're going to do with that business. I want to thank you guys very much for listening, Thanks for letting me confess to you as

this Amia Copla, is that what you call it? If I haven't apologize to Michelle and she hears this, I owe you an apology, girl. And if you say, oh, no, you're don't, it's all good. We were all just doing it. That's nice to you. But I still do Other than that, I hope all you guys are doing well. I look forward to recording these for y'all every single week. I ain't going anywhere, and I see y'all soon on another episode of Wrestling with Freddy right here. This has been

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