What's Mickie Knuckles Been Up To?

Mickie Knuckles vs. Sara Dox TPW 3/6/21 

JR: I think this match shows how important contrast can be within wrestling. I’m not sure I like this match as much if Sara Dox is a good wrestler instead of someone who looks barely trained and barely in any sort of condition to perform. Sara Dox wants to come out to Sum 41 and do some kicks and whatever else and Mickie Knuckles is there solely to prove that Dox isn’t about that life. Knuckles' strikes from the first one on are truly outstanding, and she paces the match to big spots, both impromptu (the beer bottle being grabbed from a fan and thrown into Dox’s face) and deliberate (the fight over the TV and the senton with it). This match has no commentary and as such you can hear everything. It feels like a worse version of Terry/Wotan in some ways, which is nothing to be ashamed of. All of this leads to a tremendous finish with Mickie just absolutely brutalizing Dox and then cracking open a beer in the corner, looking like the biggest star on the planet that has for some reason decided to work a backyard in Tennessee in 30 degree weather during a global pandemic. This has to be the best Mickie has looked in at least a decade, right? Are there secretly great Mickie Knuckles sprints from the past few years we don’t about?

PAS: Sara Dox might be the most clearly untrained wrestler to make one of these lists, but it is great to see Mickie take her apart. This was very much Mickie taking the role of her spiritual father/boyfriend Ian Rotten stiffing and pounding a rookie. The atmosphere of this was pretty nuts, it felt like the backyard of a UT frat house at 2am when everyone is way too drunk. At one point Mickie just brains this girl with a beer bottle she found, and they do several teases around a big fire pit.  Mickie did a nice job of appropriately selling, she didn't overdo it on the stuff that didn't land, but put Dox over when she deserved it. Finish was really nasty with a choke bomb and some sick grounded elbows. She had the crowd screaming to stop the fight, and this was a bloodthirsty bunch of drunks who were calling for mercy. 

ER: To me this felt less like Mickie working as Ian, and more like Mickie doing a tribute to late era indy handheld Mr. Niebla. Mickie has undeniable charisma as she wanders around someone's backyard, her hair has more volume than ever, dancing after hitting Dox with a thick beer bottle, cracking jokes to people she passes, throws slap punches exactly like Niebla, knows her local legend status and utilizes it accordingly. If she had worked in a couple spit spots (and honestly during Covid I was 100% fully expecting some kind of spit spot in this match, as what is more deadly in 2021 than some stranger's spit?) it would have been undeniable that she was doing a Niebla tribute. Dox is maybe the most untrained wrestler I have watched in the past decade, and for all I know she was just some woman they saw at Shake Shack wearing cut off rainbow sherbet camo shorts. Ask her her favorite pop punk song from when she was 16, give her some kickpads, and ask her to throw whatever she thinks a kick might look like. Mickie's pump handle powerbombs looked really great, and her side knees to stop the match were something that should stop a match. I wonder what yard or parking lot Mickie Niebla will show up in next?