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*Mickie James was signed to WWE developmental in 2005 after a run in Ring of Honor. She was brought to the main roster as a Trish Stratus stalker and eventually became one of the company's top babyface females, holding the Women's championship five times and the Divas championship once. As we reported earlier this week in the PWInsider.com Elite section, there was some heat on James for conduct on the European tour as she caused several of the tour buses to be late. There was a feeling among some that given that she had just beaten a bad staph infection and was lucky to return in time for Wrestlemania, she should have been conducting herself a little more professional. Among some of the wrestlers, she was on their "most endangered" list after the tour. There had been heat on and off on her at different times for attitude, which some dismissed to me as jealousy over James' intentions to branch out outside the wrestling world with her education and musical aspirations. There was some unhappiness from the veterans' over her reaction to being moved to Smackdown last year as well. No one could deny her work in the ring and in a lot of ways, her departure is surprising as she had a strong connection with fans. James was actually doing radio appearances today in the Virginia market to promote the Draft, since she lives in the area, so one would think she had no inkling it was coming. She'll have an advantage over many released talents in that she has been using her real name the entire run.
*Katie Lea Burchill, who had been with the company since 2006 when she was signed to an OVW developmental deal. Although she stood out in OVW, particularly a feud with Beth Phoenix, she was never really used strongly on the main roster. Some of that was blamed on heat she received during her run for conduct on the road. She was brought up to the ECW brand as one half of a brother-sister duo with Paul Burchill. After a feud with Hurricane, the plan was to turn Paul babyface for Raw but instead he was released from the company. Katie made several appearances as a heel for the Raw brand but was never inserted into any storylines.
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