Mickie James made an immediate impact in WWE, coming in as a crazy superfan linked to Trish Stratus.
James spent years in Ohio Valley Wrestling before finally being called up to the main roster and it was her pitch to be a superfan that finally got her on television.
"My first real conversation with Vince [McMahon] probably happened about six months before I debuted. I was in OVW and we would go to house shows if they were within driving distance for extras or to get revaluated, it was a much different system than it is now. I had been in the system about two years and I just needed to do something different and felt I needed to come up with a character because I was not fitting the mold that was presented. It was the start of the Diva Era and I had been in developmental for two years and was now teaching new girls how to wrestle because they weren't from wrestling. I came up with a character...in OVW, I was doing a Punky Brewster style character and I thought back to fandom and single white female to when it could go to the extreme. I came up with the superfan character that was a big fan of Lita," recalled Mickie on AdFreeShows.
Mickie continued, explaining why she originally pitched the idea around Lita and her vision.
"She was so helpful to me when I first started. I met her and she was so kind, but always honest, brutally honest. She didn't have to do that and she went to bat for me a lot. When I first got hired and to go up to the main roster, she went to bat for me. I asked her, 'can I write this?' because you don't want to pitch a storyline and what if they don't like you? I asked if I could write it and pitch it with her in mind. When I pitched it, they really loved it. I had like 18 weeks of television of where I saw this character going," she said.
The idea reached Vince McMahon and that's when Mickie had to pitch it to the man himself.
"The trainers would come (to OVW) and Michael Hayes was there and was like, 'Vince really loved your idea.' I got really hopeful. At TV, Michael pulled me aside again and was like, 'Vince loved your idea, you need to walk in there and tell him you wrote it and that you know that character and no one can play it like you.' I'm terrified, but I feel like I have to do it because Michael Hayes told me I have to and if I don't do it, he's going to wonder why I didn't do what I told him. I sat by Vince's door for what felt like an eternity. I felt like he was around the corner, just watching me. This is what was going through my head. He came to the office and I was like, 'Excuse me, Sir, I'd like to have a moment of your time.' 'Sure.' I went into his office and pretty much said what Michael told me to say. He acted a little confused about it. I was like, 'That's my character. I made that character. I know that character inside and out. No one is going to deliver that character like me. Give me a chance, I promise you I'm going to kill it.' He was like, 'Hmm, you've got balls, kid.' I was like, 'Thank you so much.' Got out the door without falling down and had a huge sigh of relief. It was a make or break moment because if he hated me in that moment, I was fired the next day. I went back to Louisville, and that was about the early spring, and I didn't debut until October. I didn't hear anything for months. I got there and they were like, 'We want you to do it with Trish instead,'" explained Mickie.
Mickie said she didn't know Trish, but the storyline went forward as planned.
Mickie would defeat Trish to win the WWE Women's Championship at WrestleMania 22.
Elsewhere during the podcast, Mickie revealed she's been working on a book. You can find her full comments by clicking here.
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