Odd story about Michelle McCool from former WWE writer

[cjh]

On Freddie Prinze, Jr.'s "Wrestling With Freddie" podcast today, he told a story about a planned storyline in 2011 for a WrestleMania 27 title match between Beth Phoenix and Kharma.

Apparently, Michelle McCool was the champion at the time and was very upset that she would be losing the title prior to Mania to set this whole thing up, so she talked to Undertaker, who talked to Vince McMahon.  Right after that, Michael Hayes informed Prinze that the whole idea got squashed.

This story is confusing because McCool was never a champion again after Survivor Series 2010, and Kharma signed with WWE in December 2010.  In fact, Kharma's debut and McCool's final match happened on the same night (Extreme Rules 2011).

[polarbearpete]

Jun 1, 2022 6:55:45 GMT -5 cjh said:

On Freddie Prinze, Jr.'s "Wrestling With Freddie" podcast today, he told a story about a planned storyline in 2011 for a WrestleMania 27 title match between Beth Phoenix and Kharma.

Apparently, Michelle McCool was the champion at the time and was very upset that she would be losing the title prior to Mania to set this whole thing up, so she talked to Undertaker, who talked to Vince McMahon.  Right after that, Michael Hayes informed Prinze that the whole idea got squashed.

This story is confusing because McCool was never champion again after November 2010, and Kharma signed with WWE a month after that.  In fact, Kharma's debut and McCool final appearance happened the same night (Extreme Rules 2011).

Could be they knew Kharma would be signing and so pitched Kharma vs. Beth in October/November, and McCool subsequently lost the title anyway (plans changed).

[cjh]

Jun 1, 2022 6:58:41 GMT -5 polarbearpete said:

Jun 1, 2022 6:55:45 GMT -5 cjh said:

On Freddie Prinze, Jr.'s "Wrestling With Freddie" podcast today, he told a story about a planned storyline in 2011 for a WrestleMania 27 title match between Beth Phoenix and Kharma.

Apparently, Michelle McCool was the champion at the time and was very upset that she would be losing the title prior to Mania to set this whole thing up, so she talked to Undertaker, who talked to Vince McMahon.  Right after that, Michael Hayes informed Prinze that the whole idea got squashed.

This story is confusing because McCool was never champion again after November 2010, and Kharma signed with WWE a month after that.  In fact, Kharma's debut and McCool final appearance happened the same night (Extreme Rules 2011).

Could be they knew Kharma would be signing and so pitched Kharma vs. Beth in October/November, and McCool subsequently lost the title anyway (plans changed).

Maybe. but Prinze made it sound like McCool being upset about not making it to WrestleMania with the title was the only reason this idea didn't happen.

[polarbearpete]

Jun 1, 2022 7:11:47 GMT -5 cjh said:

Jun 1, 2022 6:58:41 GMT -5 polarbearpete said:

Could be they knew Kharma would be signing and so pitched Kharma vs. Beth in October/November, and McCool subsequently lost the title anyway (plans changed).

Maybe. but Prinze made it sound like McCool being upset about not making it to WrestleMania with the title was the only reason this idea didn't happen.

I think he’s told the story before that Michelle knew she’d be retiring and wanted a match at Mania and knew there wouldn’t be 2 women’s matches. She did end up on the PPV in the mixed tag.

[Legion]

Prinze is always an interesting listen, but sometimes his memory is clouded by his clear frustrations and slight embitterment that his ideas never got used as much as he seems to think they deserved to be.

[fw91]

Thought this thread would be about Michelle smuggling Malaysian slaves

[Perd]

She told Taker that the length of her title reigan was "not enough for me."

[Ben Wyatt]

Jun 1, 2022 10:44:31 GMT -5 Legion said:

Prinze is always an interesting listen, but sometimes his memory is clouded by his clear frustrations and slight embitterment that his ideas never got used as much as he seems to think they deserved to be.

This is a fair assessment.  You can't outright hand wave him off, but you do kinda have to take some of what he says with a grain of salt. 

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

What even was the Women's Title match at WM 27? Or did they even have one? I know McCool ended up being in six person intergender match with Snooki.

[GuyOfOwnage]

Jun 1, 2022 14:29:58 GMT -5 ThankGodForSidJustice said:

What even was the Women's Title match at WM 27? Or did they even have one? I know McCool ended up being in six person intergender match with Snooki.

Nope, there wasn't one. In fact, McCool had lost the title all the way back at Survivor Series in November. So Freddie's recollection of events is...odd.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

Jun 1, 2022 14:41:50 GMT -5 GuyOfOwnage said:

Jun 1, 2022 14:29:58 GMT -5 ThankGodForSidJustice said:

What even was the Women's Title match at WM 27? Or did they even have one? I know McCool ended up being in six person intergender match with Snooki.

Nope, there wasn't one. In fact, McCool had lost the title all the way back at Survivor Series in November. So Freddie's recollection of events is...odd.

Ok. Women's wrestling up until about 2014-15 is something I remember little a about. I do remember Natalya winning the belt but don't recall at all who she lost it to or what the title picture was for the first half of 2011. I do remember in the second half of the year if was Beth Phoenix and Kelly Kelly fighting like a million times with Natalya and Eve also involved as the respective sidekick partners who they would team up with for tag matches.

[john84]

Jun 1, 2022 15:12:41 GMT -5 ThankGodForSidJustice said:

Jun 1, 2022 14:41:50 GMT -5 GuyOfOwnage said:

Nope, there wasn't one. In fact, McCool had lost the title all the way back at Survivor Series in November. So Freddie's recollection of events is...odd.

Ok. Women's wrestling up until about 2014-15 is something I remember little a about. I do remember Natalya winning the belt but don't recall at all who she lost it to or what the title picture was for the first half of 2011. I do remember in the second half of the year if was Beth Phoenix and Kelly Kelly fighting like a million times with Natalya and Eve also involved as the respective sidekick partners who they would team up with for tag matches.

Yeah women's division around that time was pretty weak IMO.  Natalya and Beth were my favourites in terms of actual wrestling, I was excited initially about Kharma but that fizzled out.

[Hypnosis]

Jun 1, 2022 15:12:41 GMT -5 ThankGodForSidJustice said:

Jun 1, 2022 14:41:50 GMT -5 GuyOfOwnage said:

Nope, there wasn't one. In fact, McCool had lost the title all the way back at Survivor Series in November. So Freddie's recollection of events is...odd.

Ok. Women's wrestling up until about 2014-15 is something I remember little a about. I do remember Natalya winning the belt but don't recall at all who she lost it to or what the title picture was for the first half of 2011. I do remember in the second half of the year if was Beth Phoenix and Kelly Kelly fighting like a million times with Natalya and Eve also involved as the respective sidekick partners who they would team up with for tag matches.

Natalya lost the title at Royal Rumble 2011 in a Fatal 4 Way match to Eve.

web.archive.org/web/20120411164155/http://www.wwe.com/classics/titlehistory/divas/201011211

[Jedi-El of Tomorrow]

Jun 1, 2022 14:41:50 GMT -5 GuyOfOwnage said:

Jun 1, 2022 14:29:58 GMT -5 ThankGodForSidJustice said:

What even was the Women's Title match at WM 27? Or did they even have one? I know McCool ended up being in six person intergender match with Snooki.

Nope, there wasn't one. In fact, McCool had lost the title all the way back at Survivor Series in November. So Freddie's recollection of events is...odd.

Yep, Eve was Diva's champion and was involved with the Michael Cole storyline with him constantly taking shots at her and the women. So with it being Mania, naturally the champion and somebody involved with a feud at Mania, was only in a backstage segment.

Kelly Kelly was the catalyst for the mixed tag match that happened at Mania, and she wasn't in the match and had no role in it.

The booking of the women was pure shit.

[Dat Dude]

Via Fightful.com
www.fightful.com/wrestling/freddie-prinze-jr-was-told-undertaker-got-vince-mcmahon-dismiss-wrestlemania-divas-title-storyline

In 2011, WWE signed Kia Stevens, best known as Awesome Kong and soon to be known in WWE as Kharma. Kharma’s WWE tenure was short but nearly included a major WrestleMania championship match that could have seen Kharma win the WWE Divas Championship and officially rechristen it the WWE Women's Championship. Speaking on his latest podcast, Freddie Prinze Jr. says Stephanie McMahon wanted him to formulate a storyline that would get Kharma in the ring with Beth Phoenix at WrestleMania.

“I got tasked by Stephanie McMahon to write a Divas story they they called it the Divas 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 ‘We’re signing Awesome Kong,’ which was this female wrestler named Kia Stevens,” Freddie recalls on the latest Wrestling With Freddie episode. "We had another wrestler named Beth Phoenix, Beth Phoenix actually wrestled in high school on the boys' team. She lifted weights, she is jacked, not like shredded, like a Bruce Lee kind of shredded, 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. 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 mean something all the way back then with incredibly limited success, but you can look at where it is now, and she's had her thumbprint

on each and every one of those steps to the top which is where I feel they're at right now.

So my WrestleMania card was going to be Awesome Kong, who they hadn't named Kharma yet, which was what they tried to debut her as before she left the company," Freddie continued. "It was Beth Phoenix as the babyface, 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 going to call ‘Kharma’, 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 fraud, and all these women have been deceived. They took pieces from my story when they actually 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 allow her to tell her story. I like when heels tell their story more than when babyfaces do. I feel like babyfaces, someone else should tell their story. Otherwise, they're talking about how great they are. But a heel can give you their philosophy and you can hate them for it, or you can get behind in, and in this case, I thought we could get a little bit of both.

Freddie then talks about how Kharma was going to be pushed toward matches with Kelly Kelly, Natalya, and even Gail Kim, her old TNA Wrestling rival.

"So you have this woman who wants to destroy all these perfect Barbie dolls. 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 going to be like her first victim was Kelly Kelly. 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 back the first challenge that she was really going to have, which was Natalya Neidhart, and she was going to give it a good go. But Nattie would eventually lose tour as well. This brings us to Gail Kim, who had a history with her in TNA and the company had also just signed. This was going to be the first test that our awesome Kong had and Gail would get some serious offense off, but eventually would fall. That's when Kong would call out for Michelle McCool, the Divas Champion, I want to say Women's Champion. That's what she would call her out and say, ‘I'm coming for that title. I'm writing the story up. All I've been told is, ‘Hey, write me this WrestleMania story. 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 backstory. So I write this up. I give it to Steph, and she really likes it, and Michael Hayes really likes it. It goes all the way to the top it goes to Vince and it's approved. But the WrestleMania match is not guaranteed. That's the goal.”

Upon explaining to Michelle McCool that she would be losing the belt by Royal Rumble, Michelle became emotional, not realizing that she would be losing the title ahead of WrestleMania. As a result, Freddie tried to pivot to booking a triple threat match between Phoenix, Kharma, and McCool. However, it was perhaps to late and the idea would be scrapped.

“I go into the Stanford office. 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 this guy, Ezekiel Jackson, they called him, his real name is Rycklon. Michael [Hayes] goes ‘Freddie, lemme talk to you.’ Go into his office. He says, ‘You've probably got some crazy fans, right?’ I say, ‘Yes. I've had my fair share. He goes, ‘Let me f***ing show you something.’ He opens a drawer. He goes, ‘Look at this shit I got,’ and he holds up a picture and it's this big leg with a tattoo of him on the leg. I go, ‘What do you got?’ He goes, ‘That's me. I go ‘well, I know, but it's did you get that to that tattoo?’ He goes, f*** no, that's just on some crazy f***er.’ I just started dying laughing right?

“So I'm disarmed now, and he crosses his arms and leans over the desk," Freddie continued. "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 Freddie, That was good.’ It was just real shorthand with us at that point. But this was when he was still trying to be super professional being crossed his hands he goes Freddie There's a problem with your diva storyline, and we need to talk about it. I said what? What's the problem? He goes, ‘It's gone.’ I said, ‘What happened?’ He goes Well, Michelle said that you and her talked and she didn't really like the story, so it's gone.’ I said, ‘Was I supposed to ask her like all this?’ He goes, ‘Freddie. She talked to Undertaker, Undertaker talked to Vince, the stories gone.’”

When Kia did finally debut at Extreme Rules 2011, she took out Michelle McCool on McCool’s final night in WWE.

[Deleted]

Taker being a politicking piece of shit? Imagine my shock.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Jun 1, 2022 14:29:58 GMT -5 ThankGodForSidJustice said:

What even was the Women's Title match at WM 27? Or did they even have one? I know McCool ended up being in six person intergender match with Snooki.

The only match with women on the card was Ziggler and Laycool vs. Morrison, Trish, and Snooki. It lasted all of three minutes and sixteen seconds.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

Jun 1, 2022 20:27:25 GMT -5 Dat Dude said:

Via Fightful.com
www.fightful.com/wrestling/freddie-prinze-jr-was-told-undertaker-got-vince-mcmahon-dismiss-wrestlemania-divas-title-storyline

In 2011, WWE signed Kia Stevens, best known as Awesome Kong and soon to be known in WWE as Kharma. Kharma’s WWE tenure was short but nearly included a major WrestleMania championship match that could have seen Kharma win the WWE Divas Championship and officially rechristen it the WWE Women's Championship. Speaking on his latest podcast, Freddie Prinze Jr. says Stephanie McMahon wanted him to formulate a storyline that would get Kharma in the ring with Beth Phoenix at WrestleMania.

“I got tasked by Stephanie McMahon to write a Divas story they they called it the Divas 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 ‘We’re signing Awesome Kong,’ which was this female wrestler named Kia Stevens,” Freddie recalls on the latest Wrestling With Freddie episode. "We had another wrestler named Beth Phoenix, Beth Phoenix actually wrestled in high school on the boys' team. She lifted weights, she is jacked, not like shredded, like a Bruce Lee kind of shredded, 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. 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 mean something all the way back then with incredibly limited success, but you can look at where it is now, and she's had her thumbprint

on each and every one of those steps to the top which is where I feel they're at right now.

So my WrestleMania card was going to be Awesome Kong, who they hadn't named Kharma yet, which was what they tried to debut her as before she left the company," Freddie continued. "It was Beth Phoenix as the babyface, 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 going to call ‘Kharma’, 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 fraud, and all these women have been deceived. They took pieces from my story when they actually 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 allow her to tell her story. I like when heels tell their story more than when babyfaces do. I feel like babyfaces, someone else should tell their story. Otherwise, they're talking about how great they are. But a heel can give you their philosophy and you can hate them for it, or you can get behind in, and in this case, I thought we could get a little bit of both.

Freddie then talks about how Kharma was going to be pushed toward matches with Kelly Kelly, Natalya, and even Gail Kim, her old TNA Wrestling rival.

"So you have this woman who wants to destroy all these perfect Barbie dolls. 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 going to be like her first victim was Kelly Kelly. 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 back the first challenge that she was really going to have, which was Natalya Neidhart, and she was going to give it a good go. But Nattie would eventually lose tour as well. This brings us to Gail Kim, who had a history with her in TNA and the company had also just signed. This was going to be the first test that our awesome Kong had and Gail would get some serious offense off, but eventually would fall. That's when Kong would call out for Michelle McCool, the Divas Champion, I want to say Women's Champion. That's what she would call her out and say, ‘I'm coming for that title. I'm writing the story up. All I've been told is, ‘Hey, write me this WrestleMania story. 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 backstory. So I write this up. I give it to Steph, and she really likes it, and Michael Hayes really likes it. It goes all the way to the top it goes to Vince and it's approved. But the WrestleMania match is not guaranteed. That's the goal.”

Upon explaining to Michelle McCool that she would be losing the belt by Royal Rumble, Michelle became emotional, not realizing that she would be losing the title ahead of WrestleMania. As a result, Freddie tried to pivot to booking a triple threat match between Phoenix, Kharma, and McCool. However, it was perhaps to late and the idea would be scrapped.

“I go into the Stanford office. 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 this guy, Ezekiel Jackson, they called him, his real name is Rycklon. Michael [Hayes] goes ‘Freddie, lemme talk to you.’ Go into his office. He says, ‘You've probably got some crazy fans, right?’ I say, ‘Yes. I've had my fair share. He goes, ‘Let me f***ing show you something.’ He opens a drawer. He goes, ‘Look at this shit I got,’ and he holds up a picture and it's this big leg with a tattoo of him on the leg. I go, ‘What do you got?’ He goes, ‘That's me. I go ‘well, I know, but it's did you get that to that tattoo?’ He goes, f*** no, that's just on some crazy f***er.’ I just started dying laughing right?

“So I'm disarmed now, and he crosses his arms and leans over the desk," Freddie continued. "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 Freddie, That was good.’ It was just real shorthand with us at that point. But this was when he was still trying to be super professional being crossed his hands he goes Freddie There's a problem with your diva storyline, and we need to talk about it. I said what? What's the problem? He goes, ‘It's gone.’ I said, ‘What happened?’ He goes Well, Michelle said that you and her talked and she didn't really like the story, so it's gone.’ I said, ‘Was I supposed to ask her like all this?’ He goes, ‘Freddie. She talked to Undertaker, Undertaker talked to Vince, the stories gone.’”

When Kia did finally debut at Extreme Rules 2011, she took out Michelle McCool on McCool’s final night in WWE.

Seems like he's a bit confused as far as his timeline goes. Kendrick wasn't in the company at the time and his pairing with Ezekiel Jackson was in 2008-09. Unless he's mixing it up with another time where Undertaker threw his weight around to get something kaboshed that wasn't favorable for his woman.

[Germansuplex]

Jun 1, 2022 13:23:29 GMT -5 fw91 said:

Thought this thread would be about Michelle smuggling Malaysian slaves

Or attacking Triple H with a screwdriver.

[XaviersSS2015hair]

I always found it odd that the dirt sheets made McCool out to be a huge asshole and that Taker was always pulling strings for her which is why McCool held the title for so long and was featured so heavily as the centerpiece of the women's division. Even though personally I found McCool subpar at best and found Layla to be the star of the LayCool pairing.
But on Maria Kanellis' YouShoot interview Maria said she never heard anything like that and said that McCool was never difficult to work with and that she had never heard anything about Taker pulling strings for McCool. I'm not sure why Maria would lie about this if it wasn't true?