Mickie James discusses her loyalty to IMPACT Wrestling.
James worked with TNA in the early days of her career before she signed with WWE. She had a successful run with the company, as she won the WWE Women's Championship five times and the Divas Championship once. WWE released James in 2010, and she landed in TNA. There, she won the Knockouts Championship three times and re-establish herself as one of the top women's wrestlers in the business. She then returned to WWE in 2016 and worked with stars like Asuka and Alexa Bliss before she was released again in 2021. James went on to return to IMPACT, where she has won the Knockouts Championship two more times. Most recently, she beat Jordynne Grace in the main event of IMPACT Hard To Kill 2022 to regain the gold.
In an interview with Ella Jay for SEScoops, James was asked to describe why she has remained loyal to IMPACT Wrestling. James emphasized that the company is her home, and she stated that it feels like a lot of wrestlers view the company that way. James made it clear that IMPACT gave her a chance at a time when she was doubting herself, and she wouldn't be where she is today without the company.
I feel, I mean IMPACT is my home. I think a lot of people feel IMPACT is their home, or it’s certainly a home for them. You look at the people that have come through that roster over the last 20-plus years, the amount of people who have gone on to have great success, and who have had major success within IMPACT. But they gave me my first chance, they really did. They gave me my first chance. They gave me my first chance, they gave me a chance at a time when I was really questioning myself and my value, my decisions, where I was. I was in such a weird place in 2010, I was just really uncertain. It helped me remember who I was and what I wanted, and realize that there’s a reason for everything and there’s a learning for everything. There wouldn’t have been ‘Hardcore Mickie’ Mickie James and this whole resurgence of my career. When I felt like I was in an either sink or swim kind of place, and now to be able to come back, and what they did for myself and NWA with EmPowerr was special, like the fact that they dedicated a lot of time, television time, the fact that we could have the Knockouts World Championship match on that card, and a match that I felt was something people had never seen before, it was one of those dream matchups. It was cool. It was so, so special," James said.
James then discussed her feud with Deonna Purrazzo and emphasized that Purrazzo is one of the best women's wrestler's in the industry today. She noted that she didn't feel like got to test herself as a wrestler before her comeback with IMPACT. James noted that she enjoyed her work with WWE, but she didn't feel like she was showcasing who she was as a wrestler during her time with the company.
"Then the comeback and then go into this angle against someone who, she’d been the champion a long time, Deonna. In conversations when you talk about women’s wrestling and you’re looking at the landscape of people in those conversations who are deemed to be the best, and she was very much in that. So it was a different test because I felt like I hadn’t really been able to have a lot of those matches. I really hadn’t wrestle wrestled like that for a while. I had wrestled, but I felt like it wasn’t Mickie James. It wasn’t a representation of who Mickie James truly is. I always try to do my best and do whatever, and I loved what I did. I loved being with Alexa, I loved working with Asuka, or whatever, but there were so many other things that I really wanted to do and people I wanted to wrestle. I just never had a chance to do a lot of that stuff. Even I was going like, ‘Man, these girls are freaking going. I don’t know if I can keep up,'" she said.
The veteran then described how she respects Purrazzo before she shifted her focus back to IMPACT as a whole. She stated that the company trusts her, and she trust the company. James stated that it's all "good vibes", and she enjoys working for IMPACT. She also noted that she can have open conversations with the company.
"To be able to test myself against someone like her, I think that we may not love each other on television, but in that ring, we have incredible chemistry, and I love a lot of respect for her as an opponent, as a talent, because she is one of the best. She’s earned that. It’s amazing. They have a lot of faith in me, and they trust me, and I trust them. I think that I trust them because I can have open conversations with them and real conversations, and it’s not anything but good vibes, and I like that. I don’t want to be in a place where I’m not happy to be there and having fun," James said.
In the same interview, James seemingly invited Mercedes Mone to IMPACT Wrestling. Check out her comments here.
James previously said she wants to face Mone, and she'd like to wrestle in WWE and AEW as the IMPACT Knockouts World Champion. More information is available here.
KiLynn King recently described how texting James helped open the door for her in NWA. Click here to see what she had to say.
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