YMMV / Michelle McCool

• Base-Breaking Character: Full force.
  • There was some enthusiasm before second Divas Search started that she had the most potential to be a wrestler (due to gymnastic and kickboxing backgrounds, as well as height). Then the second diva search turned out to be a Plot Tumor McCool was seen as a symptom of. Worse, she was blown away in fan voting by eventual winner Christy Hemme, who was then let go while McCool (along with Maria Kanellis and Candice Michelle) enjoyed longer employment.
  • The LayCool gimmick was polarizing, especially for the "Piggy James" angle, McCool got the blunt of the bashing due to her marriage to The Undertaker. Some simply felt that it was a moronically stupid angle, since it still boiled down to basically two girls throwing ugly jokes at other girls. Others were at least a little happy that there was any kind of story at all, considering women's wrestling in WWE frequently has no storyline and is merely Jiggle TV.
  • McCool's gimmick right before LayCool, namely having little respect for "the so called divas" that came before her, thinking she was the greatest of all time and deliberately trying to injure her opponents, AKA stock sports villain #2. Bland and uninteresting, or effective in its simplicity? Was LayCool a much needed injection of entertainment, or badass decay?
• Comedy Ghetto: The LayCool gimmick was a well-done aversion, as Michelle played Denser and Wackier than she had in the past. She remained a figurehead of the division and was treated as a serious competitor.
• Common Knowledge: Michelle McCool was an invincible villain who always held a title and rarely lost or put anyone over? Well she did hold the title several times - twice for the Women's and twice for the Divas', and technically a third time if you count the co-champions thing with Layla. However, her second Women's title reign was comparatively short, dropping it to Beth Phoenix only two months after winning it, being used as a transitional champion to swap out Mickie James for the top face in favour of Beth. She also lost clean plenty of times to Melina, Beth, Mickie, and even put over Maria and Kelly Kelly. Not to mention that her lengthiest reign as Women's Champion ended with Mickie beating her in less than a minute. She also was the one to get pinned by Snooki at WrestleMania 27. And three of her title wins required someone else helping her win - Alicia Fox for the first, Vickie Guerrero for the second, and Layla for the third.
• Creator's Pet: Technically she was this from the start when Jazz, Nidia and Gail Kim were released in the favor of her, Candice Michelle and Maria Kanellis. They became more so when they outlasted Hemme, but no one singled out McCool in particular. Then she got complaints as being booked as an invincible super woman around the time it became known she was dating and eventually married The Undertaker. Specific instances include beating Melina and Jillian Hall two on one after Mickie James was brushed aside by them, blocking punches from Beth Phoenix and becoming first Divas Champion ahead of Natalya. Around the time she was in LayCool, this levelled off. However, it made a resurgence when she returned for the 2018 Women's Royal Rumble, where she eliminated 5 other women (the most of anyone in the entire match, even more than eventual winner Asuka and Wrestling Monster Nia Jax) causing people to snark that she was being booked like her husband.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Diva Dirt dubbed them "Lay-Kav-Ool" when they were mentoring Kaval. Also for their Halloween costumes they were dubbed "Lady Gagool" and "Layonce" (see Shout-Out below).
  • When she and Layla were managed by Vickie Guerrero, fans took to calling the stable 'Simply Flawless'.
• Growing the Beard:
  • Diva Dirt noted mid-2008 as a point where Michelle transformed from a Diva Search contestant who was merely competent in the ring but a genuinely good wrestler. The Smackdown Divas were getting more time for matches, and Michelle impressed when she had to work with Maryse as the more experienced wrestler.
  • Her heel turn in 2009 was also a sign that Michelle was becoming a force to be reckoned with in the division. Michelle herself says that Arn Anderson didn't think she could play a heel, but he changed his mind immediately after seeing her No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Maria. Her feud with Melina produced a string of critically acclaimed matches with her and Gail Kim.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The Take Thats Natalya delivered towards Michelle's weight during their feud are a little uncomfortable with the knowledge that Michelle's thinness came about because of health problems - and pressure to continue working through them to maintain her spot on television. And of course during the worst parts of this illness, she was body shamed by fans and accused of having an eating disorder by Brian Alvarez.
  • Michelle getting accused of being pushed to the top with success as a result of her relationship with The Undertaker becomes harsh when she admitted in interviews that she was dealing with it non-stop backstage as well that it was one of the reasons she retired, doing it as a way to avoid hating her career and wrestling.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • During the 'Rookie Diva of the Year' contest at the 2005 No Way Out event, Michelle demonstrated her talent - giving Dawn Marie a body slam. She was the only contestant to do something wrestling-related, and the only contestant to still be with the company when the year was over.
  • Her character dated Chuck Palumbo, who had a biker gimmick similar to the previous gimmick of her future real life husband.
  • She and Layla having Kaval as their NXT Rookie became even funnier when former WWE writer Brian Gewirtz tweeted in late 2022 that the latter was pitched in becoming the secret long lost son of The Undertaker.
  • Michelle using AJ Styles's finisher the Styles Clash as her own calling it the Faith Breaker becomes humorous when Styles became Undertaker's final feud and opponent, even going as far as to namedrop her greatly to make the feud personal.
• Intended Audience Reaction: Pretty much all the hate she got during her top heel push could be counted as this, especially considering how much joy people got out of seeing her get her comeuppance (not to mention the fact that this happened more than one would initially think).
• Les Yay: Especially Layla's attachment to Michelle.
• Love to Hate: It's widely agreed that Michelle was at her best when she was a heel. The divide only comes in as to whether the fan prefers her serious Blood Knight persona from 2009 or her more comedic LayCool one from 2010 to her departure the following year.
• Moment of Awesome:
  • In a Memorial Day battle royal in swimsuits, Michelle debuts her Wings of Love finisher, thoroughly shocking people that expected her to remain a Ms. Fanservice.
  • Winning the first Divas' Championship match, by reversing Natalya's Sharpshooter and making her tap out to the MAD-T. Kudos to her for also taking some impressive bumps earlier.
  • And her No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Maria to signify her Face–Heel Turn. Michelle recalls that being the moment Arn Anderson told her she could play an effective heel.
  • Her matches with Melina at The Bash and Night of Champions 2009 - the former where she became the first woman to hold the Women's and Divas' titles in a hard fought bought, the latter with several high intensity spots (dropkicking Melina while she was doing the splits, the DDT on the security wall) which earned her and Melina a reprimand for being too good.^note Fortunately Chris Jericho was on hand to back them up.
  • The brawl between her and Layla, before Layla challenges her to a No Countout, No DQ match.
  • Her final match with Layla, which, despite only getting five minutes, was hard-fought and closed the door on her career on a high note.
  • Returning at the first ever women's Royal Rumble, and eliminating five people!
• Moral Event Horizon: The "Piggy James" angle was what really solidified Michelle as a top heel. Mickie herself said it was one of the more emotional storylines she had done in her career. If you go meta, this angle caused many smarks to vilify Michelle in real life.^note Maria Kanellis claimed that although many of the ideas for segments came from Michelle, the angle was not her idea, and she would be apologising to Mickie before and after each segment they did.
• Older Than They Think: The LayCool gimmick is suspiciously similar to The Beautiful People in TNA, though that was also based off the likes of Mean Girls. Which itself was based off what was, to paraphrase the Mean Girls page, probably the experiences of everyone who attended high school. Before either, there was also Vince's Devils, dedicated to tormenting 3rd Diva Search winner Ashley Massaro. Before that, Team Blondage came together to capitalize on the Mean Girls film and before said film there was the Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew.
• Once Original, Now Common: Two cases. The first is that she looks pretty good in the ring these days, but would pale in comparison to some of the NXT girls. But Michelle was one of the best wrestlers to come out of the Diva Search and had improved at an alarming rate. Her matches with Melina got great reviews from fans in a time when WWE was actively trying to dumb down the division. So fans used to seeing NXT matches stealing the show might not find Michelle's work that special. Additionally the amount of air time LayCool got was shocking. Even though they got stuck with 2-minute matches and pointless feuds about mocking everyone else's looks - it was a shock that any Divas were given any kind of character at all.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Hard as it is to believe, LayCool reduced the number of haters Michelle had in the long run. She had been accused of Dull Surprise in her initial promos, but the pairing with Layla showed that she had a knack for comedy. She also started putting more Divas over - such as Beth Phoenix, Tiffany, Kelly Kelly and eventually Layla herself.
• Take That, Scrappy!:
  • Mickie James and the other face divas smashing cake all over LayCool at the Royal Rumble, Mae Young beating them up, Natalya putting them both through a table, the list goes on.
  • Michelle also got a chance to superkick Hornswoggle on live TV.
  • Michelle's Humiliation Conga at Extreme Rules 2011. First losing her job to the former best friend and partner in crime that she corrupted, treated like a sidekick, then tried to throw aside like trash, then being unable to leave quietly because of the incoming monster known as Kharma putting the fear of God in her, and finally Kharma knocking her flat out with an Implant Buster.
  • The special design of the table during their table match against Natalya and Beth Phoenix. It had a image of the duo as anorexic witches.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: In 2009 when she began using the Faith Breaker as her finisher, which was more popularly used by AJ Styles in TNA as the Styles Clash, this attracted a lot of criticism. It intensified when she started wearing hooded jackets to the ring for a brief period. That died down when LayCool formed, as the hoods became more obviously tailored to the gimmick.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Layla and Michelle themselves wished they'd been able to get more mileage out of their break-up - more segments involving counselling and possibly more matches. Michelle said she would have preferred their match to happen at WrestleMania, but Executive Meddling inserted Snooki from Jersey Shore. She even had to fight to get ten minutes for her retirement match.
  • Even with the WrestleMania match, a lot of fans would have preferred a singles between Michelle and Trish Stratus. They reportedly had more spots planned, but were told their time had been cut as soon as they got to the ring, and had to rush straight to the finish.
  • Michelle mentioned idolizing Molly Holly and in a couple of interviews expressed a desire to work with her. While they did wrestle in the same battle royal at WrestleMania 25 and the first women's Royal Rumble, they never got to work any kind of program together.
• Took the Bad Feud Seriously: The "Smelly Kelly" feud really was an awful idea but the girls really took it and made the most out of it.
• Vindicated by History: Despised by smarks during her initial pushes. Over the years the hate has mellowed and Michelle's matches are fondly remembered by many Diva fans. People are also less inclined to think of her as a Creator's Pet once other women from her time confessed that Michelle suffered the same Chickification as everyone else, despite who she was married to.^note She and Melina were told off for doing a spot that looked too good, and she and Victoria had to re-film one of their matches when management thought their punches looked too brutal. And she revealed that she had to "beg" for her retirement match to get 10 minutes on PPV.
• Vocal Minority: The IWC would have you believe that Michelle was universally despised during her pushes. While she did have a sizeable Hatedom, she did have a growing number of supporters. The website Diva Dirt started up around the same time Michelle became the first Divas' Champion and they praised Michelle's progress in the ring.
• The Woobie: Once she revealed in a podcast with Lilian Garcia part of the reason she retired. She was repeatedly accused backstage of her relationship and marriage to The Undertaker as the reason behind her being pushed as the top female star of SmackDown, with one of the writers going as far as to suggest renaming the brand "The Michelle McCool and Undertaker Show". She decided to retire to avoid hating the business she grew up loving, stating she would've had a sour taste in her mouth had she stayed and continued being met with the accusations.
• X-Pac Heat: Briefly, for the "Piggie James" angle. Half of it was from people who thought it was just a dumb angle, and the other half was from those who thought that it was unconscionable that WWE would send a message like that to their fans. It was also moronic, since Mickie was crazy over with the fans and it didn't do anything to change that.