Mickie James seemed ready to call it a career before returning to WWE in 2016.
James had been taking independent bookings and was signed on with Global Force Wrestling, but with the promotion never catching on, she was without a permanent home for the time being.
Speaking on the Two Man Power Trip podcast, James recalled how she felt during that time before WWE called to have her return at NXT TakeOver: Toronto.
"I was going to quietly stop taking wrestling bookings. I would still do appearances, but I tried to go back to WWE and they didn't seem interested. I was offered a trainer role or a tryout to see if I liked it, but I wasn't ready to be a trainer yet. I was still young, I just had [her son Donovan], and had done stuff with IMPACT. That was when I got the call, when I was trying to figure out what was next. If nothing else, that could've been the last match. I would have been happy coming back one last time, doing NXT, and anything after that could be a special appearance if I did anything. Out of that, we had a chance to build a moment and it was awesome for me to go back to Toronto because I have so much history. All the pieces fell together for me. Then, I got asked to return full-time," she recalled.
James would finish up a couple of independent dates at the end of 2016 before joining WWE full-time in 2017.
She was released by the company in April and will now be the executive producer of Empowerrr, an all-women's show set to be held under the NWA banner. She is also set to wrestle at NWA 73.
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