How To Make An Entrance
Beth Phoenix made a devastating in-ring debut on last Monday night's RAW, participating in a tag team match with Torrie Wilson which pitted her against the team of Victoria and Candice Michelle. Just looking at the names of the participants you'd expect things to be pretty evenly matched, but Beth gave us a small insight into the extent of her wrestling skill and the threat she poses to the division. I thought it would be interesting to compare her debut with that of Mickie James to see which of the two made a noticeable impact upon the division first, and therefore who is more likely to prevail in a match between the two.
In Mickie's debut match back on 17th October 2005, she
teamed with Trish and Ashley in a six-man tag match to take on the team of
Victoria, Torrie Wilson and Candice Michelle. The bulk of her notable moves in
that match involved the use of the turnbuckle, with her delivering a flying body
press to kick things off and then later a hurricanrana. Ultimately though, her
inexperience got the better of her, as she turned her back on Victoria, allowing
her to roll her up and score an easy pinfall. This was Mickie's first shot at
in-ring action, so it would be unfair to judge her solely on this performance.
The next time she stepped into the ring was the following week when she took on Victoria in singles action. Mickie impressed early with a sunset flip to get an early pinfall, but allowed Victoria to get the better of her when she missed a drop kick. She later delivered another hurricanrana, but it took Trish's intervention in the match to prevent Victoria from winning through cheating whilst the referee's back was turned. In her two debut matches, Mickie either lost the match or failed to win it convincingly. Hardly a solid start for the current Women's champion.
Beth on the other hand has put Mickie to shame with her incredible debut match. She looked impressive even before the match got underway with a very athletic ring entrance that was certainly more exciting than watching a very excitable lady bounce around. Once the match got under way, Beth traded a few punches with Victoria, but quite quickly scooped her up and dumped her with a sidewalk slam. Beth's physical strength was very apparent as she happily cradled Victoria for a few seconds before slamming her to the mat. A little later when Candice had been tagged in, Beth took advantage of her lighter frame and greater inexperience and delivered a gutwrench suplex followed later by a modified version of her Beth Valley Driver that left Candice sprawled out for the three count. Not only did Beth win her debut match more or less single-handed but at no time she miss a move, unlike Mickie in her debut singles match.
It
would therefore seem that we can expect Beth to have an even greater impact upon
the Division than even Mickie did. Mickie became the Women's Champion at least
six months after her arrival in the WWE, but there's no reason why Beth couldn't
beat that and pick up the title sooner. With Mickie already running scared for
reasons unknown, it's possible that she could run straight into a trap laid out
by Trish and Beth, with Beth coming out on top and picking up the gold. Only
time will tell though.