TNA Knockout Mickie James recently spoke to the Busted Open radio show, touching on several topics, including being mentioned during Trish Stratus‘s Hall of Fame speech and the current state of women’s wrestling.
Playing a heel in TNA: “I think could do it. Of course I could do it. Even that heel-ish character then [with Trish Stratus] was not that out to kill or murder anybody; not vicious. It was a fun, crazy type of heel-ish character. It was kind of fun to play with. It wasn’t like the typical, ‘I hate you guys.’ I think I should just be me, and then if people love me, great, if they hate me, that’s fine too.”
Being mentioned by Trish Stratus in her Hall of Fame speech: “I was honored that she did that and she’s far too kind and generous and the fact that she would even think to put other people in her HOF speech says a lot about her as a person. That’s just the type of person she is. I’m really grateful that she would even recognize me and females that were a lot like Lita and Molly and Jacquelyn. She’s just a great person. I think that she totally deserved to be the youngest person, to be a female, what a representation for the women in the industry.”
Working with Lita: “Lita, I worked with her for her final match. She was one of those people, like I was working the indie’s in front of 150 people, she’d be standing backstage in North Carolina, she was cool like that. She would just show up sometimes and she would pull me aside afterwards and be like, ‘this was cool; this was great; please don’t ever do this again.’ So then being able to go out there and work beside her and along with her and wrestle in final match, that was awesome.”
The current state of women’s wrestling: “I think it’s ever changing. Just like this business it’s ever changing. And it goes through fluctuations of ‘we want more model-y types’ then they realize that wrestling fans love wrestling and they want the girls that can go in there and go just as hard as the guys. So it’ll go back and the wrestling part will become a main focus. It’s a constant roller coaster and right now I feel like it is that fine balance. I feel like, for me, as a wrestling fan myself, you have to have those characters, male and female, that are more personality, that are the eye candy, that are the mouthpieces and then you need to have those people that get it done in the ring and that are the serious competitors and athletes and then you have to have that balance of people that are meshed in between. That’s what fills out the show and makes it entertainment.”
On TNA leaving the Impact Zone and doing double tapings: “I think it is tough. It’s tough because they are exhausted. They have seen a full show with one heck of a main event, whether it’s a cage match or Sting and Hogan and all this stuff, they’ve already seen a solid 2 hour show filled with stars and promos and now they’re going to have to sit through another 2 hour show, which I’m sure that they love, but your energy through 4 hours of solid show time is exhausting and so it’s a little more difficult sometimes to get them in the second show but they come back. Being on the road and having an audience like that is so much better.”
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