Mickie James is Lillian Garcia's special guest on "Making Their Way to the Ring" this week, talking about her past and future with WWE, answering whether she requested a return to the company, and much more. You can watch the full interview in the video above or download the podcast version on iTunes. Here are their submitted highlights:
Why she misses women's gimmick matches:
"Me being a wrestler, I love the fact that it's evolving in where we're taking women's wrestling very seriously, and it's a sport and it's competitive, and we're just as good as the guys. I love that. Me as the fan goes, I grew up with the evening gown matches and these gimmicky matches. But by the time they got to those points there was a whole story that had happened prior to them wanting to get in an evening gown and one of them get their gown ripped off. So I found them entertaining as a fan. It's different when you're a part of them obviously, when we're doing the bikini battles royals and there's water guns and you're like slipping up and you're like, ahhh!"
Her original pitch for the obsessed fan storyline was different from what fans saw:
"I had actually written that character and written that storyline, because I didn't know Trish [Stratus], I love Trish but I didn't know Trish as a person. But I did know Amy [Dumas]. I did know Lita. So I called her and I was like, are you OK if I write this storyline, if I just pitch it with you or whatever? Because you don't want to just pitch this idea out to somebody and they're like, I frickin' hate it man. Why would you even pitch it? So she was totally cool with it. She was like, yeah man I don't care, whatever. She was a heel at the time and so it really didn't make sense to do with her. But she was who I knew and I felt comfortable. It would've been cool. It would've been different. It would've thrown a different edge on it."
If it's difficult being in the same business as husband Magnus:
"He's a good man. He's so sweet and understanding. You know this business is hard, especially with two people in the same industry... It's one of those things. Luckily he's secure enough in himself and he's very smart and very savvy outside the world of wrestling as well. He's an author, so he writes a column. He's on his second book. He's really into fitness and so I think that definitely helps. Wrestling isn't both of our entire worlds. It's always hard, even when he was on TV and he was the champion, and I was sitting at home twiddling my fingers. It's a hard balance."
Would she like to see him in WWE?:
"Absolutely, I would. I think he's mega talented. This is not just from me being biased. This is from me seeing him as a performer and as an actor, as an everything. I just think he has all the tools. I think he's an excellent talker. He's an excellent performer. That would be amazing."
Mickie says she had been calling WWE in hopes of returning:
"I had been doing that. About a year before that I had been doing that a couple of times. I think I talked to you about it a little bit too, and I'm just like, aw maybe they just don't want me. Maybe it's not my time kind of thing. It wasn't until I just kind of let it go and... I'm sitting in Orlando airport, waiting for our flight and [Mark] Carrano calls me and I'm like, are you serious right now? Are you ribbing me?!"
If it will be difficult working with John Cena:
"We're all adults, and you know obviously this business is what it is. We've all had our share of relationships failed. I think that being adults and being professionals...I would hope that, and I'm pretty sure that it's going to be pretty awesome, because I'm sure that I'm going to have to work with Nikki in the ring and I know that we could do some really amazing stuff."
Her response to comments Kenny Dykstra made after they parted ways:
"As far as that whole thing with Ken it was a shame that he went out and said the things that he did and did that, because I feel that a lot of it was a lie and it was mostly just kind of to help his book sales or whatever the case may be. But you know, it is what it is and you know, I'm a grown up."
