After more than six years away from a WWE ring, Mickie James is making her return to the company and will challenge Asuka for the NXT Women's Title at the next NXT Takeover event on Nov. 19 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
WWE broke the news on Thursday on its NXT Twitter account:
James also took to Twitter Thursday night to post about the match:
James is a five-time WWE Women's Champion and also held the Divas Title once. She was released from WWE in April of 2010, although she did spend some time in November 2013 as a guest trainer at the WWE Performance Center.
Since leaving WWE, James had a prolonged stint with TNA, where she won that promotion's women's title on three occasions. She also has wrestled for a wide variety of independent promotions, as well as AAA in Mexico. Most recently, she teamed with fellow WWE alums Jazz and Victoria in the CHIKARA King of Trios tournament, where they advanced to the second round.
James also pursued a music career after her WWE release, putting out a pair of country-music albums.
James makes her competitive return to WWE, and particularly NXT, to challenge Asuka, who is undefeated since debuting for WWE's developmental brand last September. Asuka became NXT Champion at the Takeover event held during WrestleMania weekend, defeating Bayley.
Outside the ring, James is married to former TNA World Champion Magnus. They have one child together.
