What’s the story?
Former five-time WWE Women's Champion, three-time TNA Knockouts Champion and one-time Divas Champion Mickie James made her triumphant return to WWE by assisting Alexa Bliss against Becky Lynch on SmackDown recently.
While it was well received by fans, according to a report on Oneindia.com, WWE was unhappy with the fact that her name had been leaked on the internet, long before she made her comeback. The report speculates that these internet leaks are causing underwhelming reactions among fans, and leaving those in WWE creative quite annoyed indeed.
In case you didn't know...
SmackDown Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss and former champion Becky Lynch have been feuding for months now. Their feud culminated inside a steel cage, in which Alexa was assisted by her ally, the masked La Luchadora.
She was unmasked to be revealed as Mickie James. Since then, James and Lynch have begun a feud while Alexa has moved on to feud with Naomi. James had previously been part of a hard-fought battle with NXT Champion Asuka in NXT Takeover: Toronto.
The heart of the matter
Long before La Luchadora was unmasked, the comeback of Mickie James to SmackDown had been leaked online. So while the comeback was welcome, it wasn’t the big shock that fans had predicted it would be. This isn't the first incident of this nature either.
Sting’s name had been leaked long before he made his WWE debut, and the same was the case with Chris Hero's return on NXT. Surprises are an integral part of WWE’s programming and a live environment thrives on raucous crowd reactions.
Considering that a lot of leaks happen from within the WWE to the internet wrestling community, there's little surprise that WWE is concerned about this.
What's next?
WWE caters to a larger ‘smarky’ audience these days than at any point in its history. As a consequence, the internet plays a big part in the life of the modern wrestling fan. The internet wrestling community has made its voice heard, and as a result, smaller but more talented wrestlers such as Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles and Sami Zayn have gotten the opportunities they so rightly deserve.
With the good comes the bad, and hence, surprises are often ruined.
Sportskeeda’s take
Our message to WWE is that the internet is an integral part of the modern wrestling fan's life. Face it, accept it and embrace it.
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