TNA Knockouts Champion Mickie James recently spoke to The Swerve Magazine, discussing the beginnings of her career and if she sees an end to it.
She also shares her favorite matches – one of which will surprise you – what WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus taught her, the differences between the WWE and TNA products and how it felt to be released by the WWE.
On if she’ll walk away from wrestling: “I can’t really put a time limit on how many more years (I will be involved in wrestling). I feel like my body will tell me…I don’t know if my schedule will ever slack up because I will just be compensating one for the other. I’ll never be able to completely walk away from wrestling.”
Being a fan of wrestling growing up: “I think I was like six to ten years old I would watch it regularly, then I became more of a casual fan. When I got out of high school, it was when the whole Attitude Era was; The Rock, Stone Cold, Degeneration X. That whole pushing the envelope era ensued. That was when I became a renewed fan. That’s when I started going to wrestling school.
Her first match: I started training in November 1998 and had my first match March 3, 1999. It was an inter-gender tag match, and it was awesome. When I say awesome, I mean it was awful.”
The upsides of being released by a company: “Even when I was released (by the WWE) before, I thought it was the worst thing in the world and it ended up being a blessing in disguise. Now I have been able to shine and focus on (TNA) and even focus more so on my music because they are based in Nashville and their schedule is less taxing. Instead of (wrestling) 250 days a year, I am down to 150 days a year, so it gives me a little bit of extra time.”
Getting support from Hulk Hogan when she turned heel: “Hulk Hogan pulled me aside and told me he loves what I’m doing with my new character. I’ve been a babyface for so long, I’ve been a babyface for eight years. I was just basically myself, just with the volume turned up. To be doing something different (now), its exciting, but there was a lot of worry because I didn’t know if it was going to work because people won’t want to boo (me) because they cheered (me) for so long.
Hogan told me that when he went to turn heel, people told him that it wasn’t going to work, but it worked and (he) had so much fun with it and he said he could tell (I was) having the time of (my) life with it right now.”
The differences between WWE and TNA: “Obviously, TNA Impact Wrestling is really focused on the wrestling side and I feel that the WWE is really focused on the character side and they really try to keep everything PG.
In (TNA’s) women’s division, we have some of the top women wrestlers in the world and we’re given ample time to show it in the ring. I think it’s cool for a wrestling fan to be able to watch both shows, you get the best of both worlds. You can tune into one and get the whole entertaining, kid-friendly product and then tune into our show and get the really hardcore wrestling side.”
On her nixed debut with CM Punk: “CM Punk and myself debuted on Sunday Night Heat and that match was pulled off of the show because when we came (backstage), they’re like ‘You guys don’t fit together. It was great, we loved it, but you guys just don’t work together.’ (That) was funny because we had worked together in TNA prior to that, but in a different capacity. It was really frustrating because I was like ‘Is this going to happen?’ or ‘When is this going to happen.’”
What Trish Stratus taught her and vice versa: (Trish) knew all the little things I didn’t know like which cameras to look at, the TV aspect. I was able to help her on the wrestling side and we were able to make some really incredible matches on the wrestling side and I brought out a different side of her that perhaps she hadn’t had before.
Her favorite matches: “For most people who know my career, that match (against Trish Stratus) at Wrestlemania (22) would be one of my most memorable. It was my first championship. I worked for so long and so hard to get to that moment. My mom was in the front row and it was just unbelievable how amazing that moment was.
The cage match with Tara on Impact wrestling was one of my favorite matches. I couldn’t ask for a better partner for that match. She got hurt halfway through that match and still muscled through it. She blew out her elbow halfway through and still just kept going. She’s just an incredible performer.
One my favorite matches of all-time, aside from those two that were seen by the world was a match I had with Beth Phoenix in Fairbanks, Alaska. It was non-televised and it was just a house show and we probably went 15 minutes. We came back through the curtain (after the match) and Arn (Anderson) and Hunter and Flair and Cena, the entire locker room, was giving us a standing ovation when we came back. It almost brought me to tears.”
Read the full interview at Swerve Magazine.
