Featured Photo Credit – Impact
Mickie James is a pioneer in Women’s wrestling and has had a trailblazing career and continues to defy all barriers put in front of her. When WWE talks about pioneering women that led to the women’s revolution in the industry, they tend to always name the same two – Trish Stratus and Lita and don’t get me wrong those are two of the biggest, but they had a lot of dancing partners during their time in the business. Victoria, Jacqueline, Ivory, Jazz and the one that is still in the game in Mickie James. Every woman that has ever stepped foot in the wrestling business has had an impact on the women’s revolution of today and to diminish their accomplishments and say well it was just Trish, Lita, Charlotte, Sasha and Becky is really an injustice. It is not just the women I stated above that helped change the business, you can look at Madusa, Luna, Chyna, Beth Phoenix, Natalya, Gail Kim, Awesome Kong and the list can go on and on of women that helped changed the business.
Mickie James has always had the drive for more in this business as she continued to strive for equality in the business. Mickie is one of the most decorated champions of all time, holding 10 Women’s Championships between WWE (6) and TNA/Impact (4) for a combined 872 days (that number will continue to go up as she is the reigning Knockouts champion as of this writing). She is one of the most respected veterans in the business today among the men and women in this industry. Mickie has been in the ring with almost every woman that is a major star in the business for the past 20 years and she continues going while so many of her peers have retired.
Mickie has truly done it all in the wrestling business, she has had legendary rivalries with Trish, Gail Kim, Melina, Michelle McCool, Beth Phoenix, Madison Rayne, Victoria and the list can go on because like I said she has wrestled almost every major star over the past 20 years. Mickie started her career in 1999 and began her career on the independents and caught the eye of upstart promotion TNA in 2002 and while there she was the first and to this day the only woman to compete in a Clockwork Orange House of Fun match.
She caught the eye of WWE who signed her and sent her to OVW in 2003 and brought her to the main roster in 2005 and was paired with Trish as an obsessed fan that would have romantic feelings for Trish. Despite being saddled with this storyline, Mickie let her work in ring to speak for itself and no one would be talking about lesbian angle for long. Mickie would have a solid 5-year run in the company where she would hold the WWE Women’s Championship 5-times and the WWE Diva’s Championship once and put on the best matches she could with whoever she was in the ring with regardless of their skill level, including wrestling in the first ever women’s falls count anywhere match with Melina. As the company began changing direction of their women’s division from capable wrestlers to just models that may or not know how to wrestle or have a passion for the business, Mickie was let go as she didn’t fit their mold for the direction they were going.
This did not deter Mickie, she already had a potential HOF career at this point, but she knew she could do so much more. She rejoined the independents and TNA in 2011. TNA at this time was fully embracing a women’s revolution of their own with Gail Kim and Awesome Kong as the cornerstones of a roster that would blow the WWE’s own women’s division out of the water at this time. Mickie wasted no time in making history by winning the TNA Knockouts Championship becoming the first woman to ever hold the WWE Womens, WWE Divas and TNA Knockout Championships in their career. Mickie would continue to put on the best matches she could and there is no question no matter who she was in the ring with learned something from Mickie and were better performers after being in the ring with her. She would wrestle for TNA/Impact for about 5 years before WWE came calling for her to return for a match.
Triple H wanted to bring Mickie into NXT to wrestle the dominate Asuka for the NXT Women’s Championship and although the plan may have been just for a one-off night return, Mickie and Asuka tore it up in ring and WWE immediately signed her to a multi-year contract. She would have a whole new roster of talent to wrestle, and she was about to get to see the equality that she had been pushing to happen for years as she would wrestle in the first ever women’s Royal Rumble match and the first ever women’s Elimination Chamber about a year after rejoining the company. Followed by the first ever Women’s Wrestlemania Battle Royal and the biggest the first ever women’s only WWE PPV, Evolution. Mickie would play the veteran role but was not used to her full potential during this second run with the company that would end controversially by not only being released in 2021 but having her stuff sent to her in a trash bag.
Now this would be incredibly disrespectful for this to happen to any performer but to do this to a bonafide legend and future HOFamer, this is SO MUCH WORSE. When she publicly told the world what happened, fans and peers were furious and other former talent said the same happened to them. Stephanie McMahon publicly apologized and the person responsible was fired. Mickie has said Stephanie, Triple H and Vince personally called her to apologize.
Mickie was ready to make history in the business outside of WWE again, she would join the NWA and re-join Impact. Working with Billy Corgan in the NWA, she told him of a passion project she wanted to do, which was another Women’s only PPV. She tried to get WWE to do another Evolution PPV but was told “it is a money loser and women don’t draw”. Corgan liked the idea and Mickie executive produced NWA Empowerrr, using the talent from the NWA, Impact and AEW.
In Impact, Mickie would begin to feud with one of the best women’s wrestlers in the world, Deonna Purrazzo, who was the dominate Impact Knockouts champion. Mickie would dethrone Deonna and she was scheduled to defend the title at Hard to Kill. When the wrestling world was completely blown away that WWE and Impact publicly announced for the FIRST TIME EVER not only a contracted wrestler from another promotion, but a champion would compete in the Royal Rumble, as Mickie James would return to the WWE.
At Hard to Kill, Mickie successfully defended the Knockouts Championship in a grueling Texas Deathmatch against Deonna and the last words from the announcer was the Knockouts champion Mickie James path is cleared to enter the Royal Rumble as champion. Even typing that now after the Rumble it is still surreal. WWE has never been the promotion that likes to play with others and was never one you’d expect would be willing to open the “forbidden door”, now this could just be a one-off but it is still a huge deal especially they publicly acknowledged her as Impact Knockouts champion.
Mickie addressed the world on the Impact before the Rumble announcing her goal to not only win the Rumble but to do a title for title at Wrestlemania. Honestly, she didn’t even have to win the Rumble for this to happen, they could have had her eliminate Charlotte from the Rumble, which would have shocked the world that the Impact Knockouts champion eliminated the Smackdown Women’s champ. Then you could have had Charlotte attack Mickie at an Impact show setting up the Wrestlemania match. To me this would have been shocking and having a title for title match would have been amazing for Mania. Let’s say Charlotte won, you could have then had her claiming to be Charlotte 2 belts, which would be a dig at her bitter rival, Becky and we could have seen Charlotte vs Deonna, who also has two belts in the AAA and ROH Women’s titles. There were a lot of possibilities for this to play out if WWE was willing to truly embrace the door because Impact would have likely been willing to play ball for this and so would AAA and ROH if they would have gotten Charlotte, in a winner take all scenario. As far as losing the titles. she could have easily lost them in multi-person matches without being pinned, which would protect her. They could have also gone the draw route without titles changing hands setting up a potential rematch down the road.
Anyway, back to the focus of the article, Mickie and Impact truly played this up as the big deal that it truly is and as a fan the unbelievable thought of WWE not only having a wrestler from another company in the Rumble but the fact that person is the champion of that company is really incredible. I give credit to both WWE and Impact for putting egos aside and making this happen. Impact released a video with talents voicing their opinions on Mickie being in the Rumble and posted the following image in support of Mickie.
Now prior to the Rumble, Mickie was asked if she would be coming out to her Impact theme, Hardcore Country, and would she be wearing the Knockouts title to the ring at the Rumble and her response that she “hoped so”. Now as a fan, I have said this before I am a big supporter of this as it makes this person a big deal to your audience, and it is free publicity for the promotion they are representing but knowing WWE I wasn’t sure if they would be willing to do it. I couldn’t wait for Mickie’s entrance to see which way it would go, and I was very happy the moment I heard Hardcore Country hit because I knew they did the right thing:
It was a great moment for Mickie to get at least one more chance in a WWE ring and for her to proudly represent Impact and the women of Impact was an unbelievable moment as she walked down to the ring holding that title proudly and the announcers acknowledging her as the Impact champion. I’m a little surprised they didn’t use the word “knockouts” on the name plate since they used it on the tweet when she was announced for the match but that is minor. Unlike so many other returning legends in the Rumble she lasted 11:40, while entering at number 20 and eliminated fellow legend, Michelle McCool. Mickie was eliminated by her former rival and HOFamer, Lita.
Post-match, Mickie acknowledged she would have loved to have won but she was proud of what she was able to do out there. Mickie was able to rewrite her last moment in WWE at least for now so that the last moment wasn’t trashbaggate. Mickie deserved this moment and the fact that WWE not only was willing to not only correct the disrespect that she was shown but to give Impact recognition in the process was classy.
Final Thoughts:
Personally, I don’t think this is the last we see Mickie James on WWE TV in 2022 as I truly think she will be inducted into the WWE HOF this year. She has had a HOF resume for years and she just continues to build on it. When all is said and done for her career, Mickie will be in multiple HOFs including WWE and Impact and it will be well deserved. She is one of the most respected competitors to ever step foot in that ring regardless of gender and is beloved by the fans and her peers.
Career Accomplishments (Wikipedia):
- The Baltimore Sun
- Woman of the Year (2010)
- Covey Promotions
- CP Women’s Championship (1 time)
- Covey Pro Hall of Fame (2014)
- CyberSpace Wrestling Federation
- Dynamite Championship Wrestling
- DCW Women’s Championship (1 title)
- Florida Championship Wrestling
- FCW Women’s Championship (1 time)
- NAWF Indian Tribal Women’s Championship (1 time)
- Ground Xero Wrestling
- GXW Women’s Championship (1 time)
- Impact Championship Wrestling
- ICW Super Juniors Championship (1 time)
- International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom
- IPW:UK Women’s Championship (1 time)
- Maryland Championship Wrestling
- MCW Women’s Championship (1 time)
- Native American Music Awards
- The Jim Thorpe Sports Award (2019)
- Premier Wrestling Federation
- PWF Universal Women’s Championship (1 time)
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- Woman of the Year (2009, 2011)
- Ranked No. 1 of the top 50 female wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2009
- Southern Championship Wrestling
- Total Nonstop Action Wrestling / Impact Wrestling
- Ultimate Championship Wrestling
- UCW Women’s Championship (1 time)
- Ultimate Wrestling Federation
- UWF Women’s Championship (2 times)
- World Wrestling Entertainment
Photo Credits – Impact, WWE and Byfrenchy and Wrestlefeed’s Instagrams
