During an interview with SPORTSKEEDA, Mickie James talked about being in The Royal Rumble, what it meant for her, and how she felt about the performance.
“When I came out, it was like multiple layers to the reaction,” James said.
“When I came out, people obviously reacted to ‘Hardcore Country.’ Then when they saw the belt, they reacted to the belt, and then they kept reacting in moments. When I held up the belt at the end, they were like, ‘Holy crap. This is really happening’, because there were a lot of people going, ‘They’re never going to let this happen. They’re never going to allow her to use Hardcore County. They’re never going to let her come out there with the belt.’”
“It was really full circle for me on the whole thing because not only did the physicality start with Michelle McCool, who was my last big rival before I left in 2010 with the Piggy James angle, with her, Layla, and Vickie Guerrero, so it started with her. A lot of people thought, ‘Oh, she’s going to get thrown out right away’, but no.”
“Then I was able to eliminate Michelle McCool, who was my biggest rival then at the end there, then go on. Then the person who eliminates me and is bittersweet in a sense, is someone who I love and admire and has helped me so much in wrestling, Lita, from day one, but also, I was her very last match when she retired at Survivor Series,” Mickie continued.
“It was like these two buttons of these full circle moments. It was just perfect. Aside from the fact that I could have won, should have won, wanted to win (she laughs), but, we all do. That chunk, for what it was in the business that it did and everything that it did that night, was really perfect. I couldn’t have asked for a better bookend.”
The entire interview with SPORTSKEEDA can be seen below, including discussing the apology she received from the WWE.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit “SPORTSKEEDA” with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
