Mickie James recently took part in a media interview and reflected on her return from an injury, her legendary feud with Trish Stratus and more. Here are some highlights:
On how her recent return was booked:
James: “Of course it [bothered me.] Of course it did. Because I feel like, you know, I’d been gone at that point for a year and a half with my injury and working hard, and had come back and did some commentary and tried to learn some stuff behind the scenes. It’s all about growing for me, and I recognize that, and I want to learn as much as I can because I love the business, I love every aspect of it and I wanna know all about it.”
“I was really working hard to come back because I recognize too that where I’m at in my life, I’ve been in the locker room for so long, I debuted 15 years ago on WWE television, you know, so I’ve grown so much as a performer and I feel like I really love trying to help anyone, some of the girls in the locker room, at least anyone that wants my help or deems it worthy, I suppose, but I love the ability to be able to do that. But I also know that my son’s five and I wanna be able to go when he’s playing baseball, soccer, football, whatever. I probably don’t want to be in the ring five years from now full-time because I’ve proven so much to myself and my fans, but I did want to come back to WWE this one last run, you know, when I came back after the Asuka match, to do something monumental, to really be like, okay that’s who Mickie James is, who she always was. Because I didn’t even think I would get the chance to come back to WWE in the first place, you know, you just never know.”
On how her NXT TakeOver match with Asuka came about:
James: “It was out of nowhere, honestly. It was so random. I think that after I had Donovan, I was kind of reset. I wasn’t for sure, I didn’t sign back with TNA, like real full-time, and I kind slowed down some of my bookings on the independents. I had tried to go back to WWE prior to having Donovan, and so I’d kind of even almost given up on that possibility as even a thing for me at that point. All of a sudden, we were traveling to England, back to see Nick’s parents and his family, and we got a call out of nowhere [about coming back].”
“Of course I was [interested] because I really had prayed about that moment, and to have that chance, that one last chance to go , ‘Hey guys, I still kicked it. I still kicked butt,’ you know what I mean, ‘I still kicked a– the whole time I was there and I continued to do it, and I’m still doing it now.’ So I was so grateful for even that chance to be able to face Asuka.”
“It was great, and then Hunter then called me after, and Hunter was the one who called me and said, ‘Hey, we really think that, you know, we wanna bring you back full-time if you’re interested. Would you be interested?’ I was like, of course I would.”
On how Dave “Fit” Finlay helped the women’s division:
James: “Fit, god bless Fit…he’s my favorite person ever. Honestly, he would fight so hard for the women, you know, we’ve said it and I know everybody has said it, in her speech, Torrie [Wilson] mentioned it, but he loved us and fought for us when nobody else would, when nobody else was fighting for you. And that’s why we got a lot of those cool opportunities to be able to do those things, or the Falls Count Anywhere Match with Melina and stuff like, they used to really push in those barriers and breaking the barriers for the women. He helped us so much to grow because he’s like, ‘No, our girls kick butt, like they’re more than just the eye candy.’ Yes, we have that, but we have some really amazing women that can go out there and go.”
The full interview is available below:
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