Mickie James reflects on returning to WWE in 2016 and missed opportunities.
Mickie James spent the majority of the mid-2000s in WWE but eventually, as the decade changed, she found herself I would have WWE and heading into TNA Wrestling. In TNA wrestling, she created a character that was more akin to her real-life personality and included her starting a singing career.
Mickie James even sings the song that she still currently uses to this day, Hardcore Country. Eventually, she wound up back in WWE in 2016 and it was paired with Alexa Bliss on the WWE SmackDown roster.
Speaking with Kurt Angle on his podcast, The Kurt Angle Show, Mickie James opened up about her pairing with Alexa Bliss and why she enjoyed working with the goddess. Mickie would call Alexa Bliss fun, cool, and receptive to her ideas.
"It was cool and it was cool to be aligned with Alexa because I knew that they had big plans for her," Mickie said. "She's so fun and she was really cool. Just, it was fun to work with her. I feel like she was very open to just different things for me and ideas and my input. Also, I think that she has a whole different audience than myself because it's a younger, demographic, and in that cosplay kind of thing, which is not my wheelhouse or realm at all. So it was to see our personalities, and just like an old school versus new school kind of team-up, it was different because they hadn't done it, and it was fun. It was fun and we had a lot of fun. I just enjoy it. It's the locker room for me and it's the boys and the girls there. I felt like I was just taking every moment -- because it was something that I didn't think was going to happen -- as a blessing and just enjoying it for what it was and for however long it lasts.
Furthermore, she reveals that she pitched doing the Hardcore Country character in WWE and says the company never bit on the idea, saying they didn't understand it.
In hindsight, even though she wishes she pitched harder for the gimmick, she also knows that she would not have been able to return to WWE inside the Royal Rumble this year to even more pomp and circumstance because she had her IMPACT Wrestling theme song played.
"I had hoped for and I wish, too in hindsight, that I would have would pitched more or tried to push more for the Hardcore Country character because it was something that I brought up there that they just never really understood or bit on. But it's almost like a blessing in disguise, because had they bit on it, I probably wouldn't have been able to come back and do this thing at the Rumble and [have] it go down the way it had. So everything happens for a reason," she said.
Mickie James’ Royal Rumble entry this year was a rare instance of WWE crossing over with another promotion. Mickie James does not believe that this is a one-off however and feels that the relationship between WWE and IMPACT Wrestling could continue in the future. Learn more here.
Early access to this podcast was granted via a subscription to AdFreeShows. Subscribe at this link for access to early podcast releases from names such as Jim Ross, Eric Bischoff, Bruce Prichard, Kurt Angle, and more.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a H/T and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
